Hania (Crete) - 7th to 9th of May 2008

We arrived at Kissamos port, Crete, at 9pm after an 8 hour ferry from Githio. On the ferry we stumbled across some German backpackers who were heading into the town of Hania (aka "Xania" or "Chania") so we shared a cab for the 30 minute drive east. Arriving in a new town at 10pm with nowhere to stay was a bit of a worry, but thankfully we found a great location in the old venetian part of town which had plenty of available accommodation. Hania has the cutest little old harbour and cobbled streets but is actually a pretty big city. Our full day at Hania was spent walking the 16km trek through the Samaria Gorge, the longest in Europe. Starting with an 8.30 bus to the top (1200m above sea level and pretty cold, but not as cold as it would be in the snow in winter) the walk took us 5 hours down to the sea where we got picked up by a ferry and dropped further down the coast (where there were actually roads) for a two hour bus ride home to Hania. Needless to say after such a long day we crashed as soon as we were back!

The following day we explored Hania in the morning and went through the naval museum. The museum had a section on the Battle of Crete in 1941 when the Germans invaded Crete, and had a section on New Zealand's Maori Battalion that helped defend the island. We went to a local minimart where the owner asked where we were from and on hearing we were from NZ gave us both (plus himself) a shot of Ouzo and in his broken English tried to explain how the New Zealanders stood shoulder to shoulder with the Cretans while the English, Americans and others retreated.