Greetings from the lovely town of Chania!
Chania is in Crete, the biggest of the Greek islands. I've walked around a little last night when I arrived (Day 0) and today (Day 1) after my tango lesson. I haven't had that much time to really see Chania, so I'll start with telling you about my trip.
I started my trip from Turku early in the morning. The city busses weren't running that early so I took a taxi to the bus station. Expressbus is the "national" bus company.
**You can find the bus Expresbus site here, but if you need to get to all of the bus operators (f.e. when traveling to small towns), you need to search in Matkahuolto (see link). Through Matkahuolto you can also send packages and such. **
I was quite tired (because I couldn't stay away from a dance thing the night before:) so I guess I snored on the bus to Helsinki-Vantaa airport :/ ....zzzz... In Helsinki I met a friend of mine and we had coffee.
My first leg of the trip was from Helsinki to Stockholm, where I spent about four hours or so... Arlanda airport is not so comfortable: not enough nice seats, no place to plug in your computer. Luckily they had Finnish coffee at
Robert's Coffee ;)
**Finns and Swedes the most coffee per capita and there's a classic dispute about who's coffee is better.... I prefer ours to the Swedish Löfbergs Lila:)**
So from Arlanda airport I was transported (by the very punctual and efficient
Norwegian!) to Chania in about 3,5 hours. From the airport I took the public bus to Chania city center, which cost me 2,30€ (about 15km).
I'm staying at
Hotel Arkadi, quite ok but not as nice as the photos... The location is good and also the view from the balcony. I booked through
www.booking.com. I'm paying about 42€/night, including breakfast and Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi wasn't working yesterday or this morning, but now it's better.
My first night I went over the street to get something to eat, so I ended up at
Goody's. Nice food and nice service! Then I pretty much hit the sack and got some much needed sleep.
Today (Sunday, Day 1) a friend of
Dimitris and Frini picked me up for a tango lesson in Tabakaria. The studio "Studio ON" is in a very lovely place by the sea, the floor is very good for dancing! We were about ten people and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming. What a great opportunity to really focus on small things that make the whole tango thing work... Hopefully I will go home a better dancer!:)
After the lesson the gang went to have dinner together and I was also invited to join. The food was good, I ordered a traditional Greek pita gyros with chicken and tzatziki. Afriend gave me some of his barbecued lamb and it was really good! But it seemed weird to have that because it was prepared over charcoal, which I strongly associate with summer - but it's only Easter! And there's snow in Finland! During the meal I tried to listen and learn a little Greek.
My vocab consists now of:
parakalo (please),
kalimera (good morning),
kalispera (good evening),
Ne (yes),
ohi (no),
edo (here, pronounced
[eˈðo]),
entaksi (okay),
afto (this). Also numbers
1-5 and the useful phrase "I don't speak Greek" -->
[Then me loo ellenikaa]. Yay! Continuing my learning (both tango and Greek) tomorrow!:)
Kali nichta = Good night!
