4/25/98: Caught a bus to Rethymno, a coastal town in the northwest part of the island of Crete. Rain and sunshine alternated all day. Arrived and had another hunt for an affordable and clean pension. This is a lovely little town. I think we’re gonna like this.
4/25/23: While the major parts of our year-long trip were planned in advance, such as international flights, which missionaries we would work with and when, we purposely waited until we were on the ground in various places to purchase local transport, meals and places to stay. Makings these plans in advance through a travel agent might be more convenient, but is also considerably more expensive due to mark-up fees. Shopping on the fly means we get much better rates on all of these types of purchases. Of course, it also adds to the stress of traveling, since you have to show up in a new town or city without an actual place to immediately unpack your bags. Ruth was much more patient and deliberate in searching for a hotel/pensione on our trip, while I tended to want to make a decision as quickly as possible just to be done with it and not have to lug our backpacks around to several different places in order to compare prices and amenities. This led to moments of stress between us, but we got into a rhythm that worked well, where I would park myself with all of our baggage in a town square or park, while Ruth could then walk unencumbered to locations suggested by the guidebooks to shop for recommended pensiones. On this occasion in Rethymno, we were particularly well-rewarded by the madness of our method.
Our place was one of three rooms, one on top of the other, and all accessed via a very narrow spiral stair case in the back. It included a kitchenette and a balcony overlooking a charming neighborhood plateia (plaza). It was quiet, had hot water and good water pressure for showers, and was in a neighborhood with plenty of grocery stores, restaurants and curio shops. Google maps and streetview (see here) suggest that it is no longer a pensione, and that the plaza outside our balcony is now an open air restaurant called “Bar B.Q. Barbecue.”
We ate dinner at a place called Stella’s Kitchen, where they were out of everything except an item that wasn’t actually on the menu: a perfectly seasoned meatloaf made with beef and lamb! George and Stella comp’d us a delicious dessert.
