So today was all about finally getting to Paleochora; which, since I’m here, I must have managed to do.
I had a morning to walk round Chania and remind myself of all the places I like. I checked out of the hotel (in which, incidentally, I had a perfectly good night – the Hotel Arkadi, right in the centre of Chania – recommended) at 11:45, walked round to the bus station and waited the hour for the bus.
Chania bus station – indeed, all the bus stations I’ve become familiar with in Crete – has always struck me as being disordered and chaotic, with hordes of people rushing hither and thither. Spending an hour just observing the place has brought home that’s its actually perfectly well organised. Each bus has a number, on the windscreen. It’s not a service number, it’s the number of the bus, e.g. 12; 45; or whatever. There’s an electronic notice board that tells you the times the buses are leaving, their destination, and crucially the number of the bus. So there might be hordes of people waiting for a bus to the airport, and one might be scheduled for 30 minutes past the hour. It’ll also say which number the bus will be – 33, say. In the run up to the due time more and more people will be congregating around the concourse, all with luggage, and looking more and more anxious. But at about 25 minutes past the hour, up rolls bus #33 with a load passengers from the airport. There then follow a couple of minutes of real disorganisation as the passengers wanting to get on get mixed up with the newly-arrived passengers getting off. Soon however that’ll be sorted out after which people start loading their bags into the luggage bays under the passenger compartment, people start getting on the bus (having their tickets checked on the way), then at just before 30 minutes past the hour someone starts shouting “last call for the airport bus!” (or words to that effect), and finally the bus pulls out and calm descends – you realise that 40 to 50 people, plus their bags, have been removed from the concourse.
I ought to say that there is also a ticket office with staff who seem to speak good English (and, I suspect, good German) who give unfailingly helpful and accurate advice.
So I went through this process as well and was on the bus at 12:45. The journey took just under two hours, and is split into two sections. First we drove along the north coast, west of Chania, for almost an hour, and then we headed south, across the island and over the mountains for the rest of the journey. The first half was quite boring, the second half was quite dramatic. There’s no doubt that Crete is a very beautiful island. The mountains we crossed were quite small by Cretan standards – off to the east of the route I could see some much higher peaks 10 or 15 miles away; no road through them, I suspect (or none for a bus).
At the end of the journey I had arrived in Paleochora. More about that later.
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