chania day 2

today was day trip day, though we found out last night the road to Balos was closed, so 3/4 things intact.  headed out on the highway then south into the mountains and an anciet roman city of polirinia. it was basically spread out over this mountainside, with lots of construction going on along the base, mostly paved walk ways and such.  with no guide we headed up the path and past cisterns, walls and a roman aquaduct.

  up high on the hill we could see more walls lining the side and spiraling around, as we marched up and up and around and around.  the first break was a church, just out of no where, and it had a small locals cemetery with recent pictures of the deceased on top.  from the church we spiraled around  until we came to a second church, and a goat gate, which we closed behind us. 

 the path wound up and up, and through the tall weeds we'd see bits and pieces and more walls, a tower at one point, a gate, another tower, and finally we reached the highest point the path went, though not the highest point of the hill, whose peak stood above us.  the path continued down, and further down the slope we saw more walls, another tower.  we decided without knowing how much further it went to head back the way we came, running into a few tourists as they begun their hike.  it was a very neat site that could have been helped greatly with a map to follow along.  oh well.

from polirinia we head back on the highway and through kissamos, and finally to the west coast of the island.  from up high, the water was emerald to aqua colored and resembled waters from the carribean.  we drove to the bottom following the signs to ancient falasarna, which eventually lead us through an olive grove on a dirt road.  when we arrived, the damn thing was closed.  we got out and looked at things visible through the fence and then headed out for a tasty lunch at Spilios.  then we went down to the beach and swam a bit.  the water was cold, but not freezing, and felt great.

with much time to spare, we drove to the town of Ano Vouves, home to the worlds oldest olive tree.  the thing was an old spiraling twisted thing, that is over 3000 years old.

then we headed back on the highway and back to Chania, where we took a brief excursion to the tomb of the most legendary cretan, Eleftheros Venizelos, a revolutionary President who was a hero to many.  from the small park on top of a hill, the entirty of Chania spread out before us.  after spending the day before walking inside of it, it was awesome to see it from a distance.  the day will end with a dinner at a place next to our hotel called Nereus.