Chania, Crete

We docked at our final port, Souda, on the island of Crete, early in the morning and having decided to spend a little less than before, Em opted to use her manual chair so that we could just take a taxi or bus to Chania, the real destination for the area. As it turned out, the fleet of local buses cycling through on the tarmac alongside the boat were just as equipped with ramps for electric power chairs as ones at home, and, as we later discovered, the streets of Chania had a few cut curbs (though again our trusty travel ramp was handy) and fairly level and smooth cobblestone sidewalks.
By 10am, it was already in the high 30's (around 90 Fahrenheit), so we walked in the shady sidestreets of Chania, leading down to the harbor...

Yiali Tzami mosque, built when the Turks conquered the island in 1649 (pesky Ottomans!), anchors the center of the harbor; after the Greek war for independence, nearly all the Muslims left Crete, and the mosque closed in 1923. It now houses art exhibits and provides a shady spot with a heck of a view...

Yiali Tzami mosque, built when the Turks conquered the island in 1649 (pesky Ottomans!), anchors the center of the harbor; after the Greek war for independence, nearly all the Muslims left Crete, and the mosque closed in 1923. It now houses art exhibits and provides a shady spot with a heck of a view...

The lighthouse was built at the harbour entrance by the Venetians and restored in its present form by the Egyptians (1830-1840).

 The Harbor was built by the Venetians between 1320 and 1356. The harbour was used for commerce and also to control the Sea of Crete against pirates.

The Venetian harbor had room for 40 galleys, but it constantly silted up and was never very deep, so it kept having to be dredged, a difficult job with the equipment of the time.

On its north side, the harbor is protected by a breakwater. Near the middle of this is a small bulwark like a gun emplacement and the tiny chapel of St Nicholas. This was where the Venetians and Turks executed condemned prisoners.

The Firkas Fortress at the harbour entrance and the St Nicholas bastion in the middle of the breakwater defended the harbour from raiders.

A cruiseship (not ours) tendered, rather than docked; we never had to do so, but apparently they get folks out to port via little ferries, which you can make out towards the aft of the ship, heading in.

All the cafes on the Harbor Row are cute, fairly authentic, and offer the three things most needed by travelers in July: shade, fans and beer.
Sidenote: I ordered "the largest beer you've got", and they brought me this hearty boot with a liter of lager, below...

 ...and then I looked over at the next cafe, and saw a guy with a boot easily twice the size of mine! The excellent Greek sampler plate and tomato-and-feta salad kept me from changing cafes, I'll admit, but only just!

 Fish that eat your dead skin... and can evidently give you hepatitis, if the internet is to be believed...

Leather sandals and hats and luggage, phallic wooden bottle openers, bottles of sand and water... all the trinkets you imagine being in a Greek tourist area.

Greek: looks like all the buttons you never push on a calculator...

Tomorrow, a day at sea, steaming back to Rome! Then, onto England!

Kusadasi, Turkey

Little known fact: the international sister city to Kusadasi, Turkey, is Monterey, California, USA. Huh.


This port city of some 65,000 lies on Turkey's Aegean Coast, that sunny body of water nestled between Turkey and Greece just north of the Mediterranean Sea. Nearby, the ruins of Ephesus draw millions of tourists to the remains of the ancient Greek and Roman outposts, but we decided to just explore Kusadasi and it's shops near the waterfront.
As before, Em's power chair got her off the boat and around town with no difficulty. Certainly in the more rural or less tourist-oriented areas of Turkey, such accessibilty would be less likely, but in here, where the cruiselines are an economic mainstay, the shops and buildings attempt to cater to wheelers and slow-walkers pretty successfully...

Just outside the main bazaar area in Kusadasi is this fairly large and somewhat surreal cemetary. I'm not sure why the base of the trees were limed, but the effect was kind of chilling; the mix of modern Turkish, using the Latin alphabet, and the pre-Atatürk Ottoman Turkish, with its swirling Arabic script, on the stones leaves the native English speaker without a frame of reference, emphasizing the universally mortal meaning of a graveyard.

Heading into the bazaar that sprawls for several miles around the port harbour, we noticed that nearly every building and streetcorner had ramps or cutouts of wheeled transport- more likely handcarts for foodstuffs, leather knickknacks or faux designer shirts, than wheelchairs, but pretty servicable, especially with a little help, always offered by the storeowner, happy for the trade.

 We picked up some baklava and other little treats from a tiny bakery at the fringe of the bazaar, and circled around to navigate back through the narrow alleys cluttered with rip-off brands of clothing, wood and leather things like mini-scimitar letteropeners or (possibly) handmade wool kilim carpets... The smell of coffee and tea, dough and honey, was pleasantly floating and although it was a little like a scripted play, where every storeowner in turn as we rolled through went through his lines of  "My turn, please, many good things to find..." and "Hello, hello- where are you from please?" and, we believe without irony: "This way please, we have free parking..."
                                    

Some of the fare offered was slightly more Western, though exotic enough to be fun...

In what seemed to be the center of the bazaar, a small washing station marked the entrace to a mosque, modestly tucked into a nearby building neighbored on either side by more ubiquitous purveyors of souvenirs.
                                                  

The local shoeshiner's kit...

 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the first president of a united Turkey, adorns many flags and banners around town...

Lounging storeowner, presumably in the "free parking" area...

 And now, the wacky animals of Kusadasi, Turkey...

 Melike, the queen of the street...

Yağız, the brave, swarthy little kitten roaming the awnings and rooftops of the Grand Bazaar...

Fikret, the "deep thinking" dog of Kusadasi...

 Next stop: Chania, Crete!

Athens, Greece!

   

A great city, whose image dwells in the memory of man, is the type of some great idea. Rome represents conquest; Faith hovers over the towers of Jerusalem; and Athens embodies the pre-eminent quality of the antique world, Art.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli

A full day in Athens: we found a cab driver right outside the terminal at the port of Piraeus- Demetrius- who, for 200 Euro, agreed to take us to as many sights as possible, given the austerity measures stripping many places of their docents, and general accessibility. Using Em's manual chair, we climbed into the taxi and sped off for the Acropolis, before the heat started to set in.
The main entrance leading up the hill to the ruins is a series of switchbacks, on slippery stone with a mix of steps and slopes. Fortunately, the site has accomodated wheelers with an... interesting... way to the top.

Up the stairs via the platform, then into the tiny open-box elevator to scale the wall...

                                  

Working archeology students on the site...

                                     

The Changing of the Guard, in front of the Greek Parliment at Syntagma Square... (love the shoes!)

Demetrius then hooked us across town to the Byzantine and Christian Art Museum, which was very accessible and the staff happy to help. The exhibits span the area's religious art history from the 3rd Century AD to the modern era, but Andy's favorite was the collection of Icons...

Demetrius then took us to the smaller harbor in Piraeus, where we could find a good lunch, and did it by way of the National Library, Academy of Athens and the original building of the Athens University, a bustling set of neo-classical buildings in the heart of of the city.

Greek graffiti near the Library



Then came the meal, where, though completely inacessible due to several levels of stairs down to the seating area at the water level, Em was swept up in her chair right out of the cab by several Greek waiters, and we were given a table by the open floor-to-ceiling windows to the water. We had the place to ourselves, and the staff was friendly and very professional... we definitely recommend Zorba's!

Good view from the table...

GREAT view from the table!


Exceptional Garides sti Shara...

Our choice of the local morning catch- we went with the broiled sea bream fish!

After our incredibly relaxing and delicious meal- a brief respite from the 42 degrees heat (107 in Fahrenheit!), Demetrius took us to the Ancient Greek Agora featuring the Temple of Ares, Altar of Zeus Agoraios and Odeon of Agrippa, among other ruins. This was around the corner from a busy shopping distrist, where we found ouzo (an anise apertif), baklava (filo dough with honey and walnuts) and olive oil soaps...

By this point, we had a had a long, hot and fairly expensive day in Athens; it's size and history is too big for a single day, and so we will only barely start to cross that amazing place off our bucket list...


Next stop: Kusadasi, Turkey!!