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Irakleio
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The last 30 minutes on the ferry to Crete I went out onto the deck to get a look at my next destination. To my surprise this huge landmass with green, lush, rolling hills greeted me. Crete is the largest island in Greece, probably around 200 miles long given that it takes about 6 hours to get from one end to the other on the winding mountain roads. I was starting in the middle (Irakleio) and working my way west toward Kissamos, before heading to the Penelopense. My agenda was undecided and when I met Katie, Becca, and Daniel it became an adventure "on the fly." Little did I know how great it would be.
Arriving in Irakleio we headed for the city center to find a room. Right away the island feel disappeared. All the other islands were tiny, residing very close to the water and not at all spread out. Iraklio was very much the opposite. Big town, with lots of people, tourists and islanders, going about their business. Lacking the beauty and color like the other islands I had been on; it was somewhat run down and industrial. Our reason for staying a couple days was to go to Palace of Knosos and the archeological museum that is highly recommended.
Checked in to Hellas Rent Rooms and starting figuring out our plan. Found out the museum was closed for restorations... bummer, it was supposed to be as good as the one in Athens. Then we did more reading on Knosos and found out it's basically a recreation of Mayan civilization based on some British archeologist interpretation. Not having the best reviews from multiple sources and being rainy the next morning we decided to go to the Crete Aquarium, supposedly one of the best in Europe. Hadn't been to an aquarium in years and this was a nice break from the ruins and museums that were dominating my days thus far. While Daniel took a million photos, he's a photographer, Katie, Becca, and I wandered around the fish tanks trying to find Nemo, Octopus, and Sharks. In the end it wasn't the best aquarium I had been to, but a nice thing to do on a rainy day in Iraklio. That afternoon we got our bags and fresh laundry from the Laundromat and boarded a bus for Chania. It took us days before the awe of fresh smelling laundry grew old, never take clean clothes for granted. We had two days before Katie and Becca were leaving for Cyprus and the plan was hike the Samaria Gorge, the largest in all Europe. Finally I would get my hiking in!
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