Late September in Sitia, Crete - Part One

In late September I had to travel to eastern Crete for work, taking the ferry from Rhodes to Sitia. Hours before I was due to leave, Lisa developed a problem with her ear and needed to see the vet in Rhodes. So I took her along.

Since none of the taxis at the port in Rhodes would take a dog (or maybe they didn't like the look of me...), I walked with my backpack – plus Lisa’s dog food, as if she was going to eat any of that stuff – across the old town and all the way to the vet’s.

It was just as well: he found a length of sharp dry grass deep piercing her ear drum. He put her to sleep while he buried his arm in her ear to pluck it out. His office managed to book us a cab that would take me and a very groggy dog back to the port. She was still sleepy when the ferry arrived, and I had to carry her on board and up all the steps to the top deck dogs’ accommodation. The vet had just weighed her: twenty kilos.

The Preveli reminded me how lucky we are to have the good ship Diagoras. No cosy couches here; and the dogs’ pens were cold and noisy and far away from human contact. There were just two dogs, shaky and shivery… It was hard to leave Lisa there for the night. I wished I could put her back to sleep.

But it was warm and sunny when we arrived, early morning, in Sitia.

My work in Crete involved taking the bus straight to Ierapetra on the south coast. But according to the bus company, there was no way that was going to happen unless I bought a cage for Lisa and put her in the hold with the luggage. There are indeed days when Lisa deserves to be locked up in a cage…. But not when she was on antibiotics and painkillers for a healing ear drum, had just endured a cold night on the Preveli and been welcomed to Sitia by some hard-looking canines.

The Preveli was going back to Rhodes that afternoon. I had a few hours to decide whether to try staying in Sitia for three days, or go straight back, another twelve hours on the ship and all for nothing. Finally a car rental office called Minoan (I wondered if they were authentic Minoan cars?) came to our rescue. 

When I walked into his office, weary from hefting my backpack to the bus station and all around town after a fairly sleepless night, Michalis smiled at Lisa and she jumped up and put her two front paws on his desk. Out of kindness (and not just to get us out of his office, I’m sure) he rang around and managed to find a hotel that would take us. It turned out to be a great hotel, right in the middle of the beachfront of town, called the Itanos. So I decided we’d stay. The nice young chap at reception fed Lisa an almond.

Is Lisa a spoiled dog, staying in one of the best hotels in town? 

I think we’re all spoiled in Tilos. I found myself looking at the lovely long beach on the edge of Sitia and thinking, ‘Well, it would have been nice if they hadn’t built a road next to it.’ Not just any road, but one full of speeding lorries. But we braved it that afternoon to have a look at Petras, a kilometre east.

Sitia might not be blessed with tranquil beaches, but it is rather spoiled when it comes to ancient sites. So much so that you don’t even have to pay to get in to Petras, a place that was occupied continuously from 2500 to 1400 BC. It had earlier been used for production of purple dye from shells in the early Minoan period. In later times wine and pottery were made here. The remains reveal an ancient two-storey warehouse which once had massive pillars covered in red plaster, and storage rooms for rows of huge jars.

It was here they found the best preserved hieroglyphic archive of Minoan Crete – the inventory tablets and official seals of the palace. Also, one of those mundane details that really bring ancient sites to life, they found cups and bowls that the personnel used for taking snacks to work. Their lunchboxes.

Later, we walked across the town and out towards the headland to the west, a scrappy area with oddly expensive-looking houses and unfriendly faces. Coming back to town, I saw people swimming off the rocks near the entrance to the harbour; just below the road, it wasn’t beautiful but might be a good place to let Lisa go in the sea, since she wasn’t allowed on the town beach.

‘Apogoreveteh!!’ shouted nasty women at the water’s edge, waving their arms. They could at least have been nicer about it, since I clearly didn’t know. Upset, I wondered if I'd made a mistake staying. What I couldn’t understand is that the place seemed full of dogs! Wherever we went, stray dogs followed us or yappy dogs barked from balconies. Maybe that was why they had to be banned from the sea.

I walked down the seafront past busy cafes, wondering where we’d be welcome. Eventually I sat down in the corner of a rakadiko, like an ouzeri but for raki, called Oinodeion, and drank some good local wine, and felt better. I ordered makarounes, soft local pasta, with anthotyro, comforting and delicious.

Small islands like Tilos are relaxing, I think, because of the simplicity: you’re not faced with lots of choices of where to go – and you can go everywhere if you like, on foot, with nature all around you. In Sitia I find myself staring endlessly at the map with all its different roads, and thinking about what do when I rent my genuine Minoan car, and how much traffic there will be. Then I wonder about putting it off for a day.

Passing a souvlaki place, I get waylaid by Drunken Yiannis, who insists on buying me a beer. I’ve barely escaped when I’m stopped in the street by an old Greek who lives in Sweden and insists on telling me he’s still good friends with his children’s mother. It’s beginning to feel a bit like speed dating, Sitia-style.

I then get lost, but by way of bonus find myself at a fantastic little traditional cheese shop called Kouvarakis that sells yoghurt, staka and a typical Sitian cheese called xygalo. Xygalo, according to their leaflet, is 'a cheese dating back to Minoan times' (hmm, that's a seriously old cheese). Made of goats' or sheep's milk, it's light and sourish-tasting - the name comes from the word for acidic - it was mentioned in Pliny's Natural History. 

The shop owner tells me the Sitia food festival starts on Friday evening. Things are definitely looking up.

... Tune in for more of my Cretan adventure tomorrow!

Minoan: minoan_cars@yahoo.gr

Cheese shop: www.kouvarakis.gr