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…

I’ve been thinking quite a lot about the school thing.
let’s face it. it’s soon time for me to make a decision: will I go back or not? after a lot of contemplating (and I do mean a lot!) I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m not quite ready yet.

here's how I see it: as a teacher you should know a thing or two about life and the students should be able to ask advice from someone with a wee bit of wisdom and knowledge (still not talking about Buffy trivia). and I don’t have it!
I guess we all grow up at different paces and I suppose I’m a slow grower. I might be mature enough to work at an old folks home but I’m definitely not ready to help raise the future citizens of our world. and trying to guide them when I don’t know where to go. not such a good idea. sure, I’ve got three more years until I’m finished but I don’t think that’s enough time for me. I'm going to wait at least one more year ‘til I go back, maybe even two.

I do know I want to be a teacher one day. I just need to know who I am before I can try to help other people to find their way. I’m still a bit lost, but not in a identity-crisis-panicky sort of way (thank God) but more in the sort of way where I know where I’m headed and I just need to find the right path.

if that makes any sense…

the trip is booked and paid for. the adventure awaits.

the train towards Kastrup leaves at 4.22 a.m. on August 18 with me and T on it (can’t say I’m too pleased with such an early morning, but hey it means that we’ll reach our destination before noon)

Theo's Village (our hotel)

it’s been awhile since my last trip and then I went alone. Kastrup was just a huge lonely place with tons of strangers walking around. this time will be different. a whole new experience. going abroad with one of my best friends.

Kato Daratso (where our hotel is located)

we decided we wanted to go somewhere warm with lots of sun, culture, nice food and cute boys (last bit applies to me since T is taken these days) and the natural choice was Greece. T opted for Crete and I obliged even though I’ve been there once before. we’re even staying near the same city, Chaina, but I expect it to be quite different this time seeing as last time was about 10 years ago.

so the next few weeks I’ll be working and checking off the list I wrote with things to do before we leave. among other tings; packing and are three pairs of shoes, apart from the pair I’ll be travelling in, enough for one week?

sometimes I get weird impulses. an idea pops into my head and it sounds fantastic in the moment. but later: not so much. usually when I get one of these impulses I find it hard to let go until I’ve tried it out. the “incident” which took place last week was a direct result of this.

I was meeting T in Malmö and it was a nice day, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and I’d just bought a new pair of shoes. as we were walking from the Triangle I said “it’s a nice day, why don’t we rent a paddleboat?” (something I've wanted to do for quite some time) with no clue what’s in store for her T says yes and we make our way to the canal and rent a boat for an hour and a half. we then decide to paddle towards the library. as we float along we spot cute guys, even cuter ducklings and, after passing a bridge in the making, a bike. a bike which is half way down in the water. naturally (did you really expect anything else?) I want to check it out and we do. next thing you know we’ve decided to save the poor bike from the horrible fate of drowning. T jumps over to land and pulls it up while I try to hold the boat steady ashore. not the easiest thing to do when you’re laughing and photographing at the same time.


voila. she succeeds and climbs back into the boat where we decide to ask the police what we should do with our new friend. but first is first and we have about an hour left of paddling to do. so we paddle along enjoying the weather and the calmness that floating on water creates. we return the boat to the renters and start to think about what to do next. eat or go to the police? I voted for the police/bike combo. so that’s what we do.
when we arrive at the bike we realise that where we successfully pulled the bike up, was actually a construction site. which creates a new problem. are we allowed to go in there to get the bike? after spending about 30 minutes on the phone we’re told to take the bike to the station at Davidshall. so we did. to bad the station wasn’t open. T spends another 40 minutes on the phone, trying to find someone who will take the bike from us.
at last the station on Drottninggatan agrees to take the bike mainly because no one else will. so we walk and walk and walk (you see where I’m going with this, right?) and walk some more. hungry and tired we arrive and finally the bike is gone. and we completed our mission: doing what we can to return the bike to it’s rightful owner.

what started out as an adventure, with an act of humanity in the middle, ended with a question. is it worth trying to be a good citizen when it’s obviously not encouraged by the community we live in? should it be this hard and time consuming, about 2hrs, to drop of a found, possibly stolen, object to the police? I don't know. I just hope that if my bike gets stolen (again) and someone finds it that they will take the time to turn it over to the police (again).

btw I was accepted to the Creative Writing course in the fall. mah here I come. again =)

I’m going to take a wild guess and assume that no one living in Skåne or in Sweden has missed the constant raining this week. it’s been so bad that the basement at my job got flooded. at one point the water was over one meter high and our boss was talking about possibly evacuating the old folks living at the home. she also sent someone to buy flashlights in case the power went out.

the basement is, when it’s not filled with water, where we have our locker room, the storage room and the tanning bed (which I’ve never used btw). when I went down to check on it the first time, the water was still clean and even if it was a bit strange to wade around in 20 cm high water to get my clothes, lucky I did since no one was allowed down there later because of the risk of getting electrocuted , it was kinda neat. a new experience. naturally I managed to get wet despite the rubber boots I was wearing.
the second time I went down there the water was all dirty and funky looking and, I know this will make me sound like a total dork, but it felt a bit like a scene from a catastrophe-type-of-movie, water coming in everywhere, no one really knowing what was going on, the boss freaking out and calling pretty much everyone who could help (the firemen, a few plumbing companies, her boss) and of course the pump outside trying to remove the water.

I know I shouldn’t make a big deal or complain about all the things which got ruined (quite a few people got their things destroyed in the lockers and what if we run out of diapers) since it’s so much worse on other places. but I tend to be somewhat self absorbed and this is the first time something like this has affected me personally, guess I can’t ever say that again, so it’s a milestone. a weird one but still a milestone.
I can’t wait to get to work tomorrow to see how it looks.