Day 7 - Driving around Chania

---

Busy day today! I went to pick up my rental car… I uh, wow driving in Chania city itself is a ride haha. I don’t really have something to compare it to driving wise - lanes? Nah. Parking? God speed. To be fair my very helpful hotel guy told me there’s parking behind the school since they’re on holidays - it’s like a 5min walk from the hotel and omg worth not dealing with the chaos.

I had to pickup near the airport, so on my way back towards Chania I made a few stops.

First up was Holy Trinity Monastery - I saw the name/sign and was like yes, of course lol. I was wearing a short skort so wrapped my scarf around my waist. (But they had shawls inside if you didn’t have your own I guess!) I’m… not entirely sure if I went during a party of some sort or it’s just always super festive in there..? But there were other tourists too, so at least I wasn’t like crashing a wedding party or something. I don’t think. Ahem. Anyway, the grounds were lovely - lots of flowers and decorative flags. Inside the chapel was gorgeousssss - such intricate pieces and beauty.

I then stopped one town over - in Stavros (LOL) - there’s a beach nearby that’s famous for filming Zorba the Greek. It was pretty busy and not really worth setting up shop considering I’ll be at much nicer beaches in a few days. I did wander down to the rocky waterfront too though just to explore a bit before getting back in my car and heading towards Venizelos Graves. There’s a little church and some statues and a nice view over Chania. I also came across a whole pack of cats lazing in the shade. They got it figured out..!

Next stop, the Botanical Gardens which required me to drive through Chania. Cue nervous laughter. I do have a super tiny and cute Hyundai i10 but it’s basically brand new and I’m so nervous it’ll get scratched lol. Or that I’ll hit a bike bc the mopeds weave in and out like no one’s business.

ANYWAY I got out of town in one piece and then took a lovely switchback through the countryside - I quite enjoy those roads now, two summers in a row.

(Side note: my car doesn’t have a park on the gearbox??? I’ve never seen that for an automatic?)

The Gardens were nice, but going in the middle of the day (uh, and in July??) maybe not the best time. It’s mostly in shade which is good, however a lot of stuff isn’t in bloom (obv) and it is still hot lol. Their collection is pretty impressive though - name it and they prolly had it - every type of fruit tree, every herb and spice, etc. Only trees that seemed in bloom were the citrus ones which make sense given Crete is known for that.

It is a very large garden - one thing to know is you basically walk down 1km… which means you then have to come back up 1km. But amongst all the paths you get to see some friends - I saw many a peacock - male, females and even a baby! I saw a few different species of lizard scurry by - but they never stopped long enough for me to get a photo. I thankfully did not see the badger, but there is a sign up where one of its burrows is lol.

From there I headed back to brave Chania - thankfully hotel guy had the hot tips and I found parking no issue by the school (even still at peak busy time!). I dropped some things off at the hotel, took a snack break and headed back out to the Old Town again for some more exploration. You name it, they had it somewhere in the maze of tiny shops and stalls. I also grabbed some gyro for supper (yum, obv) and that was that!

The sun was starting to set on my walk back along the water. I saw all the kitties again - some were running along the walls along the tourists, some were coming up trying to get petted and some just could not be bothered lol. I like them from afar - last thing I need is my allergies flaring up here.

---