Good Ol' Naxos

 I'm writing from aboard SeaJet's Champions League Jet 1-- a massive hydrofoil ferry headed to Crete.  We just stopped by Santorini to drop off/pick up passengers, and we're now bouncing along with the wind to Heraklion, the gritty capital of Crete.  None of us wanted to leave our now-beloved Naxos, though admittedly the parting was made easier by a bungled ferry situation at the port which saw us standing for almost two hours in a bunker-type tunnel building at the business end of the island waiting for our ferry to depart.  Given that our car was due back to the rental agency at 10am, and we were finished with brunch by 11 (and it's now 5 and we're not yet to Crete), this day is falling far short of the excellent standard set by our previous two days, about which I will tell you right now.

On Thursday, we drove our rental car way up the slopes of the 5,000+ ft. Mt. Zas, the Cyclaic Islands' highest point.  As I've alluded to before, driving in Greece is for either the insane or the despondent who no longer care what life hands them.  Roads have few barriers, even along cliffsides, there aren't really sidewalks anywhere,  livestock just wander about willy-nilly, and fellow drivers don't really heed signs or speed limits.  We passed through several decidedly non-touristy villages on the way up the mountain, my amateurish driving on full display to the locals.  At about 4,000ft. we parked the car and took a mountain trail that first passed a lively spring, then headed up into exposed scrublands and boulder fields.  After about half an hour of hiking (during which time the kids complained zero--our hard work is playing off!), we reached "Zeus' Cave."  Naxians claim this cave gave rise to the Greek myth surrounding Zeus' hidden upbringing in a secret cave away from his murderous father.  Everyone else in the world not from Naxos places this cave on Crete.  The cave was pretty shallow and filled with garbage, though apparently they've dragged lots of interesting Neolithic artifacts out of it.  The kids were most pleased to find a few hoary billy goats wandering around the cave mouth, to which they of course gave names.  Erica and I enjoyed the views, which stretched all the way down the valley to the sea, about 15 miles.

Smelly old cave

Goats!

After the hike, we piled, sweaty, back into the car, and headed downward to a small village called Filoti, where we enjoyed cool drinks at a café shaded by a massive sycamore tree.  We were soon joined by a few other tourist families.  Directly across the street, however, was a very non-touristy café, patronized by about 10 or so beefy old Greek men drinking coffee and not really talking to one another, but mostly staring at the tourists.  This went on for quite some time, the staring.  Eventually, we wandered back to our car and drove to another small village, an artists' colony called Chalkio.  There we ate lunch under a canopy of grape vines at a restaurant featuring an open air spit oven.  We then bought a few hand-woven items from an old lady and sampled some locally-produced "kitron" liqueur, before driving a short distance to a crumbling, seventh-century (!) Byzantine church (Panagia Drossiani).  This church, which of course had an old lady sitting in the back of it to guilt you into leaving a few drachmas for the upkeep, is home to fading, 1,400 year old frescos that are absolutely not preserved in any way.  No climate control, not even plastic barriers--they're just right there for you to interact with, or accidentally brush against, or maybe careen into if you're fighting with your brother (this didn't happen, but its COULD have very easily happened, and surely HAS happened, probably hundreds of times.)  Anyway, I loved it, and Erica and the kids were even impressed.  When the Turks held the island for many centuries, they kind of half-heartedly tried to stamp out Christianity, but probably weren't bothered to come up this far into the mountainous interior of the island and enforce their edicts, so the villagers just kept on worshipping Jesus in places like this until they went away.  

After all that excitement (I forgot that we also saw a HORSE and it licked the kids hands, omg they loved it), we drove back down the mountain to our beach town and chilled at the pool for the rest of the afternoon.  Dinner was at a lovely restaurant called Doukato (high recommend), then we headed out to the promontory beyond the main port to a 5th century BC temple of Apollo for sundown.  It was really cool, which explains why pretty much every visitor to the island was there as well.

The horse

Friday was a very different type of day, as we spent the whole of it on a "snorkel," cruise which had a lot less snorkeling that one might expect, but which was still tons of fun.  More jumping off things, than anything, really.  It was a very long day on a boat, but the kids did suuuuper well.  We left the port about 9:30am and took a two hour ride to a small, uninhabited island off Naxos, where a little snorkeling was done, but mostly just jumping off the sides of our old, wooden boat.  This was quite a big boat, mind you.  Not modern, and barely any interior to speak of, just a crowded outdoor section (maybe about 85-90 people in total, all crammed aboard).  Contrary to what we expected, James and Juliet were the only kids, so that kind of freaked us out at the beginning of the day.  But, again, they did great.  There was a Greek bachelorette party on board, plus some heavy drinking older brits, but our little family didn't seem as out of place as you'd expect for what kind of turned out to be a bit of a techno-heavy booze cruise.  

The real highlight came when we ended up at a giant sea cave on the remote southern coast of Naxos (Rina Cave).  You can climb up the rocks until you're above the cave mouth, then plunge about 20 feet or so down into the ocean.  We all did it (except poor, jealous Juju--she's just 6, people).  It was so fun.  I tried to hold a cannonball shape all the way down into the water, but my form fell apart.  James' was much better.  Erica cut her foot on the climb up, but didn't let it deter her.  Here's one of the jumps:

The voyage back was long and against the wind, but we did get back eventually, and ate again at our favorite place on the island, Giannoulis.  This is a family-run joint which serves up mounds of Greek comfort food with an ample helping of cornball bonhomie.  They kind of jack the prices up for stuff, then hand out tons of "free" portions to you, so you feel like you're someone special.  Plus they're endlessly hugging you, and shaking hands, and yelling "OPA!"  It's noisy and great, the kids love it, plus you just get doused in free booze.  (Again, it's not really free, but it FEELS free in the moment, so kudos to them for having an angle.)

So, we're back to today.  But here's the addendum: I'm now in our hotel in Heraklion.  Our dinner tonight was the best meal we've had so far on this trip.  Our restaurant was in the heart of the old city, near our hotel, and on the walk there we passed some parade of...I'm going to guess local parishes?  The various groups in the parade were decked out in traditional garb, but each was carrying a velvet banner with a different saint on it?  I'm not sure, anyway, after fighting through the parade, we ended up at Peskesi, a very modern restaurant serving only local ingredients, but using it to create traditional Cretan fare.  Y'all need to come to Crete to eat this stuff.  You'll thank me after you do.   

So that's that.  The kids are finally asleep and I'm headed off to sleep soon.  Tomorrow is Knossos and Chania!  To Crete!