October 13: Chania
We’d wanted a day to explore Chania before setting off on our hikes. In retrospect, maybe we didn’t need it; Chania is so touristed up these days, there’s very little interesting about it. The one thing Chris actually wanted to see–the Maritime Museum–was closed on Sunday. Maybe we were just peevish from two days in Santorini.
No matter! The waterfront is always pretty, and the weather was balmy. A relaxing Sunday wasn’t a terrible prospect.
We made our way over to Nea Chora, “new place”, a little harbor just to the west of the main Old Town one. Nea Chora a popular place for local families to eat seafood on weekend afternoons.
We located Manos, easy to find because of its massive tables full of family groups ordering their Sunday lunches. We did likewise.
Kyriakis had been very clear about what we needed to order. We should get boiled octopus, marinated anchovies, mixed vegetables, and definitely barbouni (red mullet). But we also wanted a horiatiki, and Chris wanted to try fava, the yellow split pea purée. The portions are clearly intended for groups of at least six, more likely eight or ten. Seafood restaurants aimed at a local market don’t deal in tiny portions of anything.
We ended up compromising. We got the marinated anchovies, but not the boiled octopus. We had enough vegetables with our massive salad.
For the barbouni, I asked if we might, just possibly, have a half portion. This unusual request had to go all the way to Manos himself, but he graciously approved it.
It’s days like this that I really miss my massive New Orleans extended family. We never lacked for participants at Sunday dinners. Dining this way as a couple feels woefully inadequate.
After this massive lunch, we hardly needed dessert, but I do love galataboureko, and Kyriakis had assured us that Perathorakis made the best galataboureko in the known universe. There was the small matter that he insisted that they sold this confection only by the tray, and we had no idea what we’d do with an entire tray of Greek custard pie, but we thought we’d figure it out when we got there.
After a few minutes of wandering around the area just south of the Nea Chora waterfront, not especially helped by Apple Maps (which claimed the bakery was in a place where it clearly was not) and by my guess at the spelling of the name (entirely phonetic), we found it–Perathorakis
As it turned out, they make tiny galataboureko bites in addition to full trays. This was ideal! We bought two, ate them on the spot, and agreed that they were indeed contenders for the title of best galataboureko ever.
The rest of the day we took easy. Our local contact from Trekking Hellas, Eleni, met us at the hotel that evening to go over details of our hike. (When a Cretan guide says that they don’t hike a certain section of trail because “it’s very exposed,” pay attention–and be prepared for at least some of the acceptable sections to be mildly hair-raising!)
We went out for a bit to stroll around the Old Town. We bought traditional Cretan knives for the kids. We got ice cream.
In need of no more food that day, we retired to our hotel. There, we watched the OG Carrie, with Sissy Spacek and John Travolta. Groovy!