"It's all Greek to me"

I understand this saying now that I've spent a little time in Greece. The Greek alphabet is impossible to make heads or tails of. Your basic street sign has Greek lettering first, second is the Greek word represented using the Latin alphabet. Sometimes a third word is listed, translating the word into English. If the third word isn't there, getting around can be tricky. I'd say road signs are somewhat scarce to begin with, which is why it took three tries to find Mili Gorge.

Today we went to Chania, the next big town to our east, for a look round before heading up into the hills to visit with some Belfast friends who have a second home in the small town of Vamos, near Chania. We started the day by going into Rethymnon to book a trip tomorrow to Santorini. So here are the streets behind our hotel:

We are a few blocks from Old Town, which has tourist shops and restaurants on the ground floor and lovely architecture above. In between us and Old Town is a neighbourhood where people live.

Near the bottom of the hill, one house had a wide window, whose shutters were folded back to reveal an elderly woman on a bed facing the window. She looked very peaceful. On the sidewalk outside her window sat an elderly man with rosary beads in his hand, I'm assuming keeping vigil. It seems to me a better way to leave this world than in a hospital or nursing home.
So Chania's old town is just as charming as Rethymnon's.

It also has a port:

Although you can't tell from my photos, the streets of Chania were jammed with people from tour boats. While Rethymnon's tourists are predominantly German, Greek and English, Chania's tourists seemed to be largely American. And we saw our first Starbucks, also our first American brand at all.

Our friends in Vamos are the minister from All Souls and his wife, Chris and Isabella, who visit Crete twice a year for a few weeks at a time. We enjoyed getting their view of Crete and we enjoyed a fine dinner at their favourite restaurant. One of the big topics of dinner conversation was whether or not it is OK to rewrite traditional hymns with modern lyrics that have a broader interpretation of spirituality (I was outvoted on this one). Isabella and I are both in the choir, so this is something we think about.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned how much we are enjoying: fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, feta cheese, yoghurt, honey, wine, olive oil, spinach pies (not spanakopita--something else), moussaka, babaganoush (with walnuts!), and pastichio. The food has been a major highlight.
9/25