Villa Sophia Apartments Platanias

... lashings of olive oil (hand pressed by an old lady in Argyroupoli).

On the Beach

On Wednesday we decided to visit the ancient sites of Phaestos and Gortys south east of Rethymno, with a brief stop at Matala to check out the beach. Matala is on the south coast of Crete and not as popular with the mass tourist markets, although it was popular with hippies in the 60s - Bob Dylan and Cat Stevens holidayed there. It proved ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... the sunrise by the nearby waterfront, and now I'm sitting at a cafe getting breakfast. This is an experience I would highly recommend.

I've been exploring the harbor and old town for about two hours now and I'm loving the Venetian architecture and the relaxed atmosphere. The rest of the day was spent trying in vain to rent a car-you have to be 23, and then taking a bus to try to get to some cool monasteries. Of course, afer being ...

... bus bound for Chania.

Arrived in Chania after 9pm, and made our way to the Spirit Lounge, where we met up with Debra, Willie and Neasa and collected the keys to our Splantzia townhouse!! Enjoyed a few draught lagers and a burger before retiring to the house. Been on the go for some 30+ hours !!!

... drinkers they were! We must mention cats. The Greek people seem to be very fond of cats, but don't really own them. Most are feral cats which are semi-wild and live in the streets. People will put out food and water for them, but nobody is totally responsible for the cats. Of course, they have not been neutered, so reproduce and cause more strays to wander around. Now, in beach communities, the cats have it made, because they have the biggest litter box you can imagine ...

... of the mountain toward the sea. Somehow, Matt and Judy passed right on by when David and Gail were in the Cave of St. John, and carried on down toward the beach thinking we had walked further. When we got back to the car and didn't find Matt and Judy, we couldn't figure out where they were. They ended up doing a longer hike than expected. We told them they were conditioning for the Samaria Gorge! On ...

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 ...

... sitting here :o) It took quite a feet to get here though. I Malame we had to wait at leats an hour for our bus. Every busdriver that passed in a bus said "the next bus!" We wondered if we ust imagined reading about the bus to Kastelli. We wlaked to the next bus station when - finally- a helpful man from the bus told us it wouldn't be here for another 20 minutes.