Alex and I traveled to Greece to experience one last country. I promise, even though it may look like it in comparison to what you’re about to see in this post, my Ireland and Scotland pictures were not in black and white.
We stayed on the island of Crete for 7 days where we saw blue as can be waters, archaeological sites from the Minoan era (27th-15th century B.C.), a former leper colony island, Venetian fortresses, and Zeus’s birthplace. We also did a day trip to the island of Santorini, which was absolutely beautiful!
Here are a couple of maps to give you an idea of where we went. Places mentioned in this post are circled in red.
We flew into Heraklion, the capitol of Crete. Our first couple of days were just trips into Hersonissos, a small town near the hotel. We took a bus into the town, we had to walk 20 minutes to get to the bus stop and then it was another 7 minute bus ride. Their bus system uses coach buses. This made it hard to tell when the bus we wanted was coming since every other vehicle was a coach due to all the tourism.
Another night we had dinner in old Hersonissos – took a taxi this time as we would have had to take the same bus as before and then walk another half hour after the bus up a mountain to get there. We were recommended some traditional Greek foods and some of the local’s favorites at this restaurant. My favorite was a feta cheese dip. It's called τυροκαυτερή and is made with feta cheese, Greek yogurt and spices. Here’s a link to a recipe if you want to try it, I know I’m going to try!
We also had the Greek salad everyday at our hotel’s all inclusive buffet. They also served Cretan foods every night, which were fun to try.
The next trip we took was to Spinalonga, an island that served as a Venetian fortress, a Turkish Village, and a home for a leper colony (until just 50 some years ago) when they were banned from society to this island, they couldn't even swim as to not infect the waters. We took a boat to the island and then went to another small island to swim for a bit. Afterwards we boated back to Agios Nikolaos, the port we left from, to see that city (remember to check out the maps!).
The next day was the first of two days we rented a car. We actually forgot to mention that we needed automatic when we first signed up for a car, but luckily they had one of them for us the day we picked it up. We decided renting a car would be a great way to see more of the island rather than just signing up for excursions so we could see different things and stop whenever we wanted to check something else out. We first went to Knossos, which is Crete’s largest archaeological site of the Minoan civilization, afterwards we headed to Georgioupolis bay to see the beach. It was beautiful when you were swimming in the ocean and looked back at the beach and could see mountains in the distance rising up into the clouds of the bright blue sky. After spending some time here we headed to see the only freshwater lake on Crete, Kaunos Lake. It was between different mountains which made it so calm compared to the ocean on the coast which got pretty windy. Then we went to see the hot springs of Agripouli, which were unfortunately not as cool as they sounded.
The next day was a trip to Zeus’s birthplace, the Diketo Antro Cave. To get there we drove an hour up and over a mountain then around a huge plateau between mountains – Lassithi Plateau. Once we got to the site we had to walk up more of the mountain to get to the cave. The story goes – Cronus was cursed by Uranus that his children would try to overthrow him from his reign. Cronus then ate all his children so that this wouldn't be possible. His wife, Rhea, couldn’t stand to see one more child eaten by Cronus so she hid baby Zeus from his father by giving birth to him in this hidden cave on Mount Dicte on Crete, where she left him to be raised by the dyrads of the woods.
That same day we headed to the south part of Crete to Matala where a couple of highly recommended beaches are. The first is called Red Beach and just so happened to be a nude beach, which was a new experience (I didn’t take part, just enjoyed the red sand and cliff next to the beach). An interesting thing about this beach is that you need to hike a pretty rocky hill (I considered it a mountain but I didn’t want to seem exaggerative) to get to it. Second was Kommos Beach, which was made up of pebbles. As you get closer to the water and the waves rushing up, you can see the pebbles getting smaller and smaller in size, eventually turning into sand at the water.
Our second to last day was a day trip to the island of Santorini. It was a 3 hour boat ride to get there, but it was definitely worth it to see. Once there we took a bus to Οία (or Ia in English), which is most often used to depict Santorini with its picturesque white buildings and blue domed churches. After some time there we went to Firostefani and walked along the coast to Fira, the capitol of Santorini, and spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around the city. Santorini produces wine, pastachios, and olives. We learned a bit about its history - Santorini was believed to be Plato’s Atlantis (The circular island) lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" in approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune.” Possibly from a volcano eruption? An eruption of the volcano wiped out the Minoan civilization on Crete from a tsunami and caused the formation of smaller islands of Santorini. Today you can see that the islands that make up Santorini are in a circular shape. The amount of photos we took on this island is ridiculous and I can’t help but show them off!
Our last day was just packing up and staying in the shade as we had gotten a heavy dosage of Vitamin D compared to what we were used to in the UK. Hopefully you didn’t get tired of all the pictures; I will be posting even more on facebook for those of you who want to see more!
This was the last trip during my adventures abroad.. for the year of 2011 anyway :) I hope you all enjoyed reading about my travels. I come back to the states in about 3 days, and I am so excited to be home for a bit with the family! Hopefully the flooding in Omaha won’t prevent me from getting home the 22nd! Stay tuned for future happenings in the life of Josie.
