Anapolis

[harribobs]

i don't know about using the town signs for rifle practise

i think someone has got an anti tank gun in Anapolis

[John R]

i don't know about using the town signs for rifle practise

i think someone has got an anti tank gun in Anapolis


[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6334\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

On our first visit to Crete (pre Plakias) we got friendly with the owner of a mini bar who said the Cretans were the heaviest (unlawfully) armed population in Europe. He offered to show us an underground bunker near Chania full of tanks. No idea about the truth. When I asked why this was so he shrugged and said that Crete was a very strategic place in times of strife and that if anything ever happened there wouldn't be any time "to wait for Athens".

[George]

I think I read somewhere, might have been on this Forum, that because Crete has been invaded so many times over the centuries, and that the locals were not prepared and ended up fighting with pitch forks and the like, they now refuse to give up their weapons just in case.
Luckily the modern friendly invader goes there because they like everything about Crete and arrive without weaponry.

george g...

[harribobs]

prior to WW2, the central government in athens, worried about the republican movement in crete, had ordered the surrender of all weapons ( and removal from the island) of course a lot got hidden but that certainly didn't help in May 1941

i watched a TV programme not so long back about the battle and ( i think) it was anthony beevor interviewing cretan veterans. the old fella asks him if he'd like to see the german machine pistol and lugar that he used in the war.... next thing beevor is in his back yard shooting off magazines from his lugar and Schmeisser machine gun! everyone grinning from ear to ear   ....only in crete  

[Santa]

prior to WW2, the central government in athens, worried about the republican movement in crete, had ordered the surrender of all weapons ( and removal from the island) of course a lot got hidden but that certainly didn't help in May 1941

i watched a TV programme not so long back about the battle and ( i think) it was anthony beevor interviewing cretan veterans. the old fella asks him if he'd like to see the german machine pistol and lugar that he used in the war.... next thing beevor is in his back yard shooting off magazines from his lugar and Schmeisser machine gun! everyone grinning from ear to ear   ....only in crete 
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Dear Harribob- no disrespect intended, but by the frequency of your postings I was wondering if you actually have a job you enjoy up north? With your love of Plakias, why don't you
just run a taverna in Plak and enjoy 7 moths a year.
Santa

[Ali & Dave]

I know there's certainly a lot of weapons around experienced on;

New Year's eve pistol out of the bar window

Easter Saturday AK47 outside the church in Selia and Easter Sunday sounded like a gun battle.  Luckily in this part of the world they don't tend to use them against fellow human beings!!

Still quite scary being woken in the middle of the night (eve of a wedding) with automatic gunfire (sounds like) outside your front door!!

Ali

[harribobs]

Dear Harribob- no disrespect intended, but by the frequency of your postings I was wondering if you actually have a job you enjoy up north? With your love of Plakias, why don't you
just run a taverna in Plak and enjoy 7 moths a year.
Santa
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6401\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

oh yes...full time, board level job, but delegation and multi-tasking allows me the time i need to do the odd post on here   ,  and probably about 10 times as many per day on a military history/genealogy site, plus running my own historical site

i suspect i'd get bored running a bar  

[toma2]

I know there's certainly a lot of weapons around experienced on;

New Year's eve pistol out of the bar window

Easter Saturday AK47 outside the church in Selia and Easter Sunday sounded like a gun battle.  Luckily in this part of the world they don't tend to use them against fellow human beings!!

Still quite scary being woken in the middle of the night (eve of a wedding) with automatic gunfire (sounds like) outside your front door!!

Ali
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=6402\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

The only shooting I have experienced on Crete was a rabbit hunt that ended in a fantastic casserole in Lendas.   But my impression is also that there are guns everywhere. In my hitchhiking days I never got a ride with a local without seeing a gun in his car, some had to clear out a shotgun to make space for my backpack, but most had a pistol between the driver seat and the hand brake or stuffed away in the glove compartment.   After the first couple of times I got used to it. This was in the 80s, I don’t know if the situation is still the same.

Tom

[harribobs]

when we went up to pachnes from anapolis, our driver had a shotgun in the cab , with a hand full of shells rattling around the gear lever  

[fraoula]

Okay just browsing the forum and saw this topic and just have to ask - my dp said that he'd love to stay in  Anapoli for a couple of nights when we eventually visit crete again, we know where it is but is it true that it's quite difficult to get to? One of our friends said recently when we'd mentioned it that they'd tried to drive to to the village but turned back as the roads were too scary! Are they fibbing  ?

[harribobs]

  it would be more difficult to turn around than to complete the drive

it is a steep long and sometimes hairy drive up but it's not THAT bad, i just take it nice and easy and make sure you don't get careless

do it because it's a great experience!

[George]

The second time we went up there which was a few years ago now, we counted the hairpin bends 48 and I agree Chris it is a bit hairy at times but that's why I've done it numerous times since. Luv it!

george g...

[John R]

We did it about 4 years ago and found the hairpin climb up/down the most scary we have done and we are fairly intrepid motorists on Crete. Might just have been the mood we were in at the time. It was the first time I've ever experienced vertigo when driving.  To show how chickenish we were, we stopped at each hairpin on the way down, checked nobody was coming up and then drove on the mountain side edge of the road rather than against the drop side. I feel quite stupid writing and telling you this as I really can cope when driving with anything that is thrown at me on Crete but that bit of road just got to me somehow !!

We didn't get to the gorge - I think at the time we didn't realise it was there !! It is our intention to do that this Autumn.

John R

[George]

Take a deep breath before you go over the bridge John, luckily there's a small bar on the other side made from olive wood, then just cruise around in the peace, you will be unlucky to see anyone else up there.

george g...

[harribobs]

We didn't get to the gorge - I think at the time we didn't realise it was there !! It is our intention to do that this Autumn.

John R

we're planning a circular walk, probably leaving the car at the top of the gorge at aradena, walking down to loutro over to the gorge mouth and then up it! really looking forward to that