From Heraklion to Sitia Crete by Coach 9 Oct 2024

There are, of course, many beautiful islands in this world, but today I feel compelled to highlight possibly the most beautiful. A brilliant blue sky with sparkling blue water, the Greek flag is so right to be blue!! Crete is mountainous with a breathtaking coastline - the green trees are still dominated by the bright blue sky blending into blue water.

We took the Hop on bus from the stop nearest our rented apartment (about a 20 block walk by the way) to the central bus station in Heraklion. So our 20 E bus passes paid off and we likely broke even in the end. We had to go around to stops 5 through 12, including stop 9 which is Knossos Pallace. There were at least 21 tour buses parked in the parking lot (21 times 50 passengers = 1050 people right there) - all kinds of cars and numerous buses dropping off passengers at 10 am - how many tourists per day????
All the signs are bilingual - Greek and English, so lucky for us - seems everyone here knows some English, many are really fluent

This "Open Bus" Hop on Hop Off seems to never arrive at the scheduled time. There is competition and I am thinking the competition may be better - more stops, better commentary and maybe more disciplined in their scheduled times and possibly more frequent. This one runs every half hour and we frequently wait for it at least 20 minutes beyond the scheduled time. But hey it got us to the bus depot before 11 am and we saw the lady who sold us the tickets in the first place - she is a gem, " how was it," she asks and we say "great, thank you, it worked"
Before we even entered the station a bus driver blocked me and said "Sitia", hey that's where we are going the bus leaves at 1245 - well his bus is leaving now buy tickets onboard so that's what we did. Fifty C for 2 one way tickets. 'How long". About 3 hours. Well it took 3 hours and 40 minutes as it stopped frequently to pick up or drop off but it was time spent in air conditioned comfort looking out on jaw dropping scenery, blue, blue, blue.
I have seen the Montenegro coastline, and the Norwegian coastline and lived on the British Columbia coast and the Crete Coastline is fantabulous.

The bus station in Sitia is a dump - the bathroom doors don't lock, but there is a nice coffee shop attached.
We walked uphill to our one bedroom apartment - it's hot - and a lot of streets aren't marked but eventually found our home for the next three days, nice tiled patio, a kitchen, newly renovated bathroom, air conditioning, good sized bedroom - since I have been sleeping on all the double beds and Jeff has been relegated to the more couch like beds I generously said he could have the bedroom. I stay up later, he is still coughing a lot, plus the AC and tv are in the living room with the daybed.
There was a small gift in the fridge - bottled water and Raki.

After that long walk up hill I was kind of fed up with our location and felt like staying in for the night. But Jeff said there was a local place near by where we could get supper so I relented. About a block away there were cafe tables on the sidewalk, a scruffy looking older man greeted us, pulled out a chair, we sat. First order drinks, Jeff had a pop and to be polite I ordered a beer. Then the meñu came we asked about the specials of the day - spinach with rice, green beans, and gigantic beans, He brought out three saucers, two forks, a sampler. We ordered the green beans because there were also potatoes and carrots mixed in and we haven't been eating enough vegetables. Tsaziki and pork souvlaki.
It was all very good.

Then he comped us two glasses of homemade Raki and a pomegranate.

By this time it's dark and a sliver of moon is shining, It's 24 degrees. Nice. Neighbourhood men have gathered at the next table and are chatting and drinking and possibly preparing for a fish fry. The night is young here but we are early birds, Our bill is 20 E, itemized and rounded down. I shake hands with the owner and thank him. Hospitality. A gift. He gives us his card. We have had the most unexpected lovely evening. He adds grape syrup to his Raki. I liked it and of course drank both glasses as Jeff doesn't drink. But he pretends to drink it and says it's good.
So this is why I travel. For these little unexpected moments, the surprise, the humanity, the kindness.