Sunday, August 26, 2007

every day - an adventure
or it could have been if we would've ignored the traffic lights and used the shortcut to get over one of Crete's most active streets.

our vacation started last week. with an anxiety attack. for some reason. the night before we left I couldn't sleep at all and all I could think about was how little I wanted to go and wouldn't it be nicer to stay home and focus on my next move. but once we were on the train to Kastrup's airport those feelings went away (thank God)

we arrived in Crete with very little sleep behind us and not sure what to expect from the hotel and it's location, the suburbs of Chania - which turned out to not be such a great thing.


the view from our balcony

the first few days nothing much happened, we found our local shop and the beach, we got royally bored with the restaurant at our hotel, we figured out how to get into the city and we swam in the pool. pretty much the boring charter life of a seventy something lady...

Monday morning we went to the supermarket and bought our tickets to the bus which would take us to Chania and our first sightseeing trip or maybe shopping trip, however you want to look at it. funny thing is, you don't have to wait at the bus stop; you just wave at the bus as it passes by and if the driver sees you he stops.


a very tired and warm dog, he was breating - we checked

Minoan Excavations in Chania

the Old Venetian Harbour


our next adventure wasn't until Wednesday when we, rather bravely, went up at six am to eat breakfast and hopefully get on the bus to Chania in time so we could catch the bus to Iraklion. and in Iraklion find another bus which would take us to Knossos, the Minoan palace. this trip lasted the whole day and we spent about eight hours travelling, one hour waiting for the guide to gather a large enough group and one hour looking admiringly at the old palace and imagining what it once looked like. a very productive day I must say.

The Moutains from the bus window on the ride to Iraklion

The sign to the entrance of the palace area
I do wonder why you are forbidden to bring your guitar with you

Knossos

View from the bus ride home


Thursday we spent at the beach and in the evening we went to our favourite restaurant which we found on Tuesday, our waiter greeted us with a smile and gave us water with the words "cold bottle water the life elixir of Crete". after dinner we were given a bottle of raki, one of the famous alcoholic beverages of Greece , and watermelon - we discovered that even if the booze was quite strong, you were ready for the next shot after a piece of watermelon. ~ we were given raki last time we ate there as well, only we didn't know what it was at the time. I thought it was water so I filled half my glass and took a mouthful of the liquid. boy, did my throat burn ~ anyway, after we had almost emptied the bottle of raki we went back to the hotel or rather the hotel bar where I ordered a glass of ouzo and let me tell you, that went straight to my head. I've never gotten that drunk that fast. dangerous stuff, especially when T could tape you at the time. which she did. so bad.

The restaurant where we drank our first raki


Friday morning I woke up with, what I believe to be, a sprained neck. I had to pay to my crimes from the other night I suppose. I quickly texted my mother begging for help to survive a day being the perfect tourist in Chania. after arriving in the city we didn’t get very far until I spotted one of my greatest weaknesses. shoes. more specifically. shoes on sale. needless to say I spent my last euros on those shoes. I could hardly feel the pain in my neck while shoe shopping. who says money can’t buy happiness

the perfect ending to the vacation


on the bus from the airport to the plane I even found the most adorable guy who I flirted shamelessly with.
to bad he was in his pram and about one year old…

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