Arrived on the island of Patmos yesterday morning, after an overnight ferry from Piraeus (the port of Athens). The previous two day's I'd spent with good friend Dianna on the island of Aegina, just an hour's ferry ride from Athens (where she lives). But we parted with plans to meet up again in the next week or two. (Check out the link above for photos from Aegina, and of Patmos.)
Patmos is within sight of Turkey, and is where St. John wrote the Book of Revelation. It's also an extremely gorgeous island with exquisite landscapes, nice beaches and a relaxed atmosphere. I've done a fair amount of biking around, as well as hiking along some ridges overlooking the port and main town, and looking out to the sea in all directions, since the island is extremely skinny at the center. It's really the perfect place for just rambling around exploring on bicycle and on foot; lots of great landscapes and interesting things to come across, i.e. castle ruins, donkeys and horses, remote, uncrowded beaches and, for some strange reason, a table and chair placed randomly alongside a side road, with an empty bottle of ouzo and a shot glass on it, just waiting for a photo shoot (again, see the link above). Well I've got to cut this one extremely short, as I'm out of time on the computer I'm using. Check back again for more, whenever I get around to it...
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
in Athens for the 4th time (click here for photos)
Way too much has happened since my last blog post, so I'm going to keep it to the bare minimum in summing things up. I spent two weeks at the Kalikalos retreat center on the Pelion Peninsula, north of Athens, and had a great time. The first week I spent at the Kalikalos center near the tiny village of Kissos. But there was another associated site about a ten minute drive away, at another little village called Anilio. There was a big group of people coming to do a circle dancing workshop, staying at that other site near Anilio; and they needed a few more people there to help out with things. So after the first week, I moved down to the other place for all of that second week. The good news was that there was a spare room, so I got to move out of the tent and live indoors. I took a couple of videos of both places, which can be watched on my facebook page.
But the really good news was that a nice Canadian couple, Fred and Ruth, who had arrived at Kalikalos the same day as me, were also leaving the same day that I was; and they offered me a ride along with my bicycle back to Athens. This was a real relief, to avoid having to deal with taking my bike on the bus again. So we all squeezed into their van last Friday and headed out, intending to drive to Athens that day, and hopefully be able to stay with a couple of people that had attended the retreat center earlier.
But along the way we all decided we'd rather see a little something else, and decided to take a detour to the ancient ruins of Delphi. This didn't actually require much extra driving, other than going on some smaller roads rather than the freeway. None of us really felt like dealing with Athens after having driven all day, and figured that we would be more up for it the next day, after a much shorter drive. So we pulled into the small tourist town of Delphi early that evening, found a campground and camped there for the night; then got up the next day to tour the ruins.
The ruins of Delphi were really amazing, actually a lot more interesting than even the Acropolis in Athens, because they were a lot more extensive. (As usual, photos are on facebook.) Afterwards we all hit the road again, headed for Athens. On the way we managed to correspond with two of the people that had been at the retreat center, and lived in Athens; both Greek women in our general age range. One of them was busy, but the other one, Dianna, who we'd all gotten to know fairly well, was free and invited us all to stay at her apartment for the night.
So we showed up pretty bedraggled around 7 in the evening, very grateful to be invited into her very nice little apartment on the top floor of a 6-story apartment building, within view of the Acropolis. Dianna had some free time over the next week, and told us that evening that she had a summer home on the Peloponnesus, a few hours south of Athens; and if we were interested then we could all drive down there the next day. Fred and Ruth wanted most of a day to see some of Athens; and I still needed to get my bicycle fixed. So the next day Fred and Ruth went out to tour the city, while Dianna called around and found a bicycle mechanic; then we headed that way to deal with the bicycle, with the arrangement to meet back at her place later in the afternoon, and then all drive down to her other house that evening.
So, after the usual delays we finally headed out of Athens later that evening. Fred and Ruth drove in their van, as they were planning to continue onwards from there; while I drove with Dianna in her car. However she didn't actually like to drive it much because of a bad back and hurt knee; so I drove, my first time driving in a foreign country (other than Canada, of course). Fortunately, the signs are almost always in English as well as Greek, and besides Dianna knew exactly where we were going, so it wasn't too much different from driving back in the U.S.
We made it late that night to Dianna's condo near the sea on the Peloponnesus, near the tiny town of Leonidio. The four of us spent three nights there, and had a great time; despite the fact that it was mostly rainy and cloudy weather. But we managed to get to the beach a few times anyway, explored the small village, went out to eat, hung out at her place, etc. Then Fred and Ruth continued on in their camper van, and Dianna and I stayed one more night in the same house.
Dianna is a musician, and had to get back to Athens two days later for a rehearsal. The next day, we decided to make use of the remaining day and see something new. So we drove north a little ways from Leonidio, and then inland and up into the mountains a little ways to a really picturesque village, and stayed there in a hotel for the night. Since it's mid-September, tourist season is winding down, and that area is somewhat off the tourist map anyway, so there were no other tourists in the village. There was only one small tavern, one hotel, and no mini market or gas station. And we were pretty sure there was no one else staying in the hotel. But the view from the room was amazing.
The next morning, we managed to enjoy the morning there, then headed out around noon to drive back to Athens. Unfortunately, we encountered car trouble almost right away. After about ten minutes of driving, I pulled over to take a photo of a cross on the side of the road. When I started up the car again, I noticed that the engine temperature was heating up big-time, and quickly went into the red. So I turned the car off, and we figured out what to do next.
The bad news was that we were in the mountains, somewhat in the middle of nowhere. But the good thing was that we were within cell phone range, and Dianna belonged to one of these auto services where they'll help you out wherever you are. So to make a longer story short, after several hours of waiting the tow truck finally arrived. And then after another hour or so of tinkering around with the engine, the tow truck driver got things fixed enough that we were able to drive off on our own, rather than having to be towed. It turned out that, despite having had a tune-up just a couple of weeks before, the problem was the fan had stopped working; and, the thermostat wasn't working properly; and, there was a coolant leak. So in other words, just about everything that could go wrong with the cooling system...
But we got back okay to Athens that evening (yesterday), and I'm back here staying at Dianna's apartment, making plans for my next step. One small problem is that the weather has been pretty funky all over Greece, including out on the islands, with plenty of clouds and rain. But some of the islands, the Dodecanese, which are further east near Turkey, seem to be mostly sunny. I might change my plans to go to Milos in the Cyclades, and instead go to Patmos, which is another island that was high up on my list...I'll probably get that straightened out tomorrow. Well, it's late here, especially since I didn't make this entry nearly as brief as I'd intended, so I'm headed for bed and will keep everyone posted one way or another with the future plans.
But the really good news was that a nice Canadian couple, Fred and Ruth, who had arrived at Kalikalos the same day as me, were also leaving the same day that I was; and they offered me a ride along with my bicycle back to Athens. This was a real relief, to avoid having to deal with taking my bike on the bus again. So we all squeezed into their van last Friday and headed out, intending to drive to Athens that day, and hopefully be able to stay with a couple of people that had attended the retreat center earlier.
But along the way we all decided we'd rather see a little something else, and decided to take a detour to the ancient ruins of Delphi. This didn't actually require much extra driving, other than going on some smaller roads rather than the freeway. None of us really felt like dealing with Athens after having driven all day, and figured that we would be more up for it the next day, after a much shorter drive. So we pulled into the small tourist town of Delphi early that evening, found a campground and camped there for the night; then got up the next day to tour the ruins.
The ruins of Delphi were really amazing, actually a lot more interesting than even the Acropolis in Athens, because they were a lot more extensive. (As usual, photos are on facebook.) Afterwards we all hit the road again, headed for Athens. On the way we managed to correspond with two of the people that had been at the retreat center, and lived in Athens; both Greek women in our general age range. One of them was busy, but the other one, Dianna, who we'd all gotten to know fairly well, was free and invited us all to stay at her apartment for the night.
So we showed up pretty bedraggled around 7 in the evening, very grateful to be invited into her very nice little apartment on the top floor of a 6-story apartment building, within view of the Acropolis. Dianna had some free time over the next week, and told us that evening that she had a summer home on the Peloponnesus, a few hours south of Athens; and if we were interested then we could all drive down there the next day. Fred and Ruth wanted most of a day to see some of Athens; and I still needed to get my bicycle fixed. So the next day Fred and Ruth went out to tour the city, while Dianna called around and found a bicycle mechanic; then we headed that way to deal with the bicycle, with the arrangement to meet back at her place later in the afternoon, and then all drive down to her other house that evening.
So, after the usual delays we finally headed out of Athens later that evening. Fred and Ruth drove in their van, as they were planning to continue onwards from there; while I drove with Dianna in her car. However she didn't actually like to drive it much because of a bad back and hurt knee; so I drove, my first time driving in a foreign country (other than Canada, of course). Fortunately, the signs are almost always in English as well as Greek, and besides Dianna knew exactly where we were going, so it wasn't too much different from driving back in the U.S.
We made it late that night to Dianna's condo near the sea on the Peloponnesus, near the tiny town of Leonidio. The four of us spent three nights there, and had a great time; despite the fact that it was mostly rainy and cloudy weather. But we managed to get to the beach a few times anyway, explored the small village, went out to eat, hung out at her place, etc. Then Fred and Ruth continued on in their camper van, and Dianna and I stayed one more night in the same house.
Dianna is a musician, and had to get back to Athens two days later for a rehearsal. The next day, we decided to make use of the remaining day and see something new. So we drove north a little ways from Leonidio, and then inland and up into the mountains a little ways to a really picturesque village, and stayed there in a hotel for the night. Since it's mid-September, tourist season is winding down, and that area is somewhat off the tourist map anyway, so there were no other tourists in the village. There was only one small tavern, one hotel, and no mini market or gas station. And we were pretty sure there was no one else staying in the hotel. But the view from the room was amazing.
The next morning, we managed to enjoy the morning there, then headed out around noon to drive back to Athens. Unfortunately, we encountered car trouble almost right away. After about ten minutes of driving, I pulled over to take a photo of a cross on the side of the road. When I started up the car again, I noticed that the engine temperature was heating up big-time, and quickly went into the red. So I turned the car off, and we figured out what to do next.
The bad news was that we were in the mountains, somewhat in the middle of nowhere. But the good thing was that we were within cell phone range, and Dianna belonged to one of these auto services where they'll help you out wherever you are. So to make a longer story short, after several hours of waiting the tow truck finally arrived. And then after another hour or so of tinkering around with the engine, the tow truck driver got things fixed enough that we were able to drive off on our own, rather than having to be towed. It turned out that, despite having had a tune-up just a couple of weeks before, the problem was the fan had stopped working; and, the thermostat wasn't working properly; and, there was a coolant leak. So in other words, just about everything that could go wrong with the cooling system...
But we got back okay to Athens that evening (yesterday), and I'm back here staying at Dianna's apartment, making plans for my next step. One small problem is that the weather has been pretty funky all over Greece, including out on the islands, with plenty of clouds and rain. But some of the islands, the Dodecanese, which are further east near Turkey, seem to be mostly sunny. I might change my plans to go to Milos in the Cyclades, and instead go to Patmos, which is another island that was high up on my list...I'll probably get that straightened out tomorrow. Well, it's late here, especially since I didn't make this entry nearly as brief as I'd intended, so I'm headed for bed and will keep everyone posted one way or another with the future plans.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Lots more videos on facebook (click here)
I've uploaded a bunch more videos of my Greece trip onto facebook, because they upload quicker there and also can be viewed in a somewhat larger screen. Click on the subject line above to go to my facebook page. You'll have to have an account already in order to view them, and be one of my "friends" so to speak, so feel free to make a friend request if you want to check them out.
Greece video 1
This is the beach where I camped for a week on Anafi Island, the first island that I went to after flying into Athens.
Greece video 2
This is a nice view of Hora, the only village on the island of Anafi, on a sunny and windy mid-afternoon.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Greece video 5
Me harassing some doves and pigeons that were roosting on the side of a little shack of sorts on the side of a small country road, on the island of Syros.
at Kalikalos retreat center (click here for more info)
I'll try to sum up the retreat center I'm now at in a nutshell. I found out about it online while doing general research about Greece before I came out here; so I had everything arranged already to be here for two weeks. I'm doing work exchange, which means that I work about 5-6 hours per day, and then get one day off each week (which for me is today).
The retreat center basically holds workshops that each last a week, and are hosted by different people that come from elsewhere, mostly from Europe, along with most of the participants. So it's really a mix of all sorts of different subjects, i.e. last week I think there was a tai chi workshop, next week is one called circle dancing.
Things change quite a bit depending on what workshop or workshops are going on. At the moment there are about 20 people here, including the manager of the retreat, a few people who have been here for several months, then a couple of other people who are doing short work exchange stints, such as myself and a couple from Canada, and then the paying participants. But then a bunch of people are taking off tomorrow since Fridays are when things change over, and then a new group of 15 people are coming for that dancing workshop.
Part of the idea of the place is to have a somewhat cohesive group of people, rather than just a group of staff who are serving the retreat participants. So even those who are paying to be here participate in a limited amount of chores, such as helping with a meal and clean-up, watering the garden, etc. But then during the day they are doing whatever workshop they came for. Then everyone gets the afternoons off after lunch, in which case most people go to a nearby beach; and those who are working come back for a short shift from 6-8 in the evening. Greeks eat dinner really late, so dinner is at 8:30, but even that is actually a little early for most Greeks.
I will have been here a week tomorrow, and then have another week after that. It's been great to hang out with a group of people as a change from traveling solo (although I did meet some cool people along the way as well). But now I'm getting a bit excited about heading out again to do more exploring of the islands. The good news is that the Canadian couple who are here leave the same day as me, and are planning to head for Athens. They are traveling in a camper van (all over Europe) and said they would probably have room for me and my bike if I wanted to get a ride back to Athens. Hopefully that will work out, because that would save me massive amounts of hassle in taking two buses from here to there, including wrangling again with bus drivers who clearly don't like the bike much.
That's all for now, it's getting on lunch time and then I'll probably be heading down to the beach for the afternoon. As I said, I'll be here at Kalikalos for another week, which means I'll be leaving most likely next Friday, September 11th or else perhaps the day after that, but probably Friday. Then for now, I've got my sights set on the island of Milos as my next destination, which has 74 beaches and really cool volcanic landscapes, and there's a campground there where I can stay. But of course plans could change depending on what other options I might come across in the next week.
The retreat center basically holds workshops that each last a week, and are hosted by different people that come from elsewhere, mostly from Europe, along with most of the participants. So it's really a mix of all sorts of different subjects, i.e. last week I think there was a tai chi workshop, next week is one called circle dancing.
Things change quite a bit depending on what workshop or workshops are going on. At the moment there are about 20 people here, including the manager of the retreat, a few people who have been here for several months, then a couple of other people who are doing short work exchange stints, such as myself and a couple from Canada, and then the paying participants. But then a bunch of people are taking off tomorrow since Fridays are when things change over, and then a new group of 15 people are coming for that dancing workshop.
Part of the idea of the place is to have a somewhat cohesive group of people, rather than just a group of staff who are serving the retreat participants. So even those who are paying to be here participate in a limited amount of chores, such as helping with a meal and clean-up, watering the garden, etc. But then during the day they are doing whatever workshop they came for. Then everyone gets the afternoons off after lunch, in which case most people go to a nearby beach; and those who are working come back for a short shift from 6-8 in the evening. Greeks eat dinner really late, so dinner is at 8:30, but even that is actually a little early for most Greeks.
I will have been here a week tomorrow, and then have another week after that. It's been great to hang out with a group of people as a change from traveling solo (although I did meet some cool people along the way as well). But now I'm getting a bit excited about heading out again to do more exploring of the islands. The good news is that the Canadian couple who are here leave the same day as me, and are planning to head for Athens. They are traveling in a camper van (all over Europe) and said they would probably have room for me and my bike if I wanted to get a ride back to Athens. Hopefully that will work out, because that would save me massive amounts of hassle in taking two buses from here to there, including wrangling again with bus drivers who clearly don't like the bike much.
That's all for now, it's getting on lunch time and then I'll probably be heading down to the beach for the afternoon. As I said, I'll be here at Kalikalos for another week, which means I'll be leaving most likely next Friday, September 11th or else perhaps the day after that, but probably Friday. Then for now, I've got my sights set on the island of Milos as my next destination, which has 74 beaches and really cool volcanic landscapes, and there's a campground there where I can stay. But of course plans could change depending on what other options I might come across in the next week.
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
at Kalikalos retreat center on the Pelion Peninsula
Lots has happened since I last wrote, so I'll have to summarize as best as possible. I had a great time exploring the island of Naxos for a week. From there I decided to go next to an island that was conveniently located on the way back to Athens, so I went to the island of Syros for just two nights and a day. I arrived by ferry early in the evening, and bicycled with all of my things up and over the island to the other side, where there was the island's only campground. This wasn't such a bad ride, despite the fact that it was a lot of uphill the first half, as it only took about forty minutes. I made it down to the campground near the beach on the other side and camped there for the night. The next night I did a bit of exploring by bicycle (leaving my tent set up with most of my stuff back at the campground). Basically I just biked north up and over another ridge to another nice little beach. Syros was great, very mellow and low-key, not too touristy, not spectacular scenery but nice enough. Basically it was perfect as a quick stopover for a little change of scene from the busier and more touristy Naxos.
The next day I had to get up early to bicycle back over the island and catch my ferry at 10 am. Things were rather up in the air at that point. I was headed next for the Pelion Peninsula, north of Athens and there was no way to get there without going through Athens, even though I wanted to avoid it (especially considering that it was on fire for a little while). I wasn't exactly sure if I was going to spend that night in Athens. I was hoping that the ferry would get me there early enough that I'd be able to hop on a bus right away, and make it at least partway to my destination, which was about 6 hours by bus in total north of Athens, including a shorter bus ride to get to the smaller village that I was headed for.
The first complication arose when I went to get off the ferry and my bike had a flat tire. And I should mention that the slow leak I'd had on my bike for the past week or so had actually resulted finally in a flat tire the previous day. So that evening, not having the time to try and patch it, I'd replaced the tube with a new tube. So, the new flat was on the brand new tube. The first order of business then was to get that straightened out one way or another, since I didn't know if I might need to do some biking at some point on my way getting to the retreat center, and of course wanted to have the bike in working order.
The other thing was that I had come into a different port from the closer port to Athens of Piraeus, and was a little unsure how long it would take to get there. And, the ferry had been one hour later arriving at Syros, and then had taken longer than I'd expected getting back to the final destination, so I didn't get off that ferry until around 4 in the afternoon. There was a bus going from there into the center of the city, and fortunately I had no problems with the bus driver stowing my bike underneath the bus. On the bus I was then able to figure out where it would be dropping me off, which very conveniently was just a few blocks away from both the hostel I'd stayed at previously, and the bike mechanic that was right nearby.
So, I got off that bus, pumped up the tire just to get me down the street, and headed down to the bike mechanic. By this time it was getting close to 6 pm so I figured I'd be staying in Athens. The mechanic wasn't able to patch that tube for me for some reason (very little English was spoken there) but they were able to install a brand new tube for only about $7, so I went with that. Now I have two tubes with leaks that I'll have to patch at some point. Then I biked over to the hostel, they had room, and so I crashed there for the night.
Next morning I got up early to catch a bus out of Athens heading for Volos, 6th largest city in Greece and the closest large town to the retreat center I was going to on the Pelion Peninsula. Someone from the retreat center had emailed me saying there was a bus leaving Athens at 9:30. Conveniently again, the bus station was just down the street from the hostel.
I arrived at about 9:15 to get on the bus, but that bus was full. The next one was at 11:00. I explained to the ticket person at the counter that I had a bicycle, and they said that wasn't a problem. So around 10:40ish or so they started loading up the bus. As soon as I pointed at the bicycle the man loading the bus made it clear that he was very unhappy about it and, basically, there was no way in hell he was going to load it under the bus. To make a long story short, a commotion ensued, several English-speaking Greek people stepped in to help straighten things out since the man loading the bus spoke no English, and in the end he very relunctantly loaded my bike in and then piled baggage high all over it. Good thing that I was getting off at the final destination.
That bus ended up being late, and so I missed the last bus for the day that was supposed to be taking me from Volos another two hours to the tiny village of Kissos, which was where the retreat center was. To make yet another longish story shorter, through a lucky set of circumstances I ended up running into Jock at the bus station, who is the manager of the retreat center and who I had been emailing with over the past several months. He was there picking someone else up, and had previously offered me a ride, but then was unable to take me with the bicycle. So he told me about another bus that would take me partway to the village of Kissos. And the good thing was that it took me from Volos (which is by the sea) to the top of a mountain in the middle of the Pelion Peninsula, which is high enough that there's a ski resort there; and then from there it would almost all downhill biking for a good 15-20 miles or so going towards the village of Kissos. The thing is, that bus was leaving in 3 minutes. I rushed to the ticket counter, got a ticket and barely got myself and my bicycle onto the bus (this time there was plenty of room for the bike under the bus). I got off at the village of Hania, which was almost exactly at the top of the ridge. From there I started biking downhill, and it took more than an hour of constant biking down, before I finally hit some uphill and had another hour to get to the village of Kissos. I arrived at the retreat center just in time to take a shower and then have dinner.
I'm going to leave it there for now, so that I can save this post before anything happens since this computer is a bit temperamental. If I don't get the chance to write more tonight, then I'll come back later and explain more about the retreat center that I'm at.
The next day I had to get up early to bicycle back over the island and catch my ferry at 10 am. Things were rather up in the air at that point. I was headed next for the Pelion Peninsula, north of Athens and there was no way to get there without going through Athens, even though I wanted to avoid it (especially considering that it was on fire for a little while). I wasn't exactly sure if I was going to spend that night in Athens. I was hoping that the ferry would get me there early enough that I'd be able to hop on a bus right away, and make it at least partway to my destination, which was about 6 hours by bus in total north of Athens, including a shorter bus ride to get to the smaller village that I was headed for.
The first complication arose when I went to get off the ferry and my bike had a flat tire. And I should mention that the slow leak I'd had on my bike for the past week or so had actually resulted finally in a flat tire the previous day. So that evening, not having the time to try and patch it, I'd replaced the tube with a new tube. So, the new flat was on the brand new tube. The first order of business then was to get that straightened out one way or another, since I didn't know if I might need to do some biking at some point on my way getting to the retreat center, and of course wanted to have the bike in working order.
The other thing was that I had come into a different port from the closer port to Athens of Piraeus, and was a little unsure how long it would take to get there. And, the ferry had been one hour later arriving at Syros, and then had taken longer than I'd expected getting back to the final destination, so I didn't get off that ferry until around 4 in the afternoon. There was a bus going from there into the center of the city, and fortunately I had no problems with the bus driver stowing my bike underneath the bus. On the bus I was then able to figure out where it would be dropping me off, which very conveniently was just a few blocks away from both the hostel I'd stayed at previously, and the bike mechanic that was right nearby.
So, I got off that bus, pumped up the tire just to get me down the street, and headed down to the bike mechanic. By this time it was getting close to 6 pm so I figured I'd be staying in Athens. The mechanic wasn't able to patch that tube for me for some reason (very little English was spoken there) but they were able to install a brand new tube for only about $7, so I went with that. Now I have two tubes with leaks that I'll have to patch at some point. Then I biked over to the hostel, they had room, and so I crashed there for the night.
Next morning I got up early to catch a bus out of Athens heading for Volos, 6th largest city in Greece and the closest large town to the retreat center I was going to on the Pelion Peninsula. Someone from the retreat center had emailed me saying there was a bus leaving Athens at 9:30. Conveniently again, the bus station was just down the street from the hostel.
I arrived at about 9:15 to get on the bus, but that bus was full. The next one was at 11:00. I explained to the ticket person at the counter that I had a bicycle, and they said that wasn't a problem. So around 10:40ish or so they started loading up the bus. As soon as I pointed at the bicycle the man loading the bus made it clear that he was very unhappy about it and, basically, there was no way in hell he was going to load it under the bus. To make a long story short, a commotion ensued, several English-speaking Greek people stepped in to help straighten things out since the man loading the bus spoke no English, and in the end he very relunctantly loaded my bike in and then piled baggage high all over it. Good thing that I was getting off at the final destination.
That bus ended up being late, and so I missed the last bus for the day that was supposed to be taking me from Volos another two hours to the tiny village of Kissos, which was where the retreat center was. To make yet another longish story shorter, through a lucky set of circumstances I ended up running into Jock at the bus station, who is the manager of the retreat center and who I had been emailing with over the past several months. He was there picking someone else up, and had previously offered me a ride, but then was unable to take me with the bicycle. So he told me about another bus that would take me partway to the village of Kissos. And the good thing was that it took me from Volos (which is by the sea) to the top of a mountain in the middle of the Pelion Peninsula, which is high enough that there's a ski resort there; and then from there it would almost all downhill biking for a good 15-20 miles or so going towards the village of Kissos. The thing is, that bus was leaving in 3 minutes. I rushed to the ticket counter, got a ticket and barely got myself and my bicycle onto the bus (this time there was plenty of room for the bike under the bus). I got off at the village of Hania, which was almost exactly at the top of the ridge. From there I started biking downhill, and it took more than an hour of constant biking down, before I finally hit some uphill and had another hour to get to the village of Kissos. I arrived at the retreat center just in time to take a shower and then have dinner.
I'm going to leave it there for now, so that I can save this post before anything happens since this computer is a bit temperamental. If I don't get the chance to write more tonight, then I'll come back later and explain more about the retreat center that I'm at.
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