Chania plus random thoughts

Itinerary

• Ree must have coffee - off to her buddy Stanka for a double shot of yummy. Stanka was very hung over from the night before. Heraklion is a very happening town most nights but Friday night was "epic" (Zoe and Drew use the words epic and awesome in much the same way as normal people breathe in and out). I don't think I would call my daughter Stanka.
• Race to get the Chania bus - make it with 30 secs to spare.
• Bus trip with chatters and the kissy girl.
• Never trust a GPS
• Walk to the old city including Baclava to die for, dehydrating Octopi, losing Drew (we found him), watching carpet weaving, more Baclava and a lovely sunset.

Stanka feeling the coffee vibe

Toilets

In answer to my sister, the toilets are (so far) first class.

We get to Santorini in a couple of days though. Santorini is a flushing the toilet paper no-no land. They claim you can't flush paper because the island is built on a caldera which precludes a more advanced sewage system. If you flush paper the toilets block and that, regardless of cultural background, is bad! So you put your "used" paper in a bin next to the loo for later collection and waste removal. This sounds a tad uncivilized to me and, what's the word......gross.

Hmmmm, I am also a bit sceptical as to "built on a caldera = no flushing" mantra as last year we were in Akaroa (in the South of New Zealand) which is also built on a caldera and flushing was a yes-yes. No problemmo. "Bog standard" so to speak. Never tried it in NZ, but I am pretty sure that leaving soiled toilet paper in a bin next to the toilet would have been, at the least, considered relatively odd and uncouth behaviour.

Lufflee ablution Centre -Photographic evidence for Gina

 

The Cretan paradox

Thought of this today on the bus. I think I first read about it in the much celebrated tome "Godel, Escher and Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid" by the brilliantly named Douglas Hoffstadder. A bit like a "Brief History of Time", the book is a must to read and also utterly unintelligible (at least to me). I think I read it about 6 times in first year Uni, each time understanding even less than the time before. By the last time I was reading it, understanding nothing and forgetting things that weren't even in the book.

But I digress. The famous Cretan Paradox is the The Möbius strip of language logic. The original was written down as

"I am a Cretan"

"All Cretans are liars"

 

It's classic möbius in that it can be true and false at the same time even though it can't.

 

The even tighter newer and non-Cretan version is

"I am lying"

Three words to make a sentence true and false simultaneously. I remember trying to explain this to the kids a few years ago using a twisted belt to make a Möbius strip. They thought I was mental and rapidly returned to doing kids things although they did like the Escher pics. Escher does in art language what the paradox does in word language. Musically you can do the same thing but as I failed piano level 1 due to the combination of no practice and negative talent, I make no further comment.

 

Places we have lost Drew so far

1. Streets of Old Dubai
2. Heraklion - on the street near my lively laundromat
3. Chania - in twisting lanes of old city

When listed like that, another way to think about it would be once per place we have been. He is much better than when he was very little and used to run off at whim. Holidays used to rely on Jeff or Brendan (aka "my bwendan") locating him as he headed off exploring. Now it's mostly because he is so busy talking that he doesn't notice we have all one in a completely different direction to the one he has chosen.

 

 

 

Never trust a GPS - or at least check the destination you type in BEFORE you get to it.

After our bus trip to Chania, we decided to walk to our hotel. It was a lovely afternoon after a peaceful bus trip. Unusually for a Dembo family bus trip, there were no "phantom farters" aboard in our vicinity. Quie a few girls in their 20s. Most Greek girls travel / leave the house, fully made up. Blush,eyeliner, makeup, lipstick etc. even the boys put in an effort. Hair gel etc. If you walk past a group of leather jacketed, undies showing prison jeans, "toughs" on the street, instead of the smell of fear, you get the smell of aftershave and hair product.

So our bus had 3 women one row in front of us who pretty, much spoke non-stop for 3 hours. Even Ree (no slouch in the talk till you drop stakes), was impressed with their consistency. We also had a kissy kissy couple. We made it onto the bus with 30 secs to spare before departure, kissy couple, made it with 1 second to spare (probably outside kissing).

At Chania bus station. "Kissygirl on the left"

Checked the GPS and chuffed with myself declared it was a small walk to the hotel. "Cab Shmab" I said, and off we went.

Trudging to our apartment

Unfortunately the address I entered had been cropped so after poor old Drew lugging (ant like) a bag which weighs the same as him, we realized the GPS had lead us to the city centre and not to our hotel apartment which was in the opposite direction a 10 minute cab ride away ("cab fab" - lovely Mercedes coupe).