I just took a few days ahead of a company meeting in London to visit Helsinki. Some decent flight options via the American Airlines / Iberia / Finnair alliance. Wound up going MEX > MAD > HEL and then HEL > LHR > JFK > MEX on the way home. Two smoothest legs were the MEX > MAD and LHR > JFK. While I wouldn't go as far to say it's pleasant flying economy over these distances, I have gotten used to it over the past few years. So my 33C seat assignment on the 10.5 hour leg to Madrid really wasn't bad.
I remember watching You're Cordially Invited (not great), Secret Life of Walter Mitty (decent way to pass 2 hours on a plane), and Goodfellas (a classic that I haven't seen start to finish in who knows how long). So the time passed decently well. I also had the good fortune of no one seated next to me, in front of me, or directly behind me. i.e., about as good as it gets for a long-haul economy class flight.
My flight departed MEX at 11a local time. So not quite prime time for sleeping in transit. Then I had ~4 hours in Madrid for my layover. That was not plan A. But a few days after booking my original tickets Finnair canceled the flight I had set from DFW to HEL. Left with few options I had to take the 4 hours in Madrid. Not ideal. Also, something I learned in the middle of my trip when checking the flight map is that Madrid and Helsinki are not super close.
The next leg was another 4-4.5 hours. That's about the same as MEX > LAX. Anyway, upon arrival I found a decent place to snooze. I forget exactly where it was, but at 6-ish am it was quiet.
Leg to Helsinki wasn't particularly pleasant. In retrospect I should have paid for some kind of upgrade. Flight gods didn't smile on me and dropped me in a window seat of a very full flight on old equipment. It was warm and stuffy with zero seat recline. A grind. But then soon enough I was released into what is a very pleasant airport environment at HEL. Next challenge would be to get myself to the hotel.
Note the BK in the following pic. Would be some foreshadowing of a crispy chicken sandwich binge over my last 36 hours in the Helsinki / Tallinn region.
This post is a bit of a grab bag of the last day/night in Chania. We did take a tour with a potential provider out to Elafonissi beach and through some mountain villages. Scenery was cool. I only snapped one real picture:
Unfortunately the tour was mostly a disappointing endurance exercise. Started off okay with some of the general intro and background info you'd hope for. But soon enough our guides revealed themselves to be like a Greek Beavis & Butthead tag-team, alternately complaining about the Greek government and trying to one-up each other in their efforts to flirt with my colleagues. Steady stream of corny, lame, bro behavior.
Back in Chania the rest of the time was split visiting some hotels, browsing some of the touristy sections of town, browsing some of the less touristy sections of town, and ultimately winding down with a glass of Cretan red wine. I'll start with the hotels ...
This one is from the rooftop of SanSal Boutique Hotel. Sharp, contemporary option just a few minutes walk from the heart of old town.
Snagged a few from Casa Delfino, where I was digging some of the funky furniture. Very nice place in a great location.
Took a few slice of the ordinary shots while wandering around the edges of old town.
Window shopped a bit, appreciating the pottery and other crafts. Liked the ducks. Found it interesting that the plastic woven bags and metal chickens are very, very similar to what you can find in Oaxaca and Michoacán.
Had to spend some time venturing beyond the touristy zone. Outside the old town there are layers of regular small city life happening with both generic and interesting retail happening. Combo architecture of economical design, old stock, newer buildings. Signs of hustle all around.
Was digging these housewares in the window. Seems like you can track them down online at the Morris.gr website if you're interested.
And I'm always going to duck into a supermarket to browse the snacks. Didn't grab the peanuts. Would have bought a t-shirt with that peanut logo, though. Did buy the two 'Tasty' options. Didn't love them.
Did a bit of a walkabout in the evening as well. Nicely-lit streets, plenty of inviting places to eat and drink. Or pick up souvenirs deep into the evening. Very pleasant place to visit.
As I was strolling I noticed a familiar evening activity around the plaza in front of the main church. The very limited video slice below hints at it, but what I saw were families and kids out playing, running, kicking balls around. Aka, something you see all the time in plazas around Mexico, from Coyoacán to Morelia to Pátzcuaro.
Also grabbed some evidence of visiting the harborfront in the evening, where you can clearly enjoy a meal/beverage and some people watching until 11/12pm. Lively, but not rowdy.
Pleased with my strolling I allowed myself a nightcap in the room before an early flight onward the next morning.
Continuing the Greece tour, our next and final stop was Chania, Crete. I have to confess that before scheduling this tour I had never heard of Chania. After experiencing the tour I moved Chania onto the list of great little places I'm really glad that I visited. And it would be on the relatively short list of places I'd gladly go back to for an extended stay. Nice-sized city (pop ~ 55,000) that balances being a real, lived-in city and being a tourist / vacation destination. I'd put Monopoli in a similar category for similar reasons. But I'll get to that eventually when I have time to post about my Puglia trip.
Getting to Chania from Santorini takes a bit of work. You can fly, connecting through Athens. Or you can ferry to Heraklion and then drive / be driven to Chania. Total travel time is probably the same either way. Flight schedules offer more flexibility with the departure and arrival times. The ferry goes 1x per day. So we were on the 345p ferry that gets into Heraklion at 530p. Then it's a ~2-hour drive to Chania, so you're getting in around 730-8p. Which leaves enough time to check into your hotel and then head out for a nice dinner.
I took a quick video of the ferry experience, but there are many better ones out there on YouTube. The boats are big and comfortable. Nice seats, decent food / concession options. Room to walk around and stretch your legs (which is a big difference versus heading over on a smaller plane). If you have questions about the ferries, check out this video from Greece Explained (and fwiw, his channel is full of useful, well-done videos).
My base for the next few nights was Fileas Art Hotel. It's on the edge of old town and tucked around the corner from the main drags heading toward the harbor. Solid 3* option.
We were pretty tired and ventured exactly 1 minute away to Namaste for dinner. I have no photo evidence of our dinner, but recall it being good. Seems like the reviews generally agree. Nice place to eat, especially if you get yourself a table on the upper level with some views. Was just what we needed at the time.
Next day started in the morning with a walking & food tour with one of our partners. Gave us a good overview of the city's history and layout and kept us fueled with a few strategic pit stops. One of the first places we visited was Patsouros Cheese & More, which is just outside the touristic center. The kind of nice shop you want in your town if you're looking to treat yourself with some nice snacks or show up at a friendly gathering with something tasty that will be well received.
Walking through the streets into the old town you have picturesque scenes in all directions.
Of course we made our way to the harbour. Super charming little focal point for the city. Lined with restaurants for scenic al fresco dining. And filled with boats ready to take you out for an afternoon on the water.
We also got up to a lookout point for a great view of the harbor.
Before we wrapped up at the panoramic vista I documented the documenting of the selfie.
Snagged a few slice of life shots as we worked our way back into the side streets of the old town.
Solid food stop at To Steno, which was the kind of friendly place you could easily pass an afternoon into the evening snacking and drinking ... if you didn't have to keep on with the tour followed by an evening of catching up on work. My pic below does the spot zero justice. Check out more on their google maps listing, like this one.
Finished the tour with something sweet from Sketi Glyka.
Great finish to a nice day learning about a place that went from not at all being on my radar to being one of the favorite places I've been.
