Walled city

Heraklion or as it was formerly know Candea, is the largest city on Crete. I spent an afternoon there doing an e-bike tour of the city, which considering the time of year unsurprisingly turned out to be a private excursion with my Greek guide Adam. The tour included historical sites and Cretan food.

Our first stop was the market, where I saw the biggest heads of cabbage! I bought some oranges and nectarines because they are great snacks to have in my bag for hiking pick me ups.

Then we had our first food stop at a small cafe filled with men smoking and eating. Adam noticed that I was the only woman there, as had I, but I said having had a career in tech, this was not an unusual occurrence for me. We had Greek salad, rusks, a marinated greens, and a yummy soft, tart cheese.

From there, we went up on the wall. Fifty feet wide at some points, it surrounds the old city. It includes bastions at strategic points which enabled them to fire on enemies in all directions. The land facing side had a moat. Sadly, some of the wall was destroyed for modern construction, but they are now restoring it and making it a walking park.

Amidst an untended herb garden, is the grave of Nikos Kazantkakis, the author of Zorba the Greek. His tombstone is inscribed with only the quote “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.” His wife is buried nearby. Besides writing novels, he also translated The Odyssey and The Iliad into modern Greek.

Next up was the church of St Mark. I felt badly going inside because there was a funeral going on. Adam said even if we came back later they would probably still be talking about the person who died.

The Nikos Kazantkakis museum was closed because it was Monday, so we journeyed on to the only park in the city. And it only exists because protestors had a sit in to prevent a parking garage from being built there. I saw the first homeless people anywhere in the island, but that didn’t stop it from being a popular place for people out for a stroll.

We made a detour to the package store where Adam needed to pick up some mail. Here in Crete, they will send packages on the buses around the island, which is very efficient.

Then we took a spin around the port where two ferries were docked and some vehicles already loading for a 9 pm departure. Damn those things are big.

Back up a slight incline, we passed the loggia a relic from Venetian occupation, which is now the city municipal building and in great shape. This was on a bougey shopping street where vendors were setting up booths for a Christmas market. Sadly little seemed to be locally made, so I did not purchase anything. I did however, find a phone store where I could get the glass protector on my phone replace immediately for 20€, while Adam picked up a key from his secretary for his other business. Everyone seems to have a few hustles.

Time for more food! We stopped at a cafe and I had a traditional Greek coffee and a bogousta, a light, fried pastry with sweet cheese and I had it with a bit of ice cream. The ice cream is so good here. Real vanilla and no corn syrup. This cafe was by the famous Lions fountain that has been here since the Venetian’s in the 1200s.

Heraklion was ruled by the Venetians from 1205 to 1669. Cretans have fond memories of Venetian occupation. It was a time of culture and prosperity. When the Ottomans (aka Turks) invaded it took them 20 years to conquer Heraklion, one of the longest sieges in history. They imposed Islam on the Christian population. Some Cretans capitulated and converted to avoid

high taxes charged to non-Muslims.

The island did not flourish during this time and when the Turks were finally pushed out in 1898, those who had converted to Islam were considered Turks and left to Turkey, while many Christian Cretans returned from Turkey to Crete. To this day, Crete Turks return to visit and some still speak a Cretan dialect. And those Christians who initial returned could not speak Greek but Turkish. What a mishmash!

Time for another church—the church of St Titus that was a church, then a mosque, then a church again. Supposedly the head of Titus is here, but I’m skeptical of relics. It was an amazingly beautiful church but not that old by Greek standards.

Well, it must be time for more food. In this tiny cafe, the cook provided us with two notable items, a paste made of split yellow peas and butter beans in a tomato olive marinade. Adam was excited that she had the butter beans and expected that I had not had them before. But he didn’t know my dad the organic gardener!

Then it was time to head back to my car and for me to start the 1.5 hour drive home.