Paulette

Carla and I have a few hours before we fly to Crete.  We go to the Plakka and shop, shop, shop.  Some of the prices are very cheap.  I have limited space in my bags so I’m extra picky about what I get.  I don’t want to overdo it on the 1st day!

After shopping we head back to the hotel and swim/lounge by the pool.  What a relaxing time!

At 5PM we head to the airport.  Our flight is a little delayed and we arrive in Crete about 30 minutes late.  Carla’s friend Eva is there to greet us.  Her husband Manoli and kids Athony and Maria are with them.  They drive us to their place about 30 minutes away.

They live in a small town called Salida (?) in a bungalow on a hill.  They make us feel completely at home.  Her husband has been preparing food for us.  It’s almost 10PM and they bring out “dinner”.  Carla and I are thinking “It’s bedtime.  I’m really not hungry.”  But we sit down anyway to home-made fish soup, greek salad and Mousaka.  Oh my gosh this is so good.  All of the food is either picked fresh from their garden or bought locally.  Everything is organic.  Manoli used to be a chef and he’s an excellent cook.

This is the start of pigging out…

We took a half day tour of Athens today.  We started off by getting on the wrong tour bus.  A tour guide came into the hotel.  We told her who we were and she told us to get on the bus.  We get the best seats up front.  Everything is going so well.

Then once on the bus she asked for our tickets.  We didn’t have any.  Soon she’s telling us we are on the wrong bus.  They let us off at another hotel and tell us someone will come and get us.  Good grief…

We wait at the hotel and this small van comes with GO Tours on it.  Oh no, we are going on this tiny little thing.  The tour guide checks his list and no we aren’t on it.  Now I’m thinking we’ve missed our tour.  

Soon a big GO Tour bus comes along and they are happy to see us.  We sit behind a couple from Montreal.  We talk to them and they tell us they are getting off this bus and getting on a french tour bus.  We can have their front row seats.  They get off and we grab the front row.  Back where we started.  Things are going well.

We stop at one more hotel and oh my gosh I can’t believe it.  It’s the 2 smoking women from the previous night.  They take the seat directly behind us.  They smell like smoke.  Thank goodness they can’t smoke on the bus.

This tour is a good one.  The tour guide has a lot of information and we stop at the modern day Olympic stadium.  It’s beautiful.  We get out and take pictures. 

Our next stop is at the Temple of Zeus.  We get out to walk around and take pictures.  It’s amazing to see all these old sites.  The marble is weathered.   In the distance you can see the Acropolis.

We then head to the Acropolis.  There are tons of people there.  It looks like quite a task to climb to the top but we are assured that it is not.  We go to the Parthenon first and take that in.  It’s a bumpy terrain to walk on.  You have to be careful of your footing. 

We climb up to the Acropolis.  The view is tremendous.  It’s strange to be in front of this old architectural site.  It’s very windy at the top and dust is flying through the air.   We walk around the back and down areas where most tourists do not go.  It is very arid land with little but trees.

The tour ends here.  We are close to our hotel so we walk home rather than wait for the bus.  We were close enough to most of the sites though to have walked there ourselves.   The tour guide gave us a lot of information though.  He was very knowledgeable.