Blogs from Crete, Greece, Europe - page 32

After a much needed night’s sleep we slowly woke up and had a light breakfast (croissants with Nuttella, who know such a thing existed?). We went and got a car for the week. All they had right then was a “jeep” which as it turns out is a Suzuki Vatara. Once I got over being in such a little car and afraid of certain death it wasn’t so bad. (OK, I’m still not used to it.) We headed out to the Lesithi Plateau. We went down one road and ended up on another and got lost and then found and then lost, etc (you get the idea). It took us about 2 hours to travel what ultimately was about 50km. Oh well, we saw lots of actual Cretan villages. We did finally make it up to ... read more

I went to Crete a Greek Island for my summer holiday this year. I chose this destination mostly because I knew it was a place to relax and enjoy long late days in the sun by the sea. A place were I actually could take a bath in the sea without getting frostbites and getting numb just by dipping your toe in the sea. I also chose this place because I had been here about 10 years ago and this is a place where I always wanted to go back to. I wanted to go back to the place where I got really drunk for the first time and where I ate the best pancakes I have ever had at "Clown pancakes". I traveled with Star tour Tui and went to Agia Marina and stayed at ... read more

Hey everyone, Hope all is going well back home! We're having a great time here in Crete. Our camera finally bit the dust so we bought a fuji for a "special price". Our hotel here is all inclusive so we've been taking in way too much food and booze. Last night was a Greek holiday of sorts when they celebrate the virgin Mary. The hotel hosted a great party including a live traditional band, greek food and of course we had some ouzo. Crete is also renouned for its Raki, 70% moonshine that they sell on the street in old water bottles... pretty harsh stuff. Tomorrow we're renting a car and heading to the city of Hania for some site seeing and shopping, and then to Previa beach for some palm trees and waves! To answer ... read more

Day 38- Wednesday It is almost the end of our Greek sojourn. All too short, of course. But this was really just a preliminary visit for both of us. Hopefuly there will be more.Tomorrow begins the journey which will take us to Turkey. We have been just organising this all stage by stage as were were not really sure how things would be, given that this is high summer. That has not really been a problem at all for us, other than that prices are higher. So on Thursday we take an 11 hour ferry ride back to Piraeus where, after a few hours' wait we will take another ferry to Samos , one of the north-eastern Aegean islands (midnight to 2pm so we have splurged on a windowless cabin- 53 euros). From there our forward ... read more

Yesterday we had to leave Santorini. Our package gave us a transport down to the ferry terminal about 5pm. On the way, attempting to communicate with the husband/ owner of our rather nice "Holiday Beach Hotel" I realised the answer to my musing yesterday of why all the womwn we had spoken to immigrants married to local Greek men (and whty the Greek mothers had allowed their sons to marry foreigners) . ...Of course the German, Polish etc women anre multilingual and readily add Greek to their list . That then excuses the middle-aged entrepreneurs from knowing more than the most rudimentary English. As I have implied before, Greece is very Greek. Although they have been participating in the tourist industry for a century or two they do not feel the need to make much accomodation ... read more