Chaniá, Crete

We took an overnight ferry from Athens to Chaniá, Crete. Chaniá, which is also transliterated from the Greek “Χανιά” as Hania, Xania, and Khaniá (making it confusing for tourists reading the maps and guidebooks), has a rich history that spans Minoan, Byzantine, Venetian, and Ottoman eras. During World War II, the city of Chaniá was invaded and occupied by German forces.

The ferry crossing from Athens to Chaniá takes 9 hours so we reserved a cabin in order to be able to get some rest. Sleeping in the bunk beds on the boat was a big highlight for the kids.

We arrived a bit groggy at 5:30am in a port with a few vending machines, telephones and public conveniences. A short walk from the terminal, we found a bus to take us into Chania’s Old Town.

Despite being heavily bombed during World War II, Chania's Old Town is considered the most beautiful urban district on Crete, especially the Venetian harbour.

We spent some time walking through the narrow alleyways.

While the adults were marvelling at the beauty of the Old Town of Chania…

The kids were looking forward to stopping for some juice and ice cream.

The Acropolis

“Acropolis” (Greek: Ακρόπολη) means "highest city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as “Citadel” (akros, akron, edge, extremity + polis, city, pl. acropoleis). The most famous example is the Acropolis of Athens, which, by reason of its historical associations and the several famous buildings erected upon it (most notably the Parthenon), is known without qualification as The Acropolis. (Wikipedia)

We carried three guidebooks with us in Greece – two for the adults and one for the children. The guidebook that we brought for the children provided some great details about life in Ancient Greece and before visiting the Acropolis, the kids had a general idea of the rich history which helped them to appreciate this famous site.

Even though young children are not fond of museums in general, our kids did enjoy the Acropolis Museum; especially the glass floor that allowed them to peer below to the remains of an ancient city underneath the museum.

For fear of the heat at the Acropolis during the day, we arrived at the top at 5:30pm when it was still hot but less suffocating.

The kids wanted to spend some time sketching the ruins while we walked around admiring the details and the way that the colors of the ancient buildings change as the sun sets.

 

The views from the Acropolis provides a sense of the size of Athens.

We left when the Acropolis was closing for the day.

Athens (Αθήνα)

Athens, the capital and largest city in Greece, is one of the world's oldest cities with a recorded history that spans around 3,400 years. (Wikipedia)

I had visited Athens back in 1992 for less than a day and after the few hours that I spent in the city, I was not impressed. Too much traffic, congestion, and pollution. However, my opinion of the city was radically changed after this past visit. As a result of the huge investments in urban transformation to host the Olympic Games in 2004 (estimated at over €10 billion), Athens is a very different city than it was less than a decade ago.

Monastiraki Square

Upon arrival in Greece, we took the train/metro from the Athens airport to Monastiraki Square. After a 9-hour sleepless, overnight flight, exiting the metro station into the lively square was a nice eye-opener.

“The former heart of Ottoman Athens, Monastiraki is still home to the bazaar and market stalls selling everything from junk to jewellery. [...] Monastiraki mixes the atmospheric surroundings of ancient ruins with the excitement of bargaining in the bazaar".

From "Greece - Athens and the Mainland" (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

Arriving at the Monastiraki Square under the shadow of the Acropolis

Remains from Hadrian’s Library (built in AD 132) right next to the metro station

View of the Acropolis from Hadrian’s Library

A man selling “koulouria”, the Greek version of a bagel

A video of the kids’ favourite cherry salesman. They repeated his “cherry chant” for days!

We stayed at a hotel in Monastiraki which wasn’t fancy but still had a great view of the Acropolis from our balcony.

Athen’s famous flea market is situated in Monastiraki.

A video of the hustle and bustle of the flea market.

There is an abundance of places to eat outdoors in Monastiraki and the adjoining Plaka district.

And even though we have pigeons back home, the kids enjoyed spending some time with the Greek breed.

Have Backpack – Will Travel

When our year in Costa Rica was coming to a close around April/May, we started researching options for travel in Central America for a week or two before heading back up north to Canada. Our shortlist of countries consisted of Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Panama. However, safety issues deterred us from travelling with the kids to Guatemala and we found that plane tickets were pricey flying to Nicaragua or Panama from Costa Rica. (There was also the option of travelling overland from Costa Rica to either of the two neighbouring countries but Gabriel gets carsick quite easily and we felt that he had endured enough long car journeys over the last 12 months.) With Central American travel being out of the equation, we focused our research on the rest of the globe.

Europe

We started brainstorming the possibility of taking the kids to the place where we met to celebrate our anniversary. Mélanie is a black belt at working the travel websites and found some options to fly to either Belgium or Greece at very reasonable rates from Montréal. The timing for Greece worked better for us so we booked a charter flight from Montréal to Athens, and informed the kids that we would be backpacking in the Greek Islands for two weeks. (A screening of the movie “Mamma Mia!”, which was filmed on the islands of Skopelos and Skiathos, helped them visualize the destination.)

The bags that we brought are small enough to have them categorized as “day packs” rather than “backpacks”.

Each of our kids had their own little bag to carry some toys and a book. Naimah’s bag was so small that it could contain just her blanket and two Barbie dolls.   

With only the first two nights in Athens booked, we headed to Greece with some guidebooks in hand and a completely open itinerary.

How I Met Your Mother

In the 1995 Hollywood movie, "Before Sunrise", a North American tourist in Europe played by Ethan Hawke falls for a French woman played by Julie Delpy. At the end of the movie, the audience is left wondering what happens to the couple. Here is the real-life version…

Mélanie and I met in Bruges, Belgium 15 years ago on June 28, 1995 while traveling in Europe for the summer. Originally, our paths were only meant to cross for two brief nights - two nights out of a romance novel spent talking next to the windmills along the canals. Since the itineraries for our trips would not find us in the same locations on the same dates, we both doubted that we would ever see each other again. Well, the romance novel was only meant to begin there. Arriving in Luxembourg the following day and yearning to see her again, I left a message for Mélanie at the only hotel that I knew in Amsterdam for her to meet me in Greece in a month. Perhaps destiny was smiling on us because even though Mélanie was not staying at that hotel, she somehow received the message and sent me a reply at a hotel in Paris. A month later, we met up on the Greek island of Corfu on the agreed upon date and then spent the next two and a half weeks traveling together throughout Greece, Spain, and France.

It took crossing an ocean to find each other and now we love travelling together with our “little backpackers”.

Life Purpose and Longevity

Meaning of our blog title “Pura Vida, eh?”

While we were living in Costa Rica during the past year, the title of our blog was “Pura Vida, eh?”. “Pura Vida” literally translates to "pure life", but the meaning is closer to "full of life", "purified life", "this is living!", "going great", or "cool!". Costa Ricans use the phrase as both a greeting and a farewell, to express satisfaction, or to politely express indifference when describing something. The phrase is used to express a philosophy of strong community, perseverance, resilience in overcoming difficulties with good spirits, enjoying life slowly, and celebrating good fortune of magnitudes small and large alike. (Wikipedia)

“Eh?” is a phrase that is commonly associated with Canadians. “Eh?” is often added to the end of questions asked by Canadians to confirm the attention of the listener and to invite a supportive noise. It essentially is an interjection meaning, "I'm checking to see you're listening so I can continue." "Eh" can also be added to the end of a declarative sentence to turn it into a question. Sometimes Canadians use “eh?” throughout sentences and they don't even know when they're doing it, eh? (Wikipedia)

Change of our blog title to “Plan de Vida”

To mark our departure from Costa Rica, we decided to change the title of our blog with this 100th post.

Some background on the name “Plan de Vida”…

A Blue Zone is a region of the world where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100 years. Scientists and demographers have classified these longevity hot-spots by having common healthy traits and life practices that result in higher-than-normal longevity. The name Blue zone seems to be first employed in a scientific article by a team of demographers working on centenarians in Sardinia in 2004.

In 2007, the Blue Zones team visited the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, a place with a cluster of the longest-lived people in the Americas. On the second day of their expedition, they interviewed a centenarian whose “Plan de Vida” (Life Purpose) keeps him going strong.

Part of our family’s “Plan de Vida” is to travel the world to enjoy the many wonderful places, cultures, traditions, and people. If we can help those individuals less fortunate than us in other areas of the world at the same time, our voyages and experiences are even more gratifying.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Hasta Luego

It is not easy to say goodbye after growing close to so many wonderful people. The kids found it harder than they expected to leave their school and friends. It really takes a full year to settle into a different community, culture, and school, and once you find your groove, it is time to leave. Here are some pictures from our last few days in Costa Rica.

Last day of uniforms (Gabriel made sure to get his pants even more filthy for the finale. Those pants stayed in Costa Rica so that the bacteria growing on them can apply for permanent residency.)

Gabriel with his teacher, Ana Carolina, in front of his classroom

Gabriel’s “Primer Grado” (Grade 1) class

Léah with her teacher

Léah`s “Tercer Grado” (Grade 3) class

Léah with some of the other girls in her class

Last playdate with Gabby

Hamming it up with Henri

As the taxi taking us to the airport pulled out of our driveway, we nearly ran over this Fer-de-lance waiting to say goodbye outside of our gate.