Our Greek Tour took us from Athens to the Island of Crete. From Haina in Crete, we cycled east to the city of Rethymno, Bali, and Iraklion.
From here, we took a ferry to the beautiful Island of Santorini and from there to the Island of Mykonos and back to Athens again.
It was a nice trip, I enjoyed eating all those lamb gyros and having those famous greek salad thru out the trip.
In Santorini, with Cecilia E, Cecilia G, Chester, Timmy, Me, Calvin, Peter and May. We're all looking at J.
Friday - May 24
The night before I had just finished all my homework and projects and turned it in at San Francisco State University.
I was taking two night business classes in the Spring of '96 and it was my last day of school before the summer break.
What a hectic day, trying to do that, and finish all my work stuff at my job at Apple and trying to pack the bike and everything else I needed to take for the trip at the last minute.
I barely slept that night.
The day for our Greece trip was finally here and I had been looking forward for this trip all spring long. Peter, May, Tim, and Calvin
met at my house early morning and I drove a van with all the bikes to the airport. I came back to drop the van and caught a ride
with J's brother-in-law, Cecilia G. and Cecilia E. to the airport.
The Delta flight departed from SF to NY at 8:00 am. The plane was a Boeing 767. I always liked the seats arrangement on this plane
(2-3-2), it's comfortable and you don't feel packed. The flight took 5 hrs to NY, we waited at JFK airport for about 2 hrs and then took off again for Athens for an 8.5 hrs flight.
Saturday - May 25
Arrived in Athens at 9:50 am. The time zone difference was 10 hrs ahead of SF.
It was a nice day when we got there. We took out all of the card boxes outside the airport terminal, and assembled the bikes at the airport.
What I remember most at the airport was a couple of army/police guys outside the terminal carrying machine guns and there on a corner there was a tank, a mini army tank, just in case if all hell broke loose.
You see, unlike in the US, they take terrorist acts and threats very serious in Europe, especially in Greece. They don't mess around here, a sub-machine gun, won't do with terrorist.
You need a tank to blow them off. Shoot first, then ask questions, I like that.
After a short delay with May's bike in trying to fix her rear derraileur, we rode our bikes from the airport to the Plaka section in downtown Athens.
We arrived at our hotel Aphrodite on Apollono Street after a short six miles ride from the airport. The rooms were nice, clean and cheap about 5,000 Drachmas ~
$20 per person/night ( $1 = 240 drachmas). We had 3 people per room.
Took a short nap in the afternoon and that night we all went for dinner at one of the restaurants in the Plaka area that was catered for tourists like us, with a view of the Acropolis from our sidewalk table.
We were just starting to enjoy the al fresco view and scenery when it started to rain on us and the waiter started to yell at one of the older service woman in the restaurant, one of his relatives I guess, working in the restaurant.
-He could not stand the pressure of so many of us waiting impatienly for our lamb chops and Greek salads and the fact that the lite rain did not help his business either. We all moved inside for cover to finish our meals. After dinner, we all walked around the perimeters of the lighted Acropolis.
Athens Airport, don't mess with the boys with tanks. Riding from the airport to the Plaka area.
Sunday - May 26
Had and early buffet breakfast at the hotel -coffee, juice, bread, hard boiled eggs, ham, cheese. Later in the morning we all went to the
Acropolis -free admission being a Sunday. What an amazing site -you finally feel like you're in Athens. It is a good thing we got there
early in the morning before all the tourist and buses got there; when
we left the Acropolis, later in the day it was almost impossible even to walk out, there were buses and buses filled with tourists. Later in the afternoon, we went to the flea market and walked around.
The Pathernon. The Turks used to store gun powder and explosive here during
the occupation. ...one day the whole thing blew off! This is what's left.
History lesson: "Kids, don't play with fire, especially with lots of firecrackers around"
Late in the afternoon we rode to the port of Pyraeus to catch the ferry to the island of Crete. The ferry was crowded with all kind of locals and
tourist. The rooms in the ferry boat were for 4 people per cabin. Since there were 9 of us, and J had decided to share the room with
the 3 girls, what a stud.
One of the five remaining boys had to roommate with 3 other strange passengers in another cabin in the boat. Peter thought that the best way to settle the matter, since nobody wanted to spend the night with strangers, was for the five guys to pick two numbers from 0-9.
He would then draw a $1 bill from his wallet and the last digit in the serial number of the bill would then be the unlucky number and he would have to go and spend the night with some other bedfellows on a long night journey to Crete.
After we all had picked our lucky numbers, Peter announced that the last digit of the serial number of the $1 bill was two. We all look at each other in
relief, somewhat with a grateful stare, double checking that our number wasn't picked ....whew! ... We all stared at Tim, since he was the quiet one, and one of the numbers he had picked was 2. To the amazement of everybody he asked us "Did I win?"
We looked at each other and broke into laughter and relief -we had to explain to him that indeed he had won the jackpot -I guess, when you're in shock, it was all greek to him at that time.
The ferry took off at 8:00 pm for a 10 hrs ride non-stop to Crete. I had moussaka and Greek salad for dinner at the restaurant in the boat, and a good night sleep later at night.
Monday - May 27
We arrived in the port of Souda, Crete early the next day at about 6 am.
On the way to Haina, Cecilia E. fell of her bike (not enough sleep or perhaps too much action the night before? -and I thought it was the waves banging the side of the boat all night long).
Luckily it was not too bad.
We looked for accommodations and found a place to stay at Nikos. Strange how we found this place.
We were looking around in our bikes for rooms and this guy standing on the third floor of his balcony saw us -we asked him if he had rooms for rent and he offered his places for us.
He was either in the rental business or probably had done it many times before.
After we had settled down we went to a near local place for breakfast -we met Christos, an older guy in a wheelchair. He had lots of stories to
tell us about Greece, his inheritance, and the ladies he had met when
he was younger and in better health -he became Calvin's idol. He and
Christos had a lot in common -reminiscing and fantasizing about old ladies friends -they kept telling us that they still love them all!
While having coffee and eating ham and cheese sandwich at the
coffee place, a drunk Scottish laborer joined us. I guess he was
trying to pick on Cecilia G. Somehow he must have heard through the
grapevine that she liked English people, ...well he was a Scottish guy,
close enough. I guess if not because of his bad alcohol breath and what I thought it was a funny accent, Cecilia might have fallen for him.
Later in the day we rode our bikes to Starvos beach. It was at
this beach where Anthony Quinn filmed portion of his film "Zorba the
Greek". There at the beach sun tanning we met Maria, whom by
coincidence Cecilia had ask for direction earlier in the day while we were
riding along the road as she was waiting at the bus stop, heading to the beach. Maria is a babe! close to a greek goddess, bigger than Venus I would say. To look as good as Maria was, you have to have to have good looks to start with and be a beach bum and work on your suntan daily.
On the way from Starvos in the afternoon, we stopped at "Mama Irene" for lunch and rested at the Agia Triada monastery on the way to Haina until 5 pm when they opened the doors to the monastery.
Later in the evening after dinner, me and Calvin went to the local open coffee shop and bars by the waterfront.
We met Christos there again by coincidence and he told us he was ready to go disco dancing, !?, strange I thought -for a guy in a wheel chair, but when we saw him in action at one of the local places, he sure knew how to have fun with the ladies and do those doughnut spins on the chair.
Later that night we headed for "The Point" a local bar on the waterfront and met Alexco the owner of the bar and Maria's friend.
With Maria at Starvos where Zorba was filmed - With mama Irene, local food is always good.
Tuesday - May 28
I was sharing a room with Calvin and we could not get up this morning, we stayed too late the night before. The rest of the gang went to the Samarian Gorge for a hike, on the other side of the island.
After we got up, Calvin decided to get a hair cut and a head
massage at the salon next door to Nikos. This guy knows how to enjoy himself and look pretty for the ladies. I guess it's all in Drachmas. We headed later in the morning for the west side to explore the beaches in that area.
We spent most of the morning cycling and beach hopping -It was very windy on some stretches.
On the way back we passed by Verginas Apartment, the complex where Maria, our sun goddess worked at night at the bar.
Late in the afternoon I went to the public market to look around. At night we all went to eat to a local place off the waterfront, away from the tourist hang out, on a dead end alley. I had "stifado".
The owner was so happy to see us that he gave us a big complementary plate of fruit salad for dessert. Later at night we went to see Maria at the bar in the Verginas complex and met her friend Stella. Stayed up until 2 am and took a cab
back to our pads at Nikos apartments.
Gyros, Mousaka, Pastitsio, Crepes and Pizza Hot? - With Maria, at the Vergina Bar in Chania.
Wednesday - May 29
Had breakfast at the same local place. After a light rain in the
morning we started riding on our way to Rethymno. On the way there we
stopped in Apertera to see the ruins. It was a tough climb to the
top. On the way there, we saw herd of goats and at one of the stop,
locals were picking snails. On the way down I stopped for
pictures with a bunch of kids I met playing outside their
house. We stopped for lunch at this hole in the wall local
restaurant where we met Rosa, a Brazilian lady now living there. We
finally ended in Rethymon after a 40 miles ride that took us about 4
hours. Yes, we were slow, the balmy and hot greek sun did not help either.
At night we took a cab and went to a local place for dinner recommended by our friend Maria.
Waiting for the gang on the way to Rethymno.
...to be continued
