Rethymnon: Day 4

Even 7 hours of sleep wasn’t enough for the day we had ahead of us, but I clearly didn’t know that when the alarm went off at 7:15 AM. And the eggs were very runny at breakfast, ew. Not the best start.

Today was the Samaria Gorge, so we drove an hour on the windiest roads I’ve ever seen, to get to the ferry port – which was beautiful. We used the “water closets” and I split a chocolate croissant with one of the girls before boarding our ferry. I can’t remember the last time I was on a boat, and don’t recall ever riding a ferry. I got a seat right on the edge of the guard rail in the hot sun, but didn’t mind because I thought the ferry was pretty cool. I just stared at the blue water. You know when you’re at a baseball game and someone popular is about to hit? And then everyone starts taking pictures, so you just see flashes all over? Well that’s the only way I can describe the water. Sparkles of light just flashed everywhere. It was beautiful.

We arrived at Samaria and stopped at a small taverna to leave our bags. It was a 2 km walk just to get to the entrance of the gorge, the largest in Europe, by the way. Once we paid the 5 euro admission, we set off on our hike. It is all rock terrain and wooden bridges or planks to cross the water; so a pretty legitimate hike. There were some treacherous areas and I twisted my ankles probably every 200 feet. We made it 2.8 km to the first station, with bathrooms and a spring water fountain, in about 35 minutes. It really wasn’t too bad.

After sitting for ten minutes or so, five of us decided to hike one more leg to the second station because it was only 2.2 km further on the map. Well, 45 minutes in, we realized it was clearly more than 2.2 since we still weren’t there. This part of the climb was a lot tougher and my empty stomach began to growl. Unfortunately, I had left my sandwich down at the taverna with my bag. I started to wish someone would suggest we turn around, but no one did.

We did finally make it to the second station, and I was so relieved to drink cold water and rest my legs. It had taken two hours, so all I could think about was the 5 km we still had to hike back. Feet aching, we all turned around and began the return trip. It wasn’t as bad because we knew how far we had to go, and had some decent conversation, but none of us seemed to recognize the terrain. We constantly questioned our navigational skills, however, came to realize there was only one direction and path.
We made it back in only an hour and fifteen minutes, partially, I think, because there wasn’t as much traffic. On the way up (when I say up, I really mean “in” because it wasn’t uphill at all, totally flat) there were a bunch of slow people and not much room to pass, so we’d pull these crazy stunt hiking moves and pounce around them like cats.

The five of us covered 14 km, which translates to 8.75 miles, so sat down for lunch as soon as we got back. I ate my PB&J and ordered a chocolate milkshake, which I’m pretty sure was just chocolate milk. There were hardly any words during lunch, and on more than one occasion, we found ourselves in a state of silence. Then we would just start laughing at the absurdity and awkwardness of the silence. My feet were aching, and I for one, had no words.

With 90 minutes to kill, I gave the beach a shot, but that was short-lived. It was all rocks, so lying on your towel burned because it was so hot. I resorted to sitting in the shade with a couple of girls. We finally boarded the return ferry at 6 PM and it was way more crowded. We had to fight our way to the front of the line, European style. It was an enjoyable ride once again and us girls just talked the whole time. On the bus though, we all passed out.

We got back to the hotel about 9 PM and set a dinner time for 10:30. Sarah and I were not pleased that our other roommate was already in the shower when we returned to the room, because she takes 45 minute showers and we both had to use the restroom.

Some of us went out for pizza and I ended up sitting across from Katula’s son – the U.S. diplomat to Ukraine. He’s a pretty interesting guy and provided good conversation. I had the 4-cheese pizza, which was tasty, but I didn’t like two of the cheeses on it. We were supposed to go to the karaoke bar as a whole group, but found out it’s only karaoke on Mondays, so that was cancelled. Can’t say I was too upset. For that matter, nobody was. Everyone came back to finish packing and go to sleep because we have a 6:45 AM wake up call in the morning.

Tomorrow we are off to Santorini! The next four days are the reason I applied for this trip in the first place. I said this to Katula tonight and he was like, “what about the learning?” but I’m pretty sure he was drunk and won’t remember anyways.