Aparthotel Sofia/Mythos Beach Rethymnon

... was the end of the holiday season in Crete so fewer travel options were available. We lucked out at the Hertz rental location, a short walk from the ship. They offered us two cars for the day at the price of a van. One was an Opel which Holly drove with passengers Bill, Angela and Sandra. I ended up with the sporty and tiny model, a Peugeot 107 (similar to a Mercedes Smart car) that was perfect for the narrow island roads. It was great to have David as a ...

... next day and caught a cab back in to Chania. We then caught the bus back to Heraklion (or Iraklio) and the fun of finding somewhere to stay for our second night on Crete began.

P!ssing down with rain, no cagoules, no money, hungry, nowhere to stay - it was pretty rubbish. Crete is a pretty ****** place as well. Lots of graffiti around and dog poo on the footpaths. But, we managed to get another credit card working and then found an internet cafe ...

... our favourite bakery had run out on Monday night and he had to do with another sweet pastry shaped like a dog ****, and another that appeared to be covered with fine hair. Normal service was resumed the following day though.

Chania

On Tuesday we drove to Chania to visit the Allied war graves at Souda Bay. On the way (sort of) we detoured into the hills to see the ruins of Aptera. This is the site of an ancient city ...

... are lots of shops calling themselves supermarkets, but they are really souvenir shops. The supermarket was part of a chain called Lidl with all the usual things, but mostly in large volumes. We stocked up on breakfast supplies, water coffee and milk (our less than perfect Greek made understanding this carton difficult but the picture of a cow was a fair indication, and when we got it out later it had "Semi-Skimmed Milk" written on the ...

... donkeys wait to take any unlucky hiker who couldn't finish and had to be taken back.

At the end of the hike, we only had to walk 2 km more to get to the Libyan Sea, the perfect place to jump in after a long, sweaty hike. This end of the island was super remote and we ended up in one of the tiniest villages I've ever seen. There wasn't an ATM either, so luckily Brenden had cash, otherwise we would've missed the last boat to the last bus in Chania.

We ended up taking a bus to a town called Rethmynos to see this big old fortress with a mosque and a church within it, overlooking the water. It was interesting enough, but then we headed to the main part of town, which our "trusty" Lonely Planet had referred to as the second most charming city in Crete. I can only come to the conclusion that Crete is full of some **** cities. It was a weird ghost town full of ...

... a while but I am really ready and looking forward to it! Flying into Vancouver next wednesday then somehow getting over to Victoria where will meet dad, Lena and Karen then on friday mom is arriving! oh man it is going to be so much fun! then on sunday we are all flying home together! Which I think is really nice!

So thats about it have to get out in that sunshine to keep up my dark tan ;-)) Life is so hard!!!

... felt safer?? SO one time I couldn't wait to many beers with the boys so went down to the bathroom and after I heard a humming form someone and KNEW it was that guy so waited for a bit in the bathroom then realized this is ridiculous it's the middle of the day all my friends are upstairs (the bathroom you have to walk past the pool down stairs) so walk out well there is Pakistan freakily waitng I walk past (now let me remind you I am in my bikini) and he goes hey ...

... had gyros in Oia. Santorini was once a round island but a volcano exploded many years ago and has made it into a semicircle shape with lots of cliffs. I would recommend googling pictures of Santorini- just beautiful. The 4 wheeler we had seemed not have great difficulty with hills. It did really well for most of the day until we got to one hill that was short but really steep. We started up it and watched our speed slowly drop until it wouldn ...

To my little sister

- And jealous? :p Oh we really should have brought Ollie with us - so many cats to play with! What do you think mum & Babe would think if I brought one (Cesar) home? *g* Lots of love from sunny Crete

Sis & Eve

~*~

To Tini

-As promised a card from our next destination. Still on crete but 2,5 hours further on ...