July 16th - 18th - Crete, Greece

#1 thing I love about Greece.... the bus system is actually reliable! Alyssa and I have had such an easy time figuring out how to get around here!

#2 The people are just the best!

#3 other drivers are very considerate. Most roads are two lanes but have a shoulder. People usually drive half way into the shoulder so others can pass and generally always move over if someone else is driving faster.

I could live here. I may have to go back before the end of this trip. Crete is the southern most island Greece and also the largest. Although Alyssa and I did a lot we only saw a small portion of it and I loved every second.

We flew from Corfu to Crete and got on the last bus at midnight to our hostel. Alyssa and I are getting pretty good at figuring at how to find things in foreign countries where we don’t speak the language, NBD. The following day we woke up pretty late. I’ll just go ahead and be honest…. If sleeping was an Olympic sport Alyssa would win the gold and I would win the silver FOR SURE! If we don’t have an express plan or reason we have to get up in the morning we just don’t. Of course we feel a little guilty that we don’t completely seize everyday but it’s just who we are so there it is. It’s nice that we’re at least on the same page when it comes to hitting the snooze button over and over again. 

On our way to find the bus a lady in a shop talked to us, out of habit Alyssa and I kinda brushed her off assuming she wanted to sell us something but she didn’t at all! She was wonderful and just enjoyed talking to new people. She was very excited to meet Americans, she’s Russian and had just moved there and hadn’t met any Americans yet. She gave us a map and a bunch of bus information and later gave us a GREAT restaurant recommendation, more on that later. So far in our experience Greeks are wonderful people. Everyone we meet makes you feel like a member the family. Sort of how I pictured Italians to be but Greeks really are that way! So if you’re looking for a new best friend go to Ireland and if you’re looking for a new family go to Greece! If you don’t like people go to France, just kidding (kind of)!

OK, so we got up late and went to see the Archeological museum of Heraklion and because Greece knows how to do busses we found that thing like a champ! Unfortunately it was closed that day only due to a strike. We got on some hop-on/hop-off bus thing to get to Knossos Palace, the ruins of the oldest Minoan society. The Minoans were the first people of Crete and the earliest advance civilization. The first settlement dates back to 7000 BC and the first palace to 1900 BC. It was abandoned sometime between 1380-1100 BC. According to Greek mythology this is where King Minos lived with the labyrinth and Minotaur. The Athenians had to send 7 girls and 7 boys hunger games style to be given to the Minotaur. We paid for a tour so we would have some idea what we were looking at it was pretty interesting. I found the infrastructure to be the most fascinating.

The throne is original

How the room above was actually found prior to renovations

A door stop!

A system for running water. It separates out the grit, the grit
goes straight and collects while the water goes left downhill

original pipes

View from the top

Oldest road in the world

Theater

After Knossos we bussed back to our place and passed our new Russian bestie and asked her for a dinner recommendation. She recommended Uncle George’s which she said was precisely 7 minutes a way (it was more like 4). First of all it had a huge menu and the food was delicious AND we met our new Greek family! Uncle George’s son Kostas runs the restaurant with his sister and his brother runs the accommodations above the restaurant. Kostas lived on Long Island for 10 years, is a US citizen, and came back when his father passed away to run the restaurant. Meals in Greece take a minimum of 3 hours and they seem to always bring shots, dessert, fruit, or a combination and Kostas didn’t disappoint. I really liked the ouzo he brought, it had some sort of orange in it which was very tasty. Anyway he asked us what we were planning to do on the island and he didn’t like our plan so he gave us a new one! We rented a car for the next two days and he suggested we drive east one day and west the second!

A short break for Greek food.... I don't remember when I ate what so I'll just put them in order.

Greek Salad

Gyros, the french fries were inside. Most of them have very
fatty meat which is a little unfortunate

Tzatziki 

Mousaka, my favorite Greek dish,
eggplant lasagna with ground meat

Chicken Souvlaki

One of the free desserts we've gotten

Shrimp Saganaki

Above, Leper Island; Below, Agios Nickolous 

The following day Alyssa and I picked up our rental car and drove to Agios Nickolous. Most of the driving was a bit intense, on small very windy roads up and down the mountains. However it was all very beautiful. We enjoyed walking around the first town and headed to the second for some lunch and lay on a secluded beach that we found for awhile.

Loutro, one of the towns you can only get to on a ferry

The next day we hiked the Samarian Gorge, we had to drive three hours and take two ferries to get there. The two towns the ferry stopped in are only accessible by the ferry. The entire gorge is 11.5km but due to time we only did 2km. Normally people take a bus to the top and walk down but we didn’t have that kinda time so we walked up from the bottom and back down. It was gorgeous! We were told where the most beautiful spot was so we made sure to walk past that. After the hike we drove to Rythemno, a Venetian city on Crete. The streets are very tiny and do look a bit like Venice. We asked a local for a restaurant recommendation, had dinner, walked around a bit and went back to Uncle George’s. We didn’t have a place to stay that night so Kostas hooked us up at his brother’s place.

 

Lunch before the hike. This feta cheese was different than
any other we had, it was extremely light and sort of fluffy almost
I could live on Greek salad!

Our car is the blue one, you can park wherever in Greece too!

Beautiful sunset in Rethimnon...

Rethimnon

Dinner in Rethimnon...

The left one is a pepper feta dip and right is olive

Delicious spanikopita, the inside was creamy and the outside
was perfectly flaky. In the states it's usually too much philo
and not enough spinach but this one had a perfect ratio.

Rabbit for dinner!

Uncle George's