Is this the best day hike ever?
Maybe!
It was starting to stress me out thinking about how far behind I am in newsletter updates — we moved pretty quickly through Turkey, plus had an additional person which means less down time (in a good way!). But newsletter’ing is a thing I do entirely for funsies, so I have decided to just start with a clean slate. If you want to know what happened in Ephesus, Istanbul, or Santorini, check the ‘gram or just ask me!
In case you haven’t noticed, we like hiking. And as far as Greek islands go, Crete is basically The One for outdoorsiness so it was a no-brainer to add to our itinerary. It’s Greece’s largest island, about the same size as Puerto Rico, taking about 5 hours to drive across the long way and 40 minutes the short way. The middle has snowcapped peaks and crazy gorges and the southern coast has entire stretches only accessible by boat.
One of these boat-only sections is traversed by the “E4 European long distance path,” a somewhat confusing concept as this walking trail starts in the Pyrenees Mountains in Spain and ends in Cyprus, with some boats required (duh) along the way. Anywho, obviously we were interested in hiking it!
We woke up early in Chania, a beautiful Venetian city where we’d home-based for the week. Since fueling is critical, we stopped by the city’s most famous bougatsidiko for breakfast. The famous “pie” served at Bougatsa Iordanis is phyllo pastry filled with tangy Cretan cottage cheese (myzithra), sprinkled with powdered sugar and served warm cut into little bite-sized squares. Cretans take their cheese SERIOUSLY, and this incredibly rich breakfast proves it. (The story behind this shop is interesting; it was sold by a Muslim forced to move to Turkey to a Christian forced to move to Greece during the “population exchange” after the Greco-Turkish War in 1924. Greek/Turkish history is grim, but this is a sweet little anecdote, pun very much intended.)
We then drove a little over an hour southeast to start our hike from the tiny town of Hora Sfakion, walking west along the coast towards Marmara Beach. We followed a randomly selected AllTrails route (I have so much unreasonable faith in strangers on the internet), so instead of going directly along the coastline, we took a delightful detour straight up a mountain and then down into one of Crete’s famous gorges.
The Aradena Gorge pops out right at Marmara Beach, where Chris took a dip and I ate olives with my feet in the water. (I could edit that sentence to make it clear whether or not I was eating olives with my feet, but I choose to leave you wondering. #punctuationmatters)
The entire day was gorgeous coastline, pretty wildflowers, and goats and sheep all along the way! We walked through a couple small towns: Loutro (famous for its white buildings and clear beach), Phoenix (just a hotel actually), and Livaniana. We took the shorter route back, making this lolly-pop loop hike about 14 miles.
The day finished in Hora Sfakion with a selection of taverna treats eaten on the harbor: eggplant stuffed with cheese, octopus salad (MY FAVORITE THING), marinated mushrooms, gemista (tomatoes and peppers stuffed with rice) and of course the requisite (free!) two shots of raki and a honey-rich sweet at the end. Have I mentioned that I love Greek food? No photo evidence survives of this meal, so here’s another of Chris looking majestic.
