Rethymnon Mare Hotel

... pashas – have all left their mark on towns and villages throughout the island. We had opted against booking an organized tour and decided to team up with our new friends: FIU lecturer David Rifkind (who had given an amazing talk about Crete the previous evening), his wife Holly, Toronto realtor Bill Thom and his girlfriend Angela. It made for a group of six and our attempt to find a van that we could drive ourselves was difficult due to the fact ...

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 ...

... Jewish settlers brought in from Venice. The owner/waiter was a little rude, more intent on flirting with two middle aged blonde women of indeterminate origin, than serving us. The meal was fine though.

Our driving has improved – Chris navigates and Kevin drives in a much more relaxed manner than our earlier expeditions, negotiating the narrow, crowded streets even overtaking slower drivers on the motorway. A far cry from ...

... 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 ...

... i want some new greek sandals!!! I am taking the over ngiht ferry to Athens on thursday arrivi9ng at 6 AM aghhhh I am going to ehad over to the hostel right away and leave my bag there I am so excited to walk down the streets I walked for 5 weeks and to smell the smells and to eat the food and to see if I recognize anyone!

I am getting so ridiculously excited to come home!!!! YAYYYY!!! I am ready now ...

... now! alright and he was just WEIRD from the beginning no one asked him to come no one invited him (NOT that we would not have of course any of us would have said hey come with us but instead your man freakily walked behind us and then started talking to us like we were all best frieds..)

So we go to the pool bar and let me tell you the pool bar is this GREAT place a nice pool the deep end has to be at least 8 feet and the water is crisp and clean where you ...

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 ...

... too. Many of which we were only ones. We did however use it to our advantage, as you do when you are poor b.packer, and only went in when we got something out of it. Ended up drinking with the owner of one bar and drinking many free shots and getting quite íntoxicated´, ended up going skinny dipping with my new found friend on the black sanded beaches of Perissa and staying up very, very late. Hangover. Paid for tour of ...