What a crazy 24 hours...a little while after I published my blog post last night, we were a bit hungry even though it was already about 1 am. Well, our Norwegian friends upstairs came down to join us for a bit and then went on a short stroll around our neighborhood before returning...with a whole bunch of Greek take-out to share with us.
So at 2 am, we had bit of a feast in our common area (except those who had already gone to bed, and Steven who had left for the airport already). It was quite fun actually even though Maggie and I were the only ones who ate much with Knut and Christopher. We had some chicken, some lamb, fries, veggies, and some other Greek food. Man, it was some of the better food I've had.
That fun though didn't give me much time to sleep (or pack) last night, since I had to wake up early for our ferry to Crete. I ended up getting about three hours of sleep. Oh well. Everyone was nice enough to wake up to say goodbye to us before we headed for the port.
We arrived with a bit of time to spare and entered what I would describe as a hotel on water. The Festos Palace ferry had everything you'd expect in a hotel...rooms (cabins), carpeted floors, and even a swimming pool.
Our trip took about 7 hours (an hour longer than they'd advertised), and we spent some of the time planning for Maggie and her mom's trip around Greek islands. Nice to get some sun and wear my new shades. : )
We found a hotel online in Heraklion, the capital city of Crete, where we would be arriving and staying for two nights. They had a great deal online for two nights, so we called for the reservation. Nice to have our reservation made before we arrived at the port. You could see plenty of clouds as we got closer. The weather is a bit cooler than it has been in the past month, but it's still quite nice.
After we arrived, we had no idea how to get to the hotel, so we grabbed a taxi and took a short five minute ride from the port. Man, it's a great hotel. Definitely a 5-star hotel here. I took pictures around the pool and from our room 'cause I thought it was so nice. The room is comfortable as well.
After setting our stuff down, we headed out toward the center of the port to get food 'cause we were hunnnnnnnnngry. We found a small restaurant where I had some risotto with chicken and mushrooms. It was a bit too creamy and a tad bland for me, but otherwise it was good.
We walked back towards the hotel and took pictures along the way. Quite fun. Heraklion reminds me more of Athens than I had originally imagined. Crete is actually quite a large island. Much of the architecture we saw seems to have quite a bit of Venetian influence.
Tomorrow, we're heading to the ancient Minoan palace of Knossos. I am so excited for this! It's going to be great. After that, we'll take a bus to Rethymno, a port town about an hour and a half west of Heraklion. We'll spend some time there before we hop on another bus for the hour or so ride even further west to Chania. We'll spend our evening there before taking the bus back to Heraklion. Should be a full day of pictures.
Maggie and her mom leave for Santorini on Tuesday morning, while Erinn and I will be heading back to Athens on an overnight ferry Tuesday evening. We'll arrived around 5 am on Wednesday, drop off our stuff at the guesthouse, and then take a bus at 7:30 am up to Delphi for the day. If we miss the bus (since the ferry did get into Heraklion one hour late today...), we may end up taking a taxi, which we've heard may be worth it as it's not all that expensive. We shall see.
Anyway, time for bed since we have an early day tomorrow. More after tomorrow's adventures.
Ciao,
Sam
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