For Crete sake locals, at least TRY the bus!
Do you need to park your car?’ asked the pleasant young woman last week at the check-in desk in the Palazzo Vecchio Hotel in Rethymnon in Crete. ‘My car?’ I responded. ‘No, I don’t have a car.’
‘But you just said you came from Paleochora,’ she said, a bit bewildered. ‘Yeah, I did. I came on the bus.’ Now it was her turn to question things. ‘The bus?’ she said slowly, somewhat surprised.
Perhaps it’s my age or the fact that I was travelling alone but the young receptionist simply couldn’t get her head around the fact that I had taken the bus (two buses, in fact) from the far southwest corner of Crete up to the city of Rethymnon, positioned about a third of the way (west to east) along the island’s northern coast.
It wasn’t an arduous journey by any means. I caught the noon bus from Paleochora to Chania. It cost €8.30 and took two hours on what is a spectacular journey through Crete’s majestic White Mountains. Once you hit the north coast it’s an easy drive from there into the island’s former capital city. In Chania, I had a 30-minute wait before leaving on the Rethymnon bus. This journey takes an hour, straight along the north coast, and costs just over €6.
The buses on Crete are terrific – extremely modern, offering great comfort and visibility and complete with seat-belts and air-conditioning. What more could you want?
When I was very young, travelling by bus abroad was generally my only affordable transport option. Indeed, I travelled all over Crete by bus back in the early Eighties. Turkey and Italy too.
But as the years progressed I too progressed – to a hire car. Not just for comfort but for greater general flexibility and to be able to get to places that the buses simply didn’t reach.
But let’s be honest, driving abroad can be a hassle at times. I love driving but even I have to admit that my experience on the ring-road around Palermo in Sicily, for example, is not one that I would ever like to repeat. Ditto Florence with its traffic jams.
And then there’s Rome. Yes, I know that there’s something of an Italian theme going on here but the fact that my husband once attempted to drive through the centre of Rome was not the best decision of his life.
I have always enjoyed travelling by bus when I’m abroad. It simply gives you a greater feel for a place to travel like the locals do.
More than 30 years ago, I got on a bus in Istanbul and, 10 hours later, got off in Ayvalik on the Aegean coast. Expecting the bus to be extremely primitive, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a modern vehicle; that the driving was not of the lunatic variety and that there was even a ‘bus boy’ on board handing out cold, complimentary bottles of mineral water to passengers – and, if I remember correctly, a Turkish version of Cream Crackers! It was a real memory-making experience.
Malta, of course, is famous for its buses. I last visited just before they upgraded the fleet but even with the old buses it was such a pleasant and easy way to explore the island. And incredibly cheap.
I got the bus back down to Paleochora from Rethymnon last week. I’d only gone to spend a night in my favourite Cretan city. To walk around the fortress, to pop into the church on Agnostos Stratiotis Square, to wander the narrow, residential streets of the Old Town, and to eat, for old time’s sake, in the Seven Brothers’ fish restaurant at the harbour.
Once back in Paleochora I headed straight from the bus to my room in the Hotel Lissos to freshen up before heading out for dinner.
I was accosted by Manolis, the Lissos owner and someone I have known since I first stayed there in 1983. ‘Where were you?’ he asked. ‘I went to Rethymnon,’ I said. ‘Just for one night. You know how I’ve always loved Rethymnon.’
‘Rethymnon?’ he queried, looking puzzled. ‘On the bus?’
Yes, Manolis. On the bus. ros.dee@assocnews.ie