Advertisement
Published: August 2nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
memorials
small churches built when someone dies on the road So today was UNBELIEVABLE! I don’t even know where to start! We started out by going to Elounda and got an iced coffee. The Gyro shop that we love was not open for another hour. We walked around the town until it was time for our Gyro’s to open up! We decided to get a Gyro to go because our driver was going to stop by and pick us up!
We ate our Gyro on the way and our six hour excursion began! We wound around A LOT of hills and small Greek villages. It was so awesome to see the way the people live! We first stopped by a small church which was over 500 hundred years old. You couldn’t even see the church from the road it was something you had to know about from a local! The church was maybe 100 square feet inside! Then we were off to a natural spring. We drank the water right from the spout. It was so cold and refreshing. We also picked grapes right off of the road and washed them under the spring! I can’t tell you how awesome it was. The weather got cooler and cooler as we
went up the mountain. After the spring we got back in the car and headed for a coffee or as George our driver called it Freddo. I was ready to stop at the Taverna because I was getting sooooo car sick. Our driver George has been friends with the owner of the Taverna for over 20 years. The man, Onassis, was incredible. He had worked the land his entire life and owned the majority of the land that was around us. He had been around the world as a sailor and came back to Crete to work the land. He was so proud of his restaurant and his accomplishments. He was the friendliest person I think I have ever met. Our driver told us some many fascinating stories about Onassis. A few men drove by the restaurant and Onassis hopped up and gave them a handful of ice cream bars right out of the freezer. George said that was just the way he was. Extremely generous to the point that it made his wife mad. He wouldn’t even let us pay for our Freddo’s. Now let me tell you, the coffee tasted horrible. Clay and I could barely get it
down. Not to mention I was really car sick. They also brought us over a HUGE plate of the freshest fruit. We had pears, watermelon, grapes, and plums. I think Onassis was close to 80 years old.
Off we went to our next destination! Our driver George stopped and picked a few apples off of the side of the road for us. I told him that if you picked an orange off of a tree in Florida that you would go to jail! He couldn’t believe it! Our next stop was at the very top of the mountain at Zeus’s birthplace. George told us that he would wait at the bottom for us! We changed into our gym shoes and off we went. I was really feeling sick by this time. We decided to rent a donkey to go up and I was planning on walking down. The donkey cost about 15 Euro to ride up. Clay walked beside the donkey and took pictures….Nice! I held on for dear life because for some reason the donkey wanted to walk on the very edge. I don’t know if I would have made it up the mountain without the donkey! The
temperature was cool and there was a breeze that came through as well. We had to buy a ticket to get in at the top of the mountain. It cost 4 Euro each to get in! We saw a lot of people coming up the stairs that we were about to go down. They were all huffing, puffing, and much winded. I was thinking to myself “what is going on”, “why are these people out of breath”? I was about to find out! There were hundreds of steps that went down inside this cave. It was spectacular to say the least. There are really no words to describe what we saw. This cave was millions of years old! It was soooo cold inside that people hundreds of years ago used it to keep their food cold! We had to be careful when we walked on the concrete steps because the ceiling was dripping with water. We walked all the way to the bottom and I about died when I looked up the the little whole that we started from. I started to get a little scared but worked my way through it! I am so glad that I did because
what we saw down there was just beautiful! I wish that they would have a way to light it up so you could really take in the beauty. There were just a few lights so you could see your way around. We decided to make our way out of the cave and back down the hill. We decided to walk down the hill to save some Euro. I threw up the whole way down the hill! Not fun!
We hopped back in the car and away we went! This time we were headed to see a tree that was over 2000 years old. George told us that is took 11 men with their arms outstretched to make a circle around this tree. It was so big! There were also a few springs coming down and they made a place to catch the water. They keep their melons in this water because it is so cold! We also bought some fresh honey, wine, olives, and homemade ariki (liquor that will put hair on your chest) the owner of the shop wanted me to try a shot of the ariki and I didn’t want to be rude. He put some fresh
honey on my hand and told me to drink and then lick the honey. It was delicious. Think of a tequila shot with a lemon chaser but this chaser was fresh honey!
We got back in the car and headed down the hill. The neatest part about the trip was that around every corner was a present for our eyes! I wanted to see it all but I was so car sick! The little towns we went through were everything you could imagine “old Greece” to be! Including the old ladies sitting on stools wearing all black and the men sitting at card tables drinking coffee and swapping lies. The day that we had today was truly unforgettable. The trip today was priceless. We were so blessed to find George who took us on a journey of a lifetime!
Here is your little known fact for the day…. Actually today is bonus day and you get two .There is a sunken city about a mile from here that is over 4000 years old. There is a church here that has the only original floor known from that city (but we didn’t see it) the city itself has never
been excavated but some people say you can see it if you go scuba diving. Also, they tried to open up a McDonalds and ended up closing it because it did not do well! Can you believe it?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.049s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0295s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb