והאבן להם חומה, מימינם ומשמאלם

Apologies for missing last week’s post—I will make it up in a few weeks with extra posting. I just returned from hiking the Imbroe Gorge in Crete, hence the title. Yes, hiking between two solid walls of rock makes me both feel very small, and overwhelmed with the power of tectonic plates. The plan is to hike the Samaria Gorge tomorrow—hopefully I’m not too sore!

Last week, I (finally!) got to go scuba diving in Greece. When scuba diving in Thailand, you get to see gorgeous marine life. When scuba diving in Greece you get to see complex geological formations, like caverns and stone chimney stacks, 2500 year-old pottery, and a 2000 year-old anchor. My dive master is part of the Antikethyria project, which returns to the wreck site where the Antikethyria mechanism, a 2^nd century B.C.E computer-like device, was found. He and a team of other technical divers join with archaeologists to explore the wreck, and recover artifacts, including human remains from 2200 years ago. I was pretty impressed.  This was my first ever cold water dive, and I was pretty proud of myself for diving in 18 degree celsius water in only a 5mm wetsuit (everyone else had on a minimum of 7mm or a dry suit)

I also visited Etz Hayyim, the one remaining synagogue in Henia. There is, quite literally, one Jewish Cretan who survived the Holocaust, and he dedicated himself to preserving this synagogue. It’s quirky, with a chandelier loaded with tchotchkes in the middle of the sanctuary, and a mikveh out back with stagnant water in it. The backyard has the remains of a few communal rabbis. They have what they call a Havurah, composed of both Jewish and non-Jewish community members, which meets every Friday night. Apparently the local NATO base provides many of the Jewish congregants. I had been planning on going there Friday night, but was too exhausted after a day trip to Elafanisi beach.

 Elafanisi is gorgeous and huge. It’s consistently ranked as one of the top ten most beautiful beaches in the world. There is both a beach and an island, connected by a narrow strip of sand. The island is big enough that I got lost on it (then again, that may not be saying much). The trip also included a hike to the Agia Sofia cave (stalactites!) and sampling of locally made honey from thyme plants.

Backing up to Chios and Athens…

When I took the overnight boat from Ko Tao, I did not know what to expect, and walked into a room filled with rows of bunk beds, clothed in orange sheets. When I walked onto the overnight boat from Chios to Piraeus, I once again didn’t know what to expect. The experience could not have been more different. Above a large storage room for our luggage, there were luxury escalators to take us to the seating compartments upstairs. There, were room after room of  lounge chairs and couches surrounding coffee tables. In the middle of the boat was first a gift shop, which even had some English language reading material, followed by a café. Deck numbers two and three had theater-style seating around televisions. And there I was concerned that there wouldn’t be any heat on the boat. Ha! This is superior to an Amtrak train--it’s like a cruise.

I packed a lot into my one day in Athens, including getting to the Acropolis half an hour after it opened, and avoiding the crowds, spending several hours at the Acropolis museum, seeing Hadrian’s Arch (this side: the ancient city of Theseus. This side: the modern city of Hadrian) and Olympus’s temple, and visiting a museum dedicated to ancient Greek technology. Admiring Hadrian’s architecture truly seemed like the best way to intentionally avoid celebrating the Israeli government’s establishment of Yom HaShoah.

Unfortunately, my boat from Athens to Crete was not quite as luxurious. I wound up sharing a stretch of couch with some other twenty-something’s, and not sleeping particularly well. Ah, well.

Chios, which keeps getting autocorrected to chips or chaos, is about as adorable as isolated Greek island can get. First impressions: the air is clear, the Aegean Sea looks calm and inviting, there is greenery and wildflowers everywhere. Two houses down from my AirBnB was the Pinaleon Taverna that could have fallen off the pages of Eat, Pray, Love: stone and plaster wall around the edge, bamboo ceilings, woven wooden baskets hanging from the bamboo, potted plants and seashells decorating the outer windowsill, and iron pots and forks around the inner wall. A large old-school iron furnace in the center of the restaurant, which was only necessary at night, red wooden chairs with woven straw seats, and the owners schmoozing with some locals on the front steps. I got my first Greek salad and spanakopita, and immediately considered dropping out of life, and permanently moving to Chios. The only thing holding me back is irregular internet access, and the difficulty of getting around without a car.

As I wandered around the island, I noticed a few interesting things. The first was an abandoned military installation near Karfas, the beach where I was staying. I was tramping along through someone’s property, and noticed some barbed wire. I looked behind me, and there was a gunnery sticking out of a covered base. I walked around it from the other side and saw a bunker behind it. It looked like it was from sometime between the 40s-70s, but I’m not so good about dating military equipment. I also saw my first ever Syrian refugee camp from a distance, as I was not permitted to enter.

*Title comes from the Song of the Sea, Exodus 14:22. Except that my walls are rocks.