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Heraklion

Posted by Jim St. George on September 30, 2018

Posted in: Europe, Greece. Leave a Comment

A little cheap wine, a Greek flag, and a spot of suntan lotion on my forehead makes for a good lunch on a beach near Heraklion

We were on our own for three days in Heraklion after Bart, Ann, Athena, and Ken went up into the mountains of Crete on their own. Known variously today as Heraklion, Heraclion, and Iraklion (all of which mean “the city of Heracles) it is the capital and largest city of Crete. As if the various names aren’t confusing enough, from the time of the Arab conquest of Crete in the early 9th century it was known as Chandax or Candie or Candia or Candy. All of which made learning the history of the city confusing. For me at least.

This little statue may not look like much but it dates back to 6,000 or even 6,500 BC. That’s old!

But history is what you come here for quite nearby is the Palace of Knossos where the legendary King Minos’s Minotaur ate young Greeks. Knossos, originally settled as early as 7,000 BC may well have been Europe’s first city; the historian Will Durant called the Minoans “the first link in the European chain.” Now we didn’t actually go out to Knossos as we’d been there just a couple of years ago and my sense was that it hasn’t changed much in that period. We did, though, go to the Heraklion Archeological Museum and enjoyed these crazy old pieces.

And just by way of background I love the myth of the Minotaur. At some point, you see, King Minos of Knossos had pissed off the Greek god Poseidon by keeping a beautiful bull that he was supposed to have sacrificed. Poseidon got him back by making the wife of Minos fall in love with the bull, the offspring of which coupling was half bull and half man. This Minotaur fed on humans and, after defeating the Athenians in battle Minos required the Athenians to send him seven youths every several years to keep the Minotaur satisfied. The story goes on – Ariadne falls in love with the Athenian Theseus and helps him kill the Minotaur, Theseus then dumps Ariadne and becomes King of Athens. They just don’t make stories like that any more.

There were a lot of pots like this. I find it hard to believe that they can reconstruct these items when they are nearly 4,000 years old. I know, new compared to that statue above but still…

At any rate, we really liked Heraklion. The Archeological Museum was very good and another museum of the history of Crete was pretty good. The city has some pretty serious artistic chops: the great author Nikos Kazantzakis (Zorba the Greek, Last Temptation of Christ) hailed from Heraklion as did the 16th century artist known as El Greco. There was some great food – we had lunch at Peskesi twice, a place that serves authentic Cretan food, and thought it was one of the great restaurants we’ve ever eaten at; so good that we couldn’t get reservations for dinner – and much of the city center is a car-free pedestrian zone with lots of happening bars and restaurants. One day at an OK beach nearby and a couple Martinis one night that were worthy of anything Boston or New York could offer so that’s pretty much all you need in life.

Heraklion’s harbor

And then after a quick three nights we were moving on again, this time a little further east to Elounda, still on the north coast of Crete, to meet up with Bart and Ann again for a few days.

Speaking of El Greco, the Historical Museum of Crete holds the only two original El Grecos on his native island. This “View of Mt. Sinai and Monastery of St. Catherine” dates from 1570 and for me at least evokes nothing so much as Van Gogh. It’s one thing to be ahead of your time but El Greco was hundreds of years ahead of his time.

Mark particularly liked these animal figurines from Mt. Kophina, dating from the mid-second millennium BC

And this grave statue of a sad, dead young man from the first century BC

Back to the really old stuff, this vessel dates to the mid-third millennium BC

The Historic Museum of Crete had a room dedicated to old coins. These are Roman coins from the first century BC but, though Roman, show Cretan myths; that’s Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, riding a bull.

St. George hanging out with Jesus in the Historical Museum of Crete

A fountain in downtown Heraklion

Our beach just a little outside of Heraklion. Not a great beach but good enough for a one-day stop.

Paphos

Posted by Jim St. George on September 23, 2018

Posted in: Asia, Cyprus. 2 comments

Mark in the Paphos Archeological Park

Our last stop in Cyprus was Paphos down in the southwest corner of the island. Just last year it was named a European Capital of Culture, though I can’t say I actually understand why. We enjoyed our stop – nice hotel, nice beach, good food, some good ruins, Mark found a little store where I could replace my dead iPad – but Capital of Culture? There were a lot of pubs and clubs but that isn’t normally what I would expect from a Capital of Culture.

At any rate, it was a good stop. Our hotel, Almyra, was right on the coast and while it didn’t have a beach per se, the pool was nice, the sun beds had good views, and the food at the Greek restaurant was fantastic. Along with cats everywhere and a nice Indian restaurant for dinner, what more do you need?

Yeah, there were a lot of cats in Paphos

Like so many places in this region Paphos has some interesting history. It was in Paphos, for instance that one Saul of Tarsus passed through and (allegedly) converted the Roman proconsul to Christianity. And it was here that Saul was first identified as Paul in the New Testament book Acts of the Apostles. How’s that for history?

The major tourist attraction in town – besides just the sea and harbor and all that – and the reason Paphos is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is the Paphos Archeological Park. Over the last several decades they have unearthed four major Roman villas, each with substantial mosaic floors that were buried for many hundreds of years. To be honest those mosaics were really the only part we found interesting in the old ruins, but they were worth, you know, 45 minutes of your life.

Just one part of a mosaic floor in one of the old Roman villas. This one depicts the duel between Theseus and the Minotaur on the island of Crete (our next stop). It is surrounded by decorative zones that represent the Minotaur’s Labyrinth.

And thus ends our two-week, five-stop tour of Cyprus. Between the sea, the beaches, the history, the cats, and the food, it was definitely worth the time. And great value, too. Oh, and one last strange thing to note. It seemed as though all the taxis on the island, perhaps every one that we used as we moved from place to place, were Mercedes Benzes. And not old, crappy cars; they were comfy luxury cars. I don’t understand the economics of that but it sure made our drives around the island pleasant.

Now we’re off to Crete to spend time with friends.

Mark at Karishma’s Curry House, a great Indian restaurant that we stumbled on while looking for something else

Sunset in Paphos

The pool and sea from a lovely terrace outside our room

Mark and a cat at the seaside Greek restaurant in our hotel. We ate lunch here five times – every day – and never tired of it. The cat was cute, of course, but when the food came she wasn’t quite so cute.

Here I am, too, at our great lunch spot

Did I mention cats?

Another of the impressive mosaic floors in the Archeological Park

Celebrating our last night in Cyprus

And cats

Kyrenia

Posted by Jim St. George on September 12, 2018

Posted in: Asia, Cyprus. Leave a Comment

Mark at the very high point of St. Hilarion Castle. We always love those views of the Mediterranean.

Our first stop in Cyprus after leaving the capital was Kyrenia, the main tourist destination of Turkish-controlled North Cyprus. Like Nicosia (and really everything around here) Kyrenia has a long and storied history. Alexander the Great’s successors fought over it, the Romans and Byzantines ruled it, no less an historic figure than England’s Richard the Lionheart captured it.

By the 19th century the city’s population was roughly split between Muslims and Orthodox Christians, but with the onset of British rule in 1878 many of the Muslims fled to nearby Anatolia in Turkey. As a result when the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974, then, the city was primarily Greek Orthodox. Those Greeks, though, largely left after the invasion so today the city is primarily Moslem (as evidenced by the mosque immediately adjacent to our hotel, whose daily 5:17 AM call to worship you couldn’t miss). The Greeks certainly haven’t forgotten, though. The driver who took us from Nicosia down to Kyrenia lamented that while they had always gone down there when he was a child they were no longer welcome.

Kyrenia’s old harbor and the view from lunch

What is Kyrenia like today, then? I was expecting something a little down-scale, maybe economically depressed as a result of its separation from most of Cyprus and its status as an illegally occupied zone. We’ve had plenty of experience where the Moslem parts of countries are just a lot less vibrant because of the anti-alcohol and just generally anti-fun impact of the religion. And I was wrong. It seemed like a lively, successful town. Lots of development, lots of bars, no problem getting beer or wine or better when you’re out and about. In fact there was a lot to love about Kyrenia.

Our first full day there we hired a driver to take us to the two major sites out of town, St. Hilarion Castle and Bellapais. St. Hilarion Castle sits maybe 10 miles southwest of Kyrenia, high up in the mountains. St. Hilarion was a monk who escaped here from persecution in the Holy Land and for whom the Byzantines built a church and monastery in the 10th century. Fast forward a few years and it became an important defensive stronghold given its strategic location. Today it’s just a great place to hike around and enjoy the fabulous views. Oh, and according to at least some rumors it was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Snow White. Now that’s some important history.

Mark below St. Hilarion Castle. You get dropped off just a little way up that hill – where you see those buildings on the left – and then climb and climb and climb to the very top.

Next stop on our little day trip around Kyrenia was Bellapais, a charming little village up in the mountainside above Kyrenia. The main draw is an abandoned Augustinian abbey that dates from the early 13th century. The ancient church, still beautiful, was abandoned in 1974 when the Greek Orthodox fled to the south in front of the invading Turks. Just how beautiful are the abbey remains? Beautiful enough to occupy the front cover of Lonely Planet’s Cyprus edition. You know you’re hitting the highlights of a country when you recognize that shot!

Lonely Planet’s Cyprus guide

And the view on the day we visited

The next day we went up to a beach a few miles West of town, a pretty nice Mediterranean beach. This late in the summer the water is wonderfully warm so that made for a pleasant few hours. At first I was annoyed by the loud music blasting out of the speakers (it’s common around the Mediterranean but that doesn’t mean I have to like it) but eventually I got used to it and, when I was out swimming, even enjoyed it. The food situation there was just too grim to contemplate having lunch, though, so we went back to town. Later that day Mark toured the castle right in Kyrenia while I laid around and was lazy. This was the castle that Richard the Lionheart had captured so it, too, had some great history.

Did I mention a beautiful Mediterranean beach?

And finally the other major thing to do in Kyrenia is to eat, and we found some great food. There are lots of reasons to love Turkey, but the food is high on the list. Just around the corner from our hotel was the aptly named Corner Restaurant, right on the town’s harbor, and they had some of the best food we’ve had in a long time. In a short three-night stop we ate there three times and loved it every time. One dish in particular – a baked eggplant thing with small shrimp and some Middle Eastern spices – was just amazing. Unlike anything we’ve ever had and we had it every time we went there. And I would have it again in a heartbeat if I could ever find it on a menu.

So that was Kyrenia – a beautiful little place with a somewhat sad history if you consider centuries of fighting and even modern-era massive displacements sad. I do. But all that notwithstanding, a beautiful, vibrant city.