right now alex and i are sitting in an internet cafe in hania, crete, that doubles as a bar, poolhall, and hang-out for greek men who want to sit around and play backgammon, which is apparently abundantly popular over here. also they're all smoking. everywhere. all the time.
so we haven't really updated much about greece as of yet, mostly because the few days after athens were simply a whirlwind of multi-hour buses around the peloponnese (one day of travel took us NINE hours to get from delphi to olympia, towns less than 100 miles apart...). now we're on the very relaxed island of crete, where we'll be spending the next six days. our plans have changed rather drastically in the past week, as it turns out that greece more or less shuts down as of november 1st, not getting up and running again until the spring. so, instead of doing some island hopping over to the turkish coast, we're spending a full week on crete, taking a cheap flight back to athens, then boarding a train all the way to istanbul. it's an 18-hour adventure, apparently including a 3am passport check to look forward to when we arrive at the turkish border. i think it will be exciting though, and luckily they force you to pay for a bed, so it shouldn't be too brutal. well, we only have three minutes left online, so i'd best be off. crete is beautiful so far (we took a quick swim yesterday at the beach just beneath our hotel window) and i'm quite excited to see more of the island... happy thanksgiving! eat some pie for me!