Crete Part IV: Archaeology and Octopi

Refreshing ourselves from the long day before, we started our day with a morning swim in the pool. We decided to take breakfast in the village, and also enjoy a wander around by the light of morning.
The waterfront was very pretty to walk along, with the restaurants that lined the beach getting their chairs and signs out ready for the day. We picked one and random, and I soon found myself dining on fresh orange juice, coffee and a local crunchy bread recipe called dacos, which consisted of chopped tomatoes and feta and herbs generously piled on top of the brown bread - it sounds like a strange breakfast, but it was absolutely delicious.

We left pretty Myrtos behind, and after a brief dip in the ocean to cool ourselves off, we stopped at the archaeological site of Gournia. This ancient Minoan settlement was prospering around 1600 BC and is interesting due to the insight it provides into every day life at that time. Like most ancient sites, there is a clear geographical hierarchy seen here, with the palace built at the top of the hill with houses spilling down from it. Although many of these buildings had once been two stories, little but the foundations were left. However I really enjoyed this site for how intact the foundations actually were, with a strong delineation between houses and streets allowing for a really clear idea of the layout of the town and how it must have once looked. 

The name of the site itself was also interesting, as no information remains on what the inhabitants themselves called the town, it was named instead in modern day by the excavating archaeologists. One of the defining features of this town were the strange indented bowls we found in many of the houses (which I clearly found very exciting) these were in fact water troughs (though Necia and I had wondered at first if they were cooking up a storm with giant mortar and pestles) that are commonly known as 'gournes' or 'gourni' hence the naming of the town. There was hardly anyone else on the site and it only cost 2 euro, making it a place well worth visiting! There was however no shade at all within the ruins, so I recommend sunscreen and water, as it became very hot.

Archaeological adventuring completed, we headed for a little seaside village called Mochlos. We stopped at the first accomodation we found and checked in no problem, which made for a pleasant change from the debacle in Myrtos the night before.
We spent a small amount of time wandering the pretty little village and taking in its sights, enjoying the sea slapping against the rocks. The heart of the town lay at the small harbour, and tavernas dotted the oceanside. We however, already had food for our lunch, and soon retired back to our apartment for lunch on the balcony. Feasting on fresh bread that we had found on our travels by following our noses to a bakery, we enjoyed our fare of feta and olive tapenade and fresh cucumber, washed down with cold Rosé and finished off with Greek chocolate. The whole affair took a good few hours and we had to retire in the late afternoon for a well deserved nap!

By the time we roused ourselves, it was dinnertime, and we decided to make our way into the village to scope out the tavernas. Like any typical Greek village, it had come alive at night and the tavernas were bustling (always a good sign of which ones to go to). We found a lovely place on the corner by the ocean which was not only busy, but also had gorgeous little displays of fresh veggies out (and an octopus hanging on the line!) the staff were lovely as well, so we happily sat ourselves down. The menu was interestingly in English, German and French, and we noticed some of the staff were happily chatting with some french tourists in French too. Why this was such a hotspot of french activity, we never found out. The food provided was delicious and we also tried zucchini flowers, which were rather interesting. We were given fresh fruit for complimentary dessert, and were soon polishing off the nicest grapes I have ever eaten!

Feeling completely full and rather satisfied, we retired for the night.
In the morning we headed off for Sitia, though first for a dip in the ocean at a beach along the way which strangely enough appeared to be a resort catering only to German tourists. Moving on we arrived in Sitia and found a nice place for lunch to kill the time. We mentioned to our waiter that our ferry was at 2 and he airily told us that if it was at 2, it would probably arrive at 6. And how right he was! Our ferry was unfortunately totally delayed, leaving us with a day of waiting and cafe hopping as we used the internet and tried to kill time. Finally the ferry arrived and we headed off towards Karpathos, which would be the seventh Greek island I had visited!