We continued our vacation not far from Heraklion, the capital. The opportunity to do some summer look shoots, and to discover the surrounding area!
Arrival in Skalani
Life is very quiet in Skalani. The man you see in the foreground drank his morning coffee in... 45 minutes. As busy city dwellers, this pace of life does us a lot of good.
Let's be honest: there isn't much to do in Skalani , because it's a small village of 1,000 inhabitants. The inhabitants, mostly elderly, lead a peaceful life there. There is real life outside, they drink their coffee in the village square and set up barbecues in the evening. Surprisingly, for a village of this size, the restaurants are well stocked and huge (but very uncrowded).
Fortunately, there was the swimming pool...
Geoffrey is wearing La Comédie Humaine pants and a Cuisse de Grenouille shirt.
I assure you that in real life, this shirt is awesome. You can't see it in the photo, but the material used is a magnificent Japanese oxford (really).
The sleeves are fitted, and I was very pleasantly surprised by the cut refined to the millimeter. Cuisse de Grenouille is clearly building its status as an indispensable brand.
The pants are very well cut and well fitted. The material is elegant and versatile. Note the small system in the pocket that prevents your phone from getting locked.
But while we were coming out of a week in the very center of Rethymno with bars and clubs everywhere, Skalani seemed very calm to us... In the evening, we decided to go to Heraklion, which is in a way the capital of Crete...
Nightlife in Heraklion
The glasses of wine served are enormous,
we are a long way from the small 12.5 cl balloon of French red.
Well, like in Rethymno, we have fun in the evening in Heraklion. The bars and clubs are of very good quality, spacious, well decorated, and with excellent service . We particularly liked the Xalavro club (sorry, but couldn't find a picture or website), a large open-air bar in ancient ruins right in the city center.
Everything confirms the excellent impression I had about Cretan nightlife (developed in my previous article ).
Going out in the evening is cool, but it's time to explore the surroundings of Heraklion!
Once again, mixing beige with blue is a combination that works every time.
Geoffrey is wearing a Marchand Drapier t-shirt and pants from La Comédie Humaine.
As for Nicolas, he is wearing a very well-cut La Comédie Humaine shirt (I'll get to that in a moment) and pants that he brought back from Thailand. I’ll spare you the brand of our glasses 😉
I'm wearing Marchand Drapier chinos (I love these pants: they're very, very well cut), an Atamé bracelet and a Melinda Gloss shirt. About this shirt, I repeat myself, but Melinda Gloss remains a reliable brand when it comes to making casual shirts that are not a derivative of a chambray or an oxford. It is super light and in a surprisingly very soft fabric. Geoffrey also has the same one in another color:
It's a shirt in size... 36! La Comédie Humaine cuts small shapes extremely well, think about it if you are having trouble finding a very nice shirt in size 36... Besides, I think they will go down in size even more.
Special feature of these shirts: the collar is removable.
The material is really beautiful and “silky” in the light.
The ascent of Mount Juktas (by Geoffrey)
I really liked the hike in the Samaria gorges , and when I arrived in the village of Skalani, the big rocky Crete just opposite intrigued me a lot (I learned later that it was Mount Juktas, and that it is a sacred place which was connected to the palace of Knossos in ancient times).
I said as a joke " it would be really cool to climb it, I'm sure it can be done in a day ", and then they thought I was crazy... except our friend Valentin Van Nhutt (aka Van Butt), who is still much more crazy than me .
View of Mount Juktas.
At the moment, it's still far away
and I tell myself that I was a little too clever...
A quick look at Google Maps made us estimate the distance at around ten kilometers as the crow flies. We said to ourselves that it would be doable, except that we didn't expect to deal with many elevation changes, including one of 600m...
So we decided to get up at 5 a.m. two days later, with just a compass, liters of water, cans of tuna and almonds. We chose high-calorie foods with slow assimilation to be able to carry more water in the bags. We suspected that it was water that would run out the quickest!
Glasses, shoes, sunscreen: here we go! We started by going down into a basin, the air getting cooler with each step. And we could smell the olive trees and the earth perfectly, at this time when everything is still still, without drafts.
Coming out of the basin, Mount Juktas appears. No idea of the viability of our project, but only one way to find out...
It is a real pleasure to see the sun rise little by little, in such a magnificent landscape, bathed in the scents of fig, grape, olive and lavender.
We then ventured into a gorge: it seemed to be the most direct route to reach the foot of the mountain. We passed an aqueduct, and hunters who were training their dogs by commanding them to the sound of their whistles.
After 6 or 7 km, and 2 hours of walking, it was already becoming difficult to avoid the Cretan sun, which crushes you like a fly! We therefore hurried to leave the large sunny hills, to arrive as quickly as possible at the foot of Mount Juktas.
Here, we can clearly see the entire gorge that we took .
We then began the ascent.
Very quickly, we realized that the simplest path... is paradoxically the steepest! Because only rocks that are steep enough are not colonized by rock plants, real cacti that tear up your legs. It is in fact nature's only defense against wild goats which eat everything in their path.
So we climbed 600m in height, in a straight line, with a slope of around 60 or 70 degrees. But it was full of good holds and the rock was not crumbly, so we were able to move forward quite quickly, and in 1h30 we were at the top without having put ourselves in danger.
And once at the top: the treat. A breathtaking view of the entire coastline surrounding Heraklion, the Cretan capital. And on each side of Mount Juktas: a cliff with a breathtaking view of the coastal plains. Above our heads there were even eagles soaring on the warm air currents. The sun was also becoming much more bearable, thanks to the 600m of altitude that we had just gained.
The rocky ridge further away seemed even higher. And I wanted to see up close what I imagined would be a relay for telecoms. So we went there after a well-deserved lunch break: the best can of tuna in oil of my entire life!
Throughout our stay, the goats accompanied us. We even saw the males fighting each other with loud blows of their horns.
When suddenly, we came across an archaeological site from the Minoan era (between 2,700 and 1,200 BC)! The Minoan civilization is very old, we know very little about it. But we know that it largely dominated the other civilizations of the Aegean Sea for several centuries, and that it laid the foundations of Greco-Roman culture.
My little research later taught me that this was a "peak sanctuary": one of the many places of worship, all located on rocky peaks, and which each communicated with a large Cretan city. This occupied a place in the rituals of the palace of Knossos, located between Skalani and Heraklion.
There are still many fragments of pottery found there. Sometimes quite big.
We then had to go back down. And there, we had the stupid idea of going through the gentle slope to the north of Mount Juktas. Except that in the end, it turned out to be a not-so-gentle slope, and above all, covered in thorny brush. A big struggle of 3 hours to go back down, meter after meter, sometimes slipping through the paths dug by the goats, while scratching your flesh.
Our legs really didn't look like anything once we got down there, we must have looked like two big fans of scarification who had just sacrificed goats on their Greek altar.
But a new reward awaited us, because we were then in the middle of the harvest season. Crete literally organized an OPEN GRAPES for us!
OPEN GRAPE!
Total abandon on the grapes: green and crunchy, black and sweet, there was everything!
Better yet: raisins. More organic and tastier, you die!
We finally managed to find our way back to Skalani, not without falling into numerous dead ends at the bottom of the valley. Indeed, it's easy to spot a 600m mountain on the way out, but finding a little remote town on the way back is less obvious...
If you have the opportunity to do this kind of small raid, wherever you are: jump on it and don't hesitate to leave before sunrise.
But always respect the basic safety instructions: hiking shoes, hat, glasses and obligatory sunscreen, as well as plenty of water (between 3 and 4 liters ideally).
The mini scooter road trip
No one on the small roads except us,
magnificent landscapes and good weather. Overall, it was great!
After Geoffrey's ascent, we hit the road by scooter to explore Crete in more detail the next day. We go from small village to small village. If we can't drive very fast (the roads, although not very busy, are steep and with many turns), that suits us because we take full advantage of the sumptuous panoramas available to us and the absence of other tourists .
We get lost in small paths, we go back up, we choose a town at random, we go there, we have a drink in the central square of the village, we continue... It was really a very beautiful experience.
On the way, we suddenly come across archaeological ruins completely lost in the middle of a hill. These are the ruins of Lytos, a city in ancient Crete. And the height of happiness, we are the only ones there...
No tourists, because no entry to the site...
The little break that feels good.
I'm wearing BGNS-01, Balibaris chinos that literally went to war (luckily there are no close-ups on them) and a Cuisse de Grenouille t-shirt.
The material of the t-shirt is really nice.
On the way back, we came across locals preparing wine:
Here is a monastery that we passed on the way.
Also in this monastery, there is a very pretty hanging vine.
We return to Skalani very exhausted, and we decide to settle down in a typically local restaurant. And as usual, it's a treat:
An absolutely life-saving meal.
Big mention for the meatballs with tatziki!
New this time, we decide to try local wine. After a passable table wine, Costa, one of the owners of the restaurant, brought us some fairly high-end bottles, and there was a surprise! The wine is absolutely succulent , very balanced, and with a lot to tell. These are blends between Syrah and another local grape variety: kotsifali.
We sympathize with Costa so much that he decides to invite us to a tasting, which will be one of the best evenings of our vacation...
BonneGueule tries its hand at mass tourism
What we should have visited...
We were advised to try the island of Spinalonga, which was a former leprosarium (place where lepers were kept). So we are very happy that we take the bus for two hours to Agios Nikoalos, a charming village, but ultra touristy. While the day before we were on the roads on scooters in small hamlets or hills, here we are surrounded by other French, Germans and Russians.
The shock is severe, and we wonder what we are doing here. It's impossible to get to this island without taking an organized excursion costing around twenty euros, on a special ferry.
However, the city is not devoid of charm, including a lake in the city center (today connected to the sea) with a depth of 64 m.
The ancient lake, now connected to the sea.
Except that... the Cretan maritime authorities have canceled all boat departures because of "bad weather". The bad weather in question is a cloudless sky with a very pleasant breeze . Simply incomprehensible!
What to do then? A quad ride? All are praised! Scooter? We already made some yesterday! We therefore decide to go to a place which will prove to be as fascinating as it is disturbing: Star Beach, in Malia. To give you an idea, here is the description of the place on the official website: Starbeach is one of Europes biggest party destinations, where people & music fuse together in paradise!
It promises.
Arriving at the entrance and seeing all the quads lined up, we begin to suspect something...
Don't let the entrance fool you, it's anything but a Family Area!
And there, it's nothing more or less than a kind of Disneyland for adults on vacation: there's a karting, a paintball, a water park, a crane for bungee jumping above the sea, bars, and above all, an open-air club in broad daylight. We actually arrived in the middle of a foamy afternoon.
We see Russian girls making the most of their all-inclusive package trip by drinking vodka after vodka in the middle of the afternoon. Then, we see an outlet, Fashion Star Outlet , which sells fake D&G glasses (but not fake Dita, phew). Next door, there is a small shop where you can get a literally ready-to-tattoo design with a lifespan of five days.
But where have we fallen?
The clientele is quite particular: most of the guys are very muscular, almost bodybuilders, in Carrera sunglasses. And it's a festival of tribal tattoos that Star Beach gives us (I swear I'm not exaggerating, it really was that). And they all have their hair completely shaved off the sides of their heads, if you know what I mean.
The typical clientele of Star Beach, and I assure you that I am not caricaturing.
I have a lot of respect for those who impose iron discipline on themselves in order to build the body of their dreams (watching their diet, going to the gym, managing low motivation, all that), but there, there is something a little disturbing and artificial in seeing only imposing, perfectly shaved bodies moving around other bodies, female this time, in front of children and their parents, under a raging DJ.
I assure you that there are parents crazy enough to bring their children to these kinds of places, where the bottles of beer follow each other as the sun goes down and where thong swimsuits are legion. I have even seen mothers with beer in hand dancing lasciviously in front of young ephebes under the distressed gaze of their own children. And once again, I swear on my wardrobe that I'm not making this up. I completely understand that they want to find a second youth, but they do that in front of their kids!
Let's not linger too long, and after a game of paintball (with just a t-shirt provided as protection, amazing, we ended up with bloody bullet holes on our arms) we return as quickly as possible to Skalani to find our favorite restaurant and drinking local wine with the locals... And as usual, we have a great evening.
The Palace of Knossos: the thing we were told to absolutely do
A supposed version of the palace... among many others. Some historians believe that this palace was never inhabited and was in fact a huge mausoleum.
The palace of Knossos is a vestige of the Minoan period (between 2,700 and 1,200 years before this brave Jean-Claude). So it’s going back up! But it was only thoroughly excavated in 1900 by a certain Arthur Evans, and not before. We were told that it is “a remarkable place for its size and its architecture” .
Okay, very good. So we arrive at the place, ultra touristy and full of souvenirs to buy. Not a good sign. We enter the famous palace of Knossos (or rather, what remains of it). It's historic, it's old, there are crowds and things to see.
Problem: Arthur Evans made a reconstruction of the place subject to much debate, and apparently inaccurate on certain points . From what I saw, there is too much concrete, with an impression of "off". It feels more like a movie set than ruins 3000 or 4000 years old.
It may be beautiful, but there's not much original in this photo.
So honestly, I was quite disappointed: the other ruins we stumbled upon had more charm. It's hard to believe it. Another disappointing point is that a guide is obligatory if you want to know the history of the place, because the information on site is quite summary and austere. They should strongly review their content strategy 😉
And said guide is still quite expensive (10€ per person, minimum 40€ per group). In short, I don't particularly recommend it. I highly encourage you to rent a scooter and explore some old stones on your own.
Another mass tourism experience that I find quite average.
But luckily, we're supposed to end the day with a wine tasting with Costa, the manager of our restaurant-HQ in Skalani...
The wine tasting that rocks everything
Yes, that was the view we had while we were
banging a few timpani of red wine.
Costa picks us up in the village square, parks us in his pick-up and we land very quickly in the little corner of paradise that he has set up for himself and his friends: a small place where he produces his wine, with a barbecue (speakers for listening to music included), vegetables growing 5 meters away, and herbs in a corner. We couldn't be more local!
The surface area of his vineyard is microscopic, and he produces at most a few dozen liters of wine per year. Besides, Costa doesn't want to sell his wine, it remains reserved only for him and his friends! All the BonneGueule spirit!
It doesn't seem like it, but this place is great. He had set the tablecloth just for us. In the background, we can see the good friends' barbecue and to the right, the famous vat where he produces his excellent wine.
In the green nets, there are all the grapes fermenting. Yesterday, he pressed the grapes with his feet with his friends. And there he is sucking the juice with the pump on the right. The remaining grape flesh will be used to distill raki, the famous local alcohol of death.
So he and his friends start bringing out the cheese, vegetables, olive oil, sausages and of course the wine. And what wine! It was absolutely delicious, and it was by far one of the best wines I've had this year, even if it was served in a plastic bottle straight from the barrel.
There was also a dish made from pork marinated in lemon, which has a fish name if translated. And in fact, I could have sworn it was tuna!
Cheese, tomatoes, peppers, olive oil, wine. We're doing well.
“Yamas!” which means “health”. The hospitality of the Cretans is incredible...
We then quietly finished the evening with Raki before returning to Heraklion and returning to France.
And the Greek crisis?
This is a special topic, because even though Crete is part of Greece, I had the impression that it was a distant reality . The island is indeed quite rich according to the locals. And land work is little impacted by the troubles in the tertiary sectors.
From what I've seen, there are quite a few big cars, cheap and plentiful food, and vending machines that are always full. On the other hand, the Cretans feel a strong tax pressure (VAT at 23%, even for catering), and everything is systematically done in cash to compensate (I may have had to use my card 2/3 times in two weeks) . Evil tongues say that tax evasion is a national sport there, but I won't get ahead of myself on that.
What happened in Cyprus also shook the Cretans' confidence in the state, and we were told that most locals literally had a small stash of cash buried in the garden. The use of cash has been so problematic that extreme solutions have been put in place.
So, what is Crete worth in the end?
I can only recommend it, obviously. We would all be up for going back!
There is a lot to do, and we only explored part of the island. I think that the quality of your stay depends enormously on your accommodation, and in this regard, Airbnb will be your precious ally.
Whatever type of vacation you want, everything is possible: beach vacation + nightclubs, or hiking, or city visits of all kinds. There really is something for everyone and that's what struck me about this island, which is definitely full of facets.
The locals have a very touching sense of hospitality, and if you like to eat well, you will be served . Regarding prices, it is indeed cheaper than Paris, but not much either (a large salad costs €5, a club cocktail €8, to give you an idea). Really, whether you're with good friends or with your girlfriend, you're bound to like it!
