Saturday, June 4, 2011

Arrival in Crete - The Second Tiredest I've Ever Been

Friday, June 3, 2011—Chania, Crete, Greece



In Crete! It was a long, hellish series of flights, but I’ve made it. I’m sitting on the deck (garden) of Ifenginia Studios looking out over the old Venetian Harbor of Chania. It’s six in the evening and it’s beautiful out, low seventies, just a touch of breeze, (though it’s a bit more humid than I expected Crete to be). I got here at 6:15 AM local time, but haven’t done much yet. My room wasn’t ready when I got here (acutally nobody working here was up and the place was locked up tight), so after a little walk around town, mostly around the waterfront, I had a nice breakfast of bread and honey, ham , cheese, orange juice (the real stuff—not crap from concentrate) and strong coffee, at the little café attached to the guesthouse. My room was finally ready at 9:30 and by 10:00 I was asleep (I hadn’t slept in about thirty-seven hours, since the night before I left Los Angeles). After about six hours of crashing hard I took a shower and now I am here writing on the deck …


I’m still of course pretty out of it, both physically and mentally, from my long trip and because of a bit of culture shock. But I still feel good, relaxed, which is little surprising, in that getting here so wore me out. I left my house at about 12:15 PM on an airline shuttle, flew out of LAX at 4:30, was on an air New Zealand flight to London for about nine-and-a-half hours, was stuck at Heathrow for another ten or so, then took two Aegean Air flights for another for about four hours total, along with some more airport wait time. Tough stuff, especially for a person like me who doesn’t like to fly, who feels a bit trapped and panicky when stuffed into an airplane. But that’s over now and I don’t want to dwell on it.


My only plans for the rest of the day are to write, wander around the town a bit more, figure out which restaurant I’d like to try for dinner, and to come up with a bit of a plan as to what I’m going to be doing and seeing in town tomorrow and review what I’ve got planned for the coming days.


Feeling a little concerned about money; my room here seems a bit expensive for what it is, plus I think I was ripped off somewhat on the taxi ride from the airport. I just have to remember that you always spend more money at the beginning of a trip than once you’re in it a bit and know the lay of the land.

OK, I'm hungry. Time to forage.


No comments: