Castello Hotel Heraklion

... were looking up! <br><br>We found a decent looking place to stay in (Kastro Hotel) on hostelbookers.com and opted to wander around there to see if we could get it a bit cheaper than on the net. Unfortunately, the map on the net wasn't correct and we ended up doing bog laps around Heraklion for AGES in the rain with our backpacks looking for the damn place. Every time we asked someone where it was they pointed us in another direction. I mean, if you don't know ...

... of a water flushing toilet.<br><br>Today we will wander around the old city with trips to the open air market and the archeological museum. <br><br>The ferry and airplane rides seem to affect my (Nancy's) inner ear in a way that on land, everything continues to move. It is annoying and made hiking up and down rocky hillsides a little extra challenging. Hopefully it will quiet down now that there are nop more ferry rides.

... Greek story tellers - the Minoans were highly organized and technologically advanced some 4000 years ago, and well before the Greeks. The palace grounds were bought from the Turks in 1900, by a British archaeologist, Harold Evans, and he spent the next 35 years investigating and restoring (controversially) the ruins. Well done Evans and another yah boo sucks to Lord Elgin. <br><br>We went to one of the beach front bars near Leoniki Residence for cocktails. The view at ...

... especially now that I am listening to Ave Maria on my iPod - the song I want to be married on, It makes me feel so calm, so peaceful. There are no words.<br><br>Holly

... 1700 BC, over earlier houses. Many artifacts from there are in the Iraklion Archeological Museum, such as rare tablets bearing the Linear A script, and a magnificent painted sarcophagus. From there, we moved on to Phaestos, one of the most important Minoan Palaces in Crete. There were two Palace Periods-first 1900 BC, then 1450 BC. Again, many items were discovered, the most famous being the 16 cm round, clay, Phaestos Disk. It is inscribed on both ...

Just finished reading Portraits by Cynthia Freeman. Makes me feel even more grateful for my family. I must be one of the luckiest girls around to have a family who love and support me.

Went out to dinner last night. Nicky &amp; Graham had given us a lovely card which us a great trip and £40! for us to spend so that we at least are able to go to dinner once - so that's what we did. We walked down to town. It's a pretty place build around teh bay with here and there a fisher's boat resting in the sea. Seeing all the restaurants we were afraid (well that's not really the right word but you know what I mean) of being hassled by every restaurand emplyee ...

... on it! Six pack mineral water and some fruit juice + two ice creams all for a wapping 26 Euros! There goes our budget! Now wlaking back up, Eve and I had some serious breathing difficulties! At least Eve had enough breath to talk sometimes :p - I was struggling even when simply nodding yes or no *g* We sat down in the shade for a wel needed rest before walking up a small steep path that would take us to ...

... Beach. Excitingly (well, we were excited about it, anyway) it even had a little kitchen, so we could cook for ourselves for the first time since leaving Canada - I've never been so excited about spaghetti or cornflakes in my life!!! After a quick run to the supermarket, we settled in with some German beer, Italian pasta and Greek sunshine, and proceeded to do very little for the next day and a half. It was awesome ...