Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

Crete — 13A, interlude 1 — sci-fi writer Gromov

While I was in Crete, as well as right before and even before that, I was reading books by Gromov and the Dyachenkos. For those out of the loop, they are leading Russian sci-fi authors. What follows is about Gromov, not Crete, so if you don't feel like it, don't read.

Yes, I am unable to overcome my passion for reading all kinds of crap instead of useful things. No, sci-fi is not useful, you are mistaken. What seems like deep philosophical thoughts to you is just a basic, layman-friendly packaging of bright ideas, whether they were pilfered or concocted by hand. (A writer, obviously, partly thinks with their hands, so that's not a slip of the tongue).

I am far from assigning books a purely entertaining function, but let's not overestimate them. Reading 100 works of fiction gives you as much experience as a few days of real action, and way more shitting up of your brain with useless junk. Scientific and educational books are another matter, but I personally can't bring myself to read them regularly.

If we continue  this line of reasoning, a blog review of sci-fi is little more than static noise. Nevertheless, I keep this journal for pleasure, so as long as it brings me graphomaniac joy, I will keep writing.

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Crete — 13, Chania

Before long, we made it to Chania. We left the car on the edge of the street, with my persistent companions trying to make absolutely sure about 5 times that it was free here. We didn't find a "paid parking" sign, but they were nervous anyway. I had to stop some Cretan girls and ask. They didn't know, of course, but instead they went into a shop and tortured the clerk. The clerk answered "free," but my stubborn travelers wouldn't give up. In principle, you can understand them — considering the great chill attitude of the Cretans, pulling an answer out of thin air is a piece of cake for them. Nevertheless, we left the car anyway, bought some mineral water, grabbed the lunchbox from the trunk, and went to the park we had driven past, which was listed in the guidebook as a local landmark. The park is actually pretty fun — looks a little bit like the tropics, there are animals in cages and birds in the trees. And, of course, full of those ubiquitous chirping turtles.

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Crete — 12, Troubles

The beautiful town of Chania is located to north-east, oops, sorry, north-west, oops, sorry, I meant to say the stunning city of Chania is located and all that. If anyone didn't get it, that was a recursive oops, sorry. If anyone still didn't get it, it's not my fault, because I've been watching too much House M.D., my brain is tying itself in knots.

Anyway, I promised to tell you what unpleasantness happened to us after Rethymno. As we know, reading about the unpleasant, the weird, and the downright perverted is always way more interesting, even if many people won't admit it. Because who cares about something normal and prosperous? That's boring! (House is creeping in again, yikes).

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2008-10-06 Crete — 11, The Old Town of Rethymno

We circled around the city for a long time looking for parking closer to the port. Space on Crete is scarce for obvious reasons, so we barely managed it. When we parked, I asked a dude at a cafe table where to buy tickets, and he clearly explained where to go. Very many Cretans speak English, at least on a conversational level, and in the service sector it's pretty much everyone.

Not far from Crete lies the Greek island of Santorini, and tourists flock there en masse, even though the price of visiting it is nothing to smile about. We dashed to the port just to buy a ferry ticket to the island. But we were informed that this was pointless, because to see anything on the island you need a vehicle in the form of a motorboat, and in general "just tickets" to Santorini aren't sold, only excursions for 140 euros a pop. To be fair, that's really quite a lot.  Generally, excursions on Crete are sold to many places, the selection is very similar, and prices are usually around 30, 40, 70 euros. Plus they pick you up from your hotel and sometimes drive you to the other end of the island. Basically, it makes sense and isn't too expensive, unlike Santorini — but it's far, plus it's a whole day of fun, and it all starts at 7 AM.

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