Crete and the beginning of our travels

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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 offloaded onto........Malia. Not exactly the sort of place we envisioned starting our travels. Thankfully, we've been put in the Old Town part which is surprisingly interesting and a world away from the main tourist strip.

One upside to this was that we were compensated and we chose a trip to Spinalonga, the famous leper colony island. We had a boat trip over to the island which has a Venetian Fort on it dating back to the 16th century. The Turks also lived on the island until it became a leper colony in 1903. It was the place where all Cretans - and then all Greeks - with leprosy were effectively sent to die. This continued until a cure was found in 1957. It was a fascinating if not slightly melancoly place, well worth a visit. We also visited Agios Nikolaos in the east of the island where there is a lake in the centre of town - the locals call it the 'bottomless lake' - although it's some 65m deep. An interesting landmark in the middle of a bustling harbour town! All in all it was a fascinating day.

We continued to try to explore more of the island than just the beaches, the next day we took a trip over to Iraklion, the island's capital. It was our first experience of Greek buses, but surprisingly easy - hopefully all our journeys will be so straightforward. We spent the morning exploring the charming city but our main aim was to sort out our arrangements for travelling to Ios - our next island. We're really excited that we're now definitely going island hopping rather than just having a holiday, although the port looks pretty daunting! Hopefully we'll get on the right boat on Friday!

After buying our tickets we hopped on another bus over to the ancient Minoan ruins at Knossos. I'm glad we visited them at this time of year, as the thought of walking around the ruins in the height of summer doesn't bear thinking about! A very interesting site which was excavated in the 1930's by Arthur Evans, who was evidently very keen on reconstructing his imagination of the place in concrete! A different approach to many historical sites that is great for giving you a feel for what the place could have looked like, but I can't help thinking that it is a bit of a travesty that half of it is now covered in concrete!

Apart from these things, we haven't done much more than sit on the beach or by the pool, which means we've had a nice relaxing first week! Bit scary to think that after Friday, we're on our own, but fun nonetheless!

We've uploaded 1 or 2 pictures on Facebook but unfortunately connection seems to be slow here, so we'll try again when we get to Ios. Will write again soon!

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Comments

[Sophie]

sounds v cultured!
Hey huns, cool you sound like you've visited loads already! Hehe you're not a real traveller unless something goes a bit wrong within an arrival somewhere! Keep safe! look forward to next instalment x x x