Stavros, Zorbas' sweet home!

Few tourists visiting Chania and Crete actually come here. Still, this place is one of the most popular and well-known. Millions of people around the world have admired its beauty, but now many even know its name! How can this happen? It's because in Stavros, Akrotiri - yes, we're talking about Stavros - the Michalis Kakogiannis' movie "Zorbas the Greek" was directed, with leafing actor Antony Queen and music by Mikis Theodorakis, based on Nikos Kazantzakis' novel "Alexis Zorbas". One of the most sommercial movies ever made, a movie that "gave birth" to sirtaki dance! Millions of people everywhere admired "Alexis Zorbas" dancing in the unbelievable scenery but they didn't know where it was exactly (OK, somewhere in Crete but where?) or at least its name.



Akrotiri in general is not one of the most popular destinations in Crete, despite its beauty, its history and its proximity to the city of Chania. Still, it's one of the main entrances to the prefecture and Crete itself (airport). You can't say it lacks tourism and tourist infrastructure - over 50 hotels and apartments for rent can be found there, as well as dozens of taverns and restaurants - but in no way it is Falasarna, Sfakia or Maleme, Agioi Apostoloi or Venetian Port. Not even Aptera. When most of people say "I went to Akrotiri", they mean "I reached Chalepa and the Venizeloses' Tombs". Or as far as the Technical University, if some of their friends or relatives are students! Few "experts" reach wonderful Kalathas and very few are those who come to remote Stavros which oversees the Cretan Sea.
Stavros is absolutely modern village, there is nothing "traditional" or "picturesque". Still, it has its own architectural style, thanks to the good taste of  its residents and the village's multinational character. Because Stavros is a multi-cultural village: more than half of its permanent residents are foreigners. Most of them have built their houses there or have changed the houses they rent basing on their aesthetics and the architectural influence of their motherlands. Thus, Stavros is a nice architectural complex, with green gardens competing one another in their beauty.



The optical beauty is completed with the feast of smells: flowers of all kinds, trees and a note of sea breeze in the air make you feel good all the time.
And the scenery is a real museum of nature! Two wonderful beaches (which are united in one big shore) totally different between them - one is a bit "wild" and "exotic", and the other one is a picturesque bay ideal for family vacation. Both of them have crystal-clear water in the shades of green and blue. "The Sleeping Beauty", a hill looking like a sculpture made by God, is dominant in the place.
For me, Stavros is not just some village like all the others. It's Shakespeare's "Forrest of Arden", a place where you come to be cleared from the pollution of your previous life, to find yourself and to start from the beginning...

Agioi Apostoli, a miniature paradise!

You see, it's not that difficult after all to go the paradise. If you're from Chania, you know why. Just 4 kilometers from the center of the city, you may even walk there for less than 1 hour! If you ride a bike, it'll take you about twenty minutes.
We talk about Agioi Apopstoloi of Chania. This place borrowed its name from a small chapel situated there. This place really has the beauty of the paradise, and it's not an exaggeration. For the last twenty years the building development in the region has been rather anarchical, and the "tourist infrastructure" constructions tasteless. But Agioi Apostoloi still offers to its visitors much calm and beauty of the nature (of course if it's not the high season!)

There are two big beaches which unite in the sea. A narrow peace of land uniting them ends with a rock full of greenery, with a church of Agioi Apostoloi on top of it. Sea in front of it, sea in the back and the pine trees on top. Water is sheer blue and clear as crystal. Believe it or not!

And you're in the city. Not somewhere distant. Not in some exotic place that will take you a one-day trip to get to it. Inside the city! Well, this is Chania, a place where anything can happen!

White mountains, the refuge for the Cretan soul

The Crete sea shores are endless and all the big Cretan cities are situated at the sea-side. Still, the Cretan soul - especially if we talk about the residents of Chania - is in the highlands! We'll understand easily why it is so if we look over the history of Crete. For ages there were many intruders who tried to conquer the proud nation.  They had their fortresses and their entities near the sea, where they could communicate easily with their mother cities but also to run away quickly in the case of a danger. But in the inaccessible high mountains, the Cretans were breathing the air of freedom. There, they kept their language, their customs and traditions, their way of life.  

Especially in Chania, Madara or the White Mountains, besides the refuge of freedom has always been the source of life for the Chania residents. The multiform natural environment gave food, water, raw materials and inspiration to the proud Cretan soul. There are more than 50 peaks higher than 2000 meters in Madara - this is how the Chaniots call the White Mountains - as well as countless gorges and cliffs which make you hold your breath, a unique view to the both sides of Crete, to the Cretan Sea but to the Libyan Sea as well. If you want to discover the authentic Crete, your way lies through the rugged trails of Madara! 

It won't be that difficult, though. With a little help from the Chania Climbers Society, you can do it! There are four refuges here and there in the White Mountains, as well as many hospitable villages! The Chania Climbers Society has existed for eighty years now and has been one of the oldest nature lovers organizations in Greece and the oldest one in Crete. It has experienced guides and climbers, and with its actions it protects the mountain groups of the region and helps the permanent residents, as well as visitors who want to discover the mountainous Crete.

There are four refuges in the White Mountains, the mountains near Chania. The oldest of them was built in 1958 and is situated on the Volika site, above the Kampi Keramion village, on the altitude of 1450 meters. It was renovated in 2006 and can accomodate up to 30 persons.
Another refuge, which is the most popular due to the unique view to the Samaria gorge, is called "Kallergi" and is situated on the altitude of 1650 meters, above the Omalos glen. The path that will take you to it starts from the Xiloskalo, in the entrance of the Samaria gorge. This refuge boasts a thrilling view: White Mountains peaks (covered with snow in winter), all-green sidehills of Samaria, the Omalos glen. It can lodge up 45 persons.   

The third Chania refuge is situated above the Tavri glen and the Askifu village, on the altitutde of 1200 meters. It is easily reached by the 8 km farmers' road. Of course it's better to walk there, at least one part of the wonderful part which starts from the Askifu village and goes up to Tavri, through a cypress forest. This route will take you about 2 hours.

The last refuge is the newest and the highest one in Chania. It's situated in the center of the White Mountains, under the Svurichti peak, 2080 meters above the sea. To reach it, you'll have to walk for about 6-7 hours from the Kallergi refuge or 3 hours after the end of the country road which starts from the Anopoli village, in the Roussies district. This refuge may lodge up to 20 people.
For more information, Chania Climbers Society, tel.: 00302821044647

In Alikianos

"Alikianos or Alikianou: small town belonging to the Kidonia eparchy, Prefecture of Chania, in Crete. Capital of the Mousoura municipality, it is situated 12,5 km to the south-west of Chania city, 65 m high above the sea..." This is how the tourist's guides describe the all-green plain with flowing waters and orange trees, the land full of colors and smells, where history is mixed with the legend, the land of passion and hatred, braveness and betrayal, triumph and mourning. An old Da Molin's possession, the land where "drama of the Cretan wedding" took place, but there was another drama too: the Nazi occupants tried to swip from the Earth the very trace of those people fighting weaponless against the best butchers of the Third Reich. They successfully opposed the Nazi, thus dishonoring Hitler all over the world.
I start from the Venetian Port, taking my bike. Car is not the best choice for such a route because this is a disrespect to the beauty of the local nature you'll meet, and because the longest your way will be, so much the better. So you'll walk or ride a bike. After and hour or so among the greenery I meet the Keritis river which washes the plain and welcomes me. After passing the big stone bridge I've reached Alikianos.

Usually I should first be visiting the ruins of the haunted Da Molin tower, the most famous sight of the village. According to the legend, Sofia, daughter of a Venetian feodarch, fell in love with Georgios Contoleon, son of the leader of Cretan revolutionaries. The cunning and villainous feodarch pretended he agreed with the wedding and made peace with the revolutionaries, but during the wedding banquet he drugged the guests, put them to jail, and the next day hung them all. I am really touched by the "drama of the Cretan wedding", but Alikianos is so lively place that I do not want to start our acquintance from some drunk ghosts. 

Alikianos is not a traditional village I expected. Once it was characterized as a protected memorial monument, but today there are modern buildings which are though built with respect to the local history and the beauty of the nature. There can still be found old stone buildings representing the traditional architecture.
People in Alikianos are modern too, without losing, though, their special features given to them  by their Cretan roots. Hospitable, progressive, friendly, easy-going, but most of all, proud of their place. And they have every right to that, because "beauty" is the only word which could describe this place. Beauty coming from  nature, houses (old and new), history and legends, people...
I feel thirsty and order some fresh orange juice in the coffee-shop. The owner is boasting to me that the oranges from his garden are the most tasty on Earth! "Why?" I ask him. He looks at me as if I said something funny. "It's the Keritis water! It maked the oranges tasty, the women gorgeous but modest, and their men, crazy!"

What is chania?

Chania, Creta,Crete,Chania, Crete, Omalos, Elafonisi, Elafonisos, Chania, Crete, Creta, Chania

You will drink raki (a usual treat) in Mournies, Maleme and Alikianos or, again, you may prefer margarita, burbon or "Bloody Mary" in modern city clubs. You will dance pentozali to the sounds of lira and laouto or hip hop with Eminem shouting loudly on stereo. In Kolimbari, Falasarna, Elafonisi, Kissamos, Akrotiri and Kalathas you will swim in waters so clear and so cool that your body will be born again and your soul, baptized again. When passing the Samaria Ravine you will feel how small the human is and when you ascend the Omalos Mountain, perhaps you'll be able to talk to God.
At every step you will meet some hero! Heroes from all times, fearless warriors who for centuries have poured their blood for their love to this land and to freedom. In Frangokastello you will see them early in the morning  re-unioned - even if they once used to slaughter one another - enjoying their eternity, having now the knowledge of the vanity and the transient things.

Your every walk in Chania will be a travel in time - but without any certain time order - because here all the historical periods are present, alive and booming, in each stone, each wall, each tree or peble.
Here is the garden created by Reouf Pasas, over there the Venetian Shipyards, on the other side there is Topanas with Venetian mansions, Firkas Fortress and the Faros (Lighthouse) (so close and yet so far away!), the Dominican monastery turned into mosque by the Ottomans. There are Byzantine churches and ancient ruins, revolutionaries' hideouts and pirates' bases...Everything has a story to tell you or a song to sing to you...hear!
Hear...the smell of the sea...or maybe it is a plain with lemon trees? Maybe it's skaltsounia (traditional tastfull pies) baked by kyra - Lengko or a new barrel of red wine opened by kyr - Themis. This may be frankincense from the church or gunpowder from the gunshots at some celebration. In Chania you will "hear" as many smells as there are stories.
Still, nothing of these is Chania! Nothing that you'll see, hear or touch is Chania. It is not feelings but...illusions! It is something you've been always looking for but never found. It is what you believed. It is something that exists, you know that for sure, it always follows you but once you turn your head, it's gone. It guides your steps but you can never catch it. Your fairytale and your truth. Once you said that there is no such thing. It is your friend who always tells you the truth even if it hurts, but in hard times he'll sing to you. Your unfulfilled love. If you want to come here just for "holidays", or "to relax", or "to have fun", it is not a good idea. Go somewhere else. Here is the place for piligrims only. Because Chania is not what you will live. It is what you would like to live...

("Hear" the smell: local expression that means "feel the smell").

Baptising

I woke up from the smell of the pines which expired the salty breath of the Libyan Sea. The light barely penetrated the walls of my cheap tent, it was  vapor, fresh and cool like the morning service on Good Friday. "What a castle", I thought, "what a palace for me, the prince!"
I put out my sleepy and unkepmt head and looked towards the sea: Zoe was playing in the waves - naked - a happy child! Without shame, as it looked like this land was untrodden for ages. Unapproachable by the wingless creatures. Upwards, the impregnable - almost vertical in the sky - plain, fighting thousands of climber trees attacking it. The attack was vain: the trees could not climb even half of the mountain and were falling, sliding down to the sea. No land on the horizon. How in the world did we get here?
"You're almost thirty and you're still a child", I shouted to her. "Shut up and swim", she answered with her sweet little voice that raised no objections. I did shut up and, riding a passing-by wave, reached the undersea mermaid's hug which absorbed me without any effort. We played all the fishy games we knew, sipped plenty of salty holy water until we got drunk, collected all the pebbles from the sea bed - loot of the historical fall we experienced - but then we threw them back into the sea because who wants to be called a conqueror? I had no idea how much time passed. But it must have been more than a light second because we were on the brink of turning into plankton, food for sea-weeds! "Me love her, she loves me in forgotten Atlantida" I thought and started laughing like a fool. And my little Atlantidian laughed too, though she knew not why. I used to be so lonely, but this little alchemist turned me into the sea lover!
We went out from this font which initiated us into the new religion only when, exhausted from so many childish games and hungry, we remembered the skaltsounia baked by our land-lady kira-Lenio. Poor things, they were so lonely there in the bag, waiting patiently to take part in our celebration. And they had every right for it! We accompanied them with home-made wine, the best thing to become sober from the salt of the holy sea water. Then we laid in the sun to get dry because we had to be back in the village before noon. Why? I tried very hard but could not recall.
Zoe, dressed again in her clothes and her proper ways, was murmuring in some odd language: something about luggage we had to collect, some ship leaving Souda exactly at seven o'clock, some stranger whose vacation was coming to an end. But what did we have to do with all those things? As we were heading back, the stairs dug out in the rock (who knows when and by whom!) reminded me there was no fortress without a backdoor!
The next morning - same time - Piraeus was embracing us, majestic and stinky. The ancient walls, irrefutable witnesses of the most proud decay, reminded of Mayakovsky poems. Were we sad? No! We have been already initiated in the new religion. No-one would dare now to tell us that paradise does not exist!
The ship travelling was called "Aptera".