Goodbye to Crete

0Josh • 27th Oct 2006 • blog entries, travel

Its been a wonderful two days here on the sunny island of Crete, its hard to believe that tomorrow afternoon we will depart after spending an entire week here and start our journey home.  We will stay two days in Athens, another evening in Paris, and then begins the long series of flights from Paris to NY, and NY to Seattle.

Yesterday we took a tour of some traditional villages up in the mountains, we had hoped to take another tour with a different company, but they had already closed up shop for the season.  This was a great tour though, and much cheaper than the other one ;).  We saw life in traditional, 600 year old village.  They built the alleys and streets so small and similar, as to confuse pirates if the village was ever looted.  There was an old grandma who had opened part of her family’s home up as a museum filled with old photos, farming tools and clothes from the old days.  It was very interesting for me especially to think that this could have been how my Greek ancestors lived less than 100 years ago.  We also saw a church from the 12th century (or what was left of it) that the villagers still use to this day.  The tour-guide was very funny, and all of the narration was given in German and English.  We stopped at a cafe on our way back, and were surprised with local house wine and a sample of food.

Today after a breakfast on the balcony of our condo we spent some more time at the sea, riding the waves on our 4 euro inflatable mattress.  The water isn’t *warm* but it definitely isn’t cold either.  After getting some sun and getting soaked with salt water for a few hours, we packed up and headed back. This afternoon we went horseback riding on the beach.  We were picked up at our condo by the owner, she took us to her stables where we met her husband who took us on our two hour ride. The first half an hour we spent on the local roads and trails making our way down to the beach. We had an hour on the beach walking, trotting and cantering past the tourists and then headed back.  After realizing how incredibly sore we were from a 2 hour ride, we were given a ride back to our condo where we had just enough time to shower and change for the evenings meal served at the hotel. Tonight was cretian food night here and there was also live music and traditional dancing.  After nearly 2 hours of eating and watching the entertainers, we are about to head back to our room and start packing up for the morning.