Minos Rethymnon

... and we had about one hour before the ship was scheduled to sail at 8 pm. Sandra was nursing a cold (blame the bus air conditioning), so she headed back to the ship with David and Holly while the rest of us strolled the shops that were still open. I found a couple of reasonable souvenirs among the stores offering traditional Cretan artwork, copies of pieces from different archaeological museums, jewelry and embroidery. And Yahoo! I found an ATM ...

Well I suppose we were pretty spoilt in Santorini. But I have to say Crete wasn't exactly what we had in mind!

We left Santorini on the slow boat (took about 3 hours) to Crete (which we heard was fabulous) and were sorely disappointed!

The weather was grey and pouring with rain - like really p!ssing down - and neither of us had any wet weather gear (or cagoules). Bugger. Not such good weather for people with yucky head colds!

Anyway, we ...

... a few wrong turns on the way home over a winding mountain road with not a lot of signage and it was about 8.30 by the time we got back to Platanes, and dark, which made driving even more difficult. Lidl supermarket was still open and we bought more tomatoes and cucumber to go with oil, bread, sausages and fetta cheese for dinner. Chris had some left over baklava for his dessert, of course.

We never made it to Phaestos or Gortys.

... seemed to be 60km/h, but the traffic flow was generally double that, so we moved as far right as possible and let everyone pass, whether in no-passing areas or on blind bends. After about an hour, as we drove beyond Rethymno we could see another road to seaward where we reckoned Platanes should be, but could not find a way to get to it. The instructions from RCI were from Iraklio and mentioned a village called Scalletta. We found that ...

... Greek buses-my neck actually kept whipping up as I slept on a later bus to Heraklion. Needless to say, I will not miss Greek public transportation). Once we got to the top of the mountain, we got out of the bus only to be assailed by a lot of unpleasant wind. Some ***** who we dubbed the Last of the Samarians kept making us move to the back of the line because Courtney hadn't put her sneakers on yet. Then we were finally off on the part of the Greece trip ...

... stores with an underwhelming waterfront. We were glad in a way that we had gone though, if only to affirm that Chania was the best city to stay in. We got back to Chania for another late dinner -people eat so freaking late in Europe...I even saw a woman in sequinned booty shorts pushing a baby carriage around 11pm. Anyway, we went to bed early, but still dead tired, to get up for the 7:30am bus to Samaria Gorge.

... 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!!!

... how lucky am I to be Canadian where I am allowed to walk free and where I don't get harassed and where I don't have to ask for permission for anything. it's weird and freaky and good and bad all at the same time. I don't knwo what else to say it messes your ehad a little bit and makes you sad at the same time. And then you think wow maybe you take everything for granted you travel around europe by yourself having good and bad things happen but at least you have the choice.

... are sitting on a terrace sipping fresh orange juice, enjoying baklava and listening to Grecian radio. Nex t week we will try to take a ferr to Italy so whish us good luck! I hope you are well and not becoming too jealous *g*

~*~

SMS from mum

- Liesel are you wlaking through the (Samarian) Gorge now? At the end you can take a boat. Love mama

... and embracing with all the people we desire. Separate the kids from their parents, and - as the saying goes - "Let the village raise the child." Let the world be our family. We can all be each other's brothers, sisters, moms, dads, boyfriends, and girlfriends. We can grow strong as individuals, free to roam and follow our dreams and love and love and not be tied down. When we need a father to teach us how to tie our shoe, we'll ask the nearest man. When we need a ...