http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Greece , Crete en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:06:13 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:06:13 BST In order to leave Santorini and get to Ios we had to get ourselves back down to the port. Lucky for us George or Mike if you prefer real names arranges this for you. Unlucky for us it wasn't George who would be driving us but his brother. We'll call him George II. So George II shows up and doesn't seem particularly happy to be driving us and two other people to the port on this particular d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-292921.html We arrived in Athens at about 430 in the morning as our flight from Barcelona was delayed about 3 hours. This was not a good start but we were all optimistic about our streak of bad luck ending and were determined to make Greece a postive experience. We had to wait about 1 hour to get on the metro as it was not running yet and we were able to find our hostel very easily which was a first for u http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Rethymno/blog-290732.html As promised the Greek Adventure Part 1. Jetlagged After super Jono that's pronounced Yono in some countries ie whatever country I'm in made the train and comfortably ate our victory sandwiches we rolled into Frankfurt's main train station around 9pm. We found a reasonable hostel where we could get a decent night's sleep and get a private room. Considering we had only about a total of 6 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-290086.html Crete is a really nice place. I would recommend it to anyone. There are places like Malia which is full of English kids showing my age now getting pissed everynite but there are so many really nice towns and sights to visit which more that make up for the Malia's. The Greek people are so kind and generous its made the start of our adventures a pleasureThe weather here is now a constant 35oC. I w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-289311.html Those of us that chose not to tackle the Samaria Gorge had a free day in Hania. We decided to start with the Agora which is a fabulous flea market type building full of little stalls selling everything you can imagine from meat and vegetables to tourist souvenirs. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to where they are set up and you can have a souvenir shop next to a butcher. There were http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-287755.html We've been here just over a week now. The tans have gone from lobster red to a suttle brown now so we are starting to blend in. We've got a hire car and have visited loads of good townssites. Visited Knossos palace the other day. Was built around 6000 years ago and the stuff they did and had are amazing. This was all 4000BC They had proper water pipes running around the palace because they would http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-287680.html Jan and Rodger did a day trip to Agios Nikolaos and here are their comments on their dayhelliphellip..Rodger and I had a sleep in as we had decided that the trip to Chania was too long a day for us. We went to the bus station to take the local bus to Agios Nikolaos a pretty port town on the eastern end of Crete. The bus left at 10.30 a.m. and wound through the outer suburbs of Heraklion past http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-286944.html An exchange I had with a dirty old Greek man while walking up 25Augustus Way Dirty Old Greek Man How are youMe Good.Dirty Old Greek Man Do you speak EnglishMe No implied by shaking headDirty Old Greek Man You from JapanMe Dirty Old Greek Man you ignorant slut. I just told you I donrsquot speak English how the fuck am I supposed to comprehendanswer that Or at least thatrsquos what http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-286574.html We set out in search of several mythical caves today. Our first stop was the Eileithyian Cave which is visited so seldom that we had to call the guard to come and open it for us. It had no lights so we had to explore by flashlight and candlelight. It had a fig tree symbol of fertility growing at the entrance that we had to duck under to enter. All 28 of us plus our guide Lina and the guard http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-286090.html Knossos was another ubertouristy bus tour haven in which we were sandwiched between groups so you had to move quickly from room to room because the group behind you wanted to see your 'room' but you couldn't go too fast because then you would be impinging on the group ahead of you. I'm not sure how much I will get out of the visit until I get home and review my photos with my notes as it was pre http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Knossos/blog-286084.html I had long wished to explore Mount Athos but between bad weather and Juanrsquos neverending complains in the end I reluctantly accepted Crete as an alternative destination for our winter trek.At Piraeus we had chosen the shipping company that best matched our cause read the cheapest one and finally in another freezing Athenian night we boarded a half deserted ferry. Tourists were nonex http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Lyssos/blog-285367.html Now we are cruising around the Greek islands it is HOT. Yesterday we arrived in Mykonos but we didn't get much time to wander around. We had some Gyros which were really tasty and then said hello to Petros the pelican he's their mascot and he's a little grumpy. Today we went to Kasadasi Turkey and walked around a castle they have there. We didn't do any bartering for some Genuine Fake designe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-280748.html Greetings from Athens I promised to keep this blog a bit shorter than the last so hopefully this wonrsquot be too long. As many of you know Irsquove been in Greece for the last 12 days or so doing a onecourse study abroad program that lasts a month. So far wersquove already been to Crete Santorini Naxos the Peloponnese and Athens. Itrsquos been exhausting moving from hotel to hote http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-280494.html We have been busy the last few days. On Wednesday we went to the Palace of Knossos. This is an ancient minoan palace. It has been reconstructed in parts by Sir Arthur Evans an archeologist. It was very difficult to visualize what the palace looked like all those years ago. Many original items that were found at Knossos have been placed in the National Archeological Museum. Many columns and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-279391.html We got up early to catch an early bus to Knossos. We caught the bus at Liberty Square Plata Venizelou at about 8am. It was a city bus cost 1.15 Euros each and became quite crowded. Knossos is right on the outskirts of Iraklio so you don't realize you're there until the driver yells Knossos. The entry fee was 6 Euros each. Knossos is quite extensive fairly well excavated and partially rest http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Knossos/blog-279059.html Mr. Tountas took us up to the bus stop on the National Road to catch our bus to Iraklio Heraklion. We thought the bus would come before 10am so when a bus showing Iraklio stopped we started to board but the driver's assistant saw our tickets and told us No wrong bus line. Next one in 10 minutes. I was under the impression there was only one bus line on Crete KTEL but we waited and sure http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-278729.html We arrived at the town square to wait for our minibus for the tour at 930am to be safe. When they finally showed up at 1035 we'd been worried for a while. Along with us the driver and the guide there were 7 other people all from Australia and all apparently... well heeled as one couple told us they came from Australia on their yacht We rode up into the White Mountains above Kalives a bi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-278684.html Today we rented a car because Crete is kind of hard to navigate by bus. We drove about 45 minutes to Agios Nikolas a harbour city. The highways are quite nice here with plenty of signs. We found out the lines on the roads are just a suggestion. People pass you at any time no matter who is coming in the other lane. The drivers expect you to merge over to the shoulder so they can pass. At Agios http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-278384.html Being our 34th anniversary we wanted things to go well. I'd kept Manoli from knowing about my special Taste of Crete cooking class until today just telling her that we were going to be busy Tuesday. While we waited for the 715am bus to Hania I filled her in. More on that tomorrow. We needed to catch this bus to Hania and hope it wasn't too late to catch the 830 bus from Hania to Omalos and th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-278347.html If anyone is looking for pure indulgence good food and great hospitality go to Elounda Bay in Crete. I've just come from staying at the Peninsula Suites at Elounda but for those that find this too expensive luckily I wasn't paying they own two other resorts very near each other one actually next door. Their Spa Centre is amazing a huge range of treatments offered something for everyone. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-278337.html We woke up in plenty of time for the bus at 715am but again the bus was a noshow. We decided instead to rent a vespa scooter for the day and try to find the U.S. Navy base near Souda with the hope of sending some excess weight home. We did find the base hidden away on the other side of the Chania airport but unfortunately they wouldn't let us on since we weren't on the access list. We cont http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-278329.html Nothing much to report today. We had a minor disaster last night. We arrived at the airport at 2030 for our 2330 flight to Crete. I could not find our flight on the board. When I finally found someone to ask we were informed the flight left at 1930 I had checked the airlines web site earlier in the day and the flight was still on schedule. We called the travel agent we booked the tick http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-277972.html After capuccinos not very good but we'll have our own coffee tomorrow we got the lowdown from Philia Tountas and paid the bill 130 Euros for 5 nights... what a bargain We decided to take the bus into Chania for the day but after strolling thru Kalives a very quaint seaside village with a nice beach we waited for the bus but it didn't come. Instead we finished browsing the stores in Kal http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-277565.html So it has been a whole week since my last entry I have actually been unable to reach a computer in that time and Samaria Gorge seems like a long while ago. When I last wrote we were just leaving Chania to go to Kissamos Kastelli a town on the west coast from which we could reach a few good beaches. Right after I wrote that entry we went to the tourist office and found out that those beaches a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-276090.html We've finally made it out to Greece So happy that me and Sam actually managed to see a plan through We arrived at 5am on Sat morning with our first 'hiccup' waiting for us. We were meant to be going to Hersonissos in Crete for the first week but instead we found out that our apartments weren't actually going to be open for another 5 days in true Greek fashion So instead we were offloade http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-273841.html Well yesterday was a huge long day. The alarm went off at five I slept till half past but Kathleena had to get ready and stuff. So we headed out around quarter two six in order catch the six fifteen bus to the mouth of the Samaria Gorge near Omalos. We got to the bus station to find that our information was faulty. The first bus didn't leave until eight thirty. So we went back to our pension an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-273384.html Some catching up to do.FirstlyApologies to Sherry and Chengwai from Malaysia who we ran into at Delphi and said we would add you to our blog. It is now done.Secondly the name of our suburb in Athens was Exarchia where the anarchists resideThirdly we have had a small hiatus from our frenetic travelling in Crete.We arrived on Thursday. The car could not be organised until saturday morning. Meanwh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-272788.html So. I am in Chania a smallish town on the north coast of Crete the largest southernmost Greek isle. The place was originally built by Venetian nobility in an exodus where one sixth of Venice came here. Accordingly there is an old Venetian harbour and fortress all crumbling old stone. It is nice here. You wouldn't believe it's in the same country as Athens such is the difference. It is tranq http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Chania/blog-272661.html A fantastic holiday to Crete which for me was a return visit. I'd previously been at the end of September and so felt it proper to come in the height of summer.Taking an apartment in a tourist complex we did manage to keep ourselves very much isolated but also managed to visit such sights as the Palace at Knossos the Lasithi Plateau with the Caves the villages around Agios Nikolaos and Iraklio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-271244.html