I’ve been in Chania today, where it has been very hot. The image above was taken at the bus station at about 10:40, and of course it got hotter thereafter. It was forecast to reach over 40° in mid-afternoon, and I can fully believe it did.
So I just wandered around this morning, with frequent breaks for water and eventually lunch. In the end I decided that I was so hot I might as well go exploring, and I found a stretch of the Byzantine Walls that are being restored/conserved. I read up on them a bit – ‘Byzantine’ put them back into the 7th to 12th centuries, but I discovered that parts of them are older than that. Some of of the lower courses are eastern Roman Empire (4th to 6th centuries), and the lowest courses of all date from the Hellenistic period (pre-Roman) and in fact re-used stones from an even earlier settlement, Kydonia. So there are bits of that wall dating back 2,500 years. I also found a few other bits of picturesque older Chania.
Then at about 2:30 I went back to the hotel for a few hours, away from the heat. After that I went back out and toured round the leather goods shops. At one point I spotted some Japanese women, all dressed up very strangely- the image alongside is of two of them. Cos-play, I wonder? Whatever their reason, I couldn’t help feeling that they must have been very hot in those outfits. I finished this excursion with a beer.
Then it was back to the hotel to shower and change for the evening. I ate in Kritamon again, and afterwards wandered along the harbour. Right at the far end there was a band playing outside the Mediteranean Architectural Centre, which also meant it was also playing alongside a local restaurant, and the diners there didn’t seem to be the band’s biggest fans. Then it was on to Noma for a last drink, and back to the hotel at just after 11:30. Even at 11 o’clock some of the restaurants were still full of diners.
The majority Vietnamese women dress like those Japanese ladies, also in the heat. It’s to keep the sun off, I guess to prevent tanning/sunburn. They cover all parts of the body with face masks and hats and long gloves and socks, despite wearing flip-flops and short sleeved tops.
Thanks. Interesting. I’m not sure that was the case for these two, as there were other Japanese women around that day (who I didn’t get pictures of) who were equally dressed up, but left some skin showing . There was one woman wearing a short-sleeved flowing calf-length dress (very stylish and smart), high heels, a pillbox hat with a little veil and carrying a white parasol, and she looked delightful. And that red pants suit looked very heavy….