Advertisement
Published: September 9th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Hi Everyone
My trip through the Greek Islands was planned to take 9 days. I have heard great things about all the islands. While I was in Athens people would show up in at the hostel raving about what a great time it was on the Islands. The hard part was choosing which islands to see. I chose Crete, Santorini, and Mykonos. I chose Crete because it had several archeology sites as well as natural gorges and mountains. Santorini because I heard it had beautiful architecture and black sand beaches. When I got there I heard there is also a red sand beach and a volcano with hot springs. Mykonos is right next to Delos, the mythological birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. I did not know what to expect when I got on the gigantic ferry boat. I had heard that the Islands were beautiful and idyllic and that they attract a huge number of tourists every year, mostly fellow Europeans. Well Crete is beautiful, it’s the kind of beautiful that makes your teeth hurt. Turquoise waters, palm trees, pristine streets. As I arrived off the overnight ferry I got to see all the shop keepers out at 7:00 in the
morning scrubbing and mopping the streets. It really makes a difference.
I have three full days on Crete. The first day I spent finding my hostel, then I went down to the beach for a few hours, then I walked around looking at the shops. I bought a Gyro for lunch then I walked up to Fortessa and looked around, there is an archeology museum next to there that I saw, although it was really small it had some interesting and very old Minoan pottery. There was this one pottery chest that was decorated with a cow covered in childlike daises from 1700BC.
On Thursday I tried to go to Preveli beach. It is a beach that has a river that runs into the ocean. I really wanted to float down the river. I got on the correct bus, which was a challenge because they were all parked helter shelter at the station. I just went around to each bus and showed them my ticket until I found the right one. The country side between Rhethymno and Preveli is gorgeous. High majestic cliffs and scenic valleys with fields. And sheep. Adorable sheep. I got off at the stop in front
sunrise in Crete on the bus between Iraklio and Rethymno
The English transliteration of the town names on crete is open to interpretation. I saw at least three different spellings of each of the major cities. of the beach, but it was the wrong beach. Apparently I had missed the stop I needed and ended up in Plakis. I could have waited two hours and gotten back to Preveli but I decided to stay on the beach I was at. It was a beautiful beach as well, although I am disappointed that I missed the river. As a girl who lived most of her life surrounded by cornfields I have an interesting relationship with beaches. I went to the beach in Washington State which is really just a rocky coast whose waves hit the beach with a frigid crash. It is impossible for the most intrepid swimmer to stand the water for very long without special suits. I also saw the beach in Nice when I went on a tour when I was 16. There was no sand there; it was all large round stones. I saw the beach in Japan when I stayed at Chigasaki on my class trip, I didn’t go in the water. I rode a bicycle to the beach near Bruges when I was in Belgium. I have heard that there are spectacular beaches in Mexico and India, but I can’t imagine
they are better than these beaches.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.04s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0205s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb