Road Triping in Crete

If only Greece was closer to home I would pack up and move here in a heartbeat.  To put it simply, the food is amazing, the people are amazing and the views are of course amazing.  After spending a week in Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, I have already fallen in love with the culture of this amazing country.  It is to date easily my favourite place I have visited.  We finally arrived at Agios Nikolas after a long 24hrs where the receptionist had been waiting patiently for our arrival.  Being too tired to sleep we decided to spend some time by the pool as it was forecast for 40+ degrees.  Taking the opportunity to nap for a few hours here and there we headed into town to have a late lunch.  My first taste of Greek was not traditional at all but being too tired to actually taste food I settled for a chicken burger and chips.  It was surprisingly delicious and we enjoyed sitting by the bay for a quiet afternoon before heading home for an even quieter night and a good nights sleep with an amazing view from our balcony.

Day two and we were much livelier so we decided to head to the beach for another scorching 43 degree day.  It was about a 10 minute walk and in the heat of the day, that was far enough let me tell you!  The view was breathtaking and well worth the effort, the water is bluer than any picture can show so we spent the morning soaking up some sunshine before another late lunch. This time we decided to eat by the beach at a cute little restaurant with some set menu options.  This was my first real taste of how amazing the locals are here.  The moment we arrived the owner made sure we were sitting right beside a fan and that we were drinking some water.  I opted for the tzatziki with pita bread, Sole fish with salad and garlic potatoes and mixed Ice cream for dessert.  The meal was amazing but I have to comment on the tzatziki. I have tasted a lot of tzatziki over the past week (it may have become a habit to have this before most meals, delicious) and this one was easily the best I have had.  It was of course homemade and I think the owner should start selling this commercially as it was amazing.  Between our entree and our main is the moment I fell for the Greek! To keep us entertained he came out with a bunch of puzzles, similar to rubix cubes, for us to solve.  Mine was meant to be a circle...as you can see from the photo I failed to put it together but we ended up staying for hours after our meal testing out about 6 of his puzzles. 
It was time to give our brains a rest so we headed back to the pool to try and cool off for the afternoon.   It was a great way to spend the day and we again had an early night as our lack of sleep was still catching up with us.  The most we could muster up for dinner was making ourselves chicken and salad sandwiches before crawling under the covers.

We decided to take advantage of this insane heat wave so we made plans to catch a bus to one of the local water parks.  About an hour on the bus and we arrived at a wet and wild type adventure park and we were there for around 5 hours.  I think we managed to go on all the rides as well as have a break by relaxing in a donut floating down the river.  The day was so much fun when we arrived home we decided we would head into town for some dinner and a few cocktails.  I decided on a traditional greek tasting plate.  It included stuffed tomatoes, mousaka, beef rissoles, beans and stuffed vine leaves.  It was so filling, but the mousakka, a traditional greek dish similar to lasagne but with a layer of egg plant, was easily the best part of the meal.  The flavour of the eggplant and the spices used gave it a sweet taste that is unlike any lasagne you have tasted.  After checking out a few of the local bars we decided to head home as we had planned a day of exploring the island.

We decided to hire a car for the next 5 days and explore more of the island than we first anticipated as we were unaware of how much there was to see.  We had originally planned to drive down to Chrissy Island, however the weather was so windy all of the ferries were cancelled over to the island.  It wouldn’t be a road trip without malteasers so we made a quick detour to the supermarket before we decided to take the opportunity to drive around the East coast, our first stop being Via.  It was a beautiful palm tree beach that seemed to appear out of nowhere, but we decided to spend a few hours here again working on our tans.  It was a gorgeous day driving with lots of little stops on the way but so very strange to adjust to not only being on the wrong side of the road while driving, but everything being reversed, luckily the accelerator and brake where in the same spots!
We took the opportunity to check out Elounda, a small town nearby for dinner.  The port area was lovely and we settled for a restaurant that looked to have good seafood.  Lets just say that I am not longer going to try grilled calamari without it first being recommended to me as it was worse than the one in Barcelona!

The next day we were back on the road heading towards the west coast of the island.  We had heard magnificent things of Ballos Lagoon so we packed up all of our things and made the 4 hours journey over to the other side of the island.  The drive was very scenic but on arrival to what we thought was the top of the mountain we found out we needed to make the 1000 step track to the lagoon.  It was so very tempting to take a donkey taxi, but we soldiered on and it was certainly an oh wow moment.  We spent all afternoon here with our packed sandwiches for lunch before heading back to the small town of Kissamoss for the night.  After the disappointment of seafood the previous night I stuck with what we have decided is our fallback option in Greece, mousakka with a greek salad to share (kinda like a chicken parma is for an aussie where you can’t decide what to order so you just choose mousakka!)  The locals at this family run restaurant were amazing and after finishing work they showed us around the town, somewhere I wish I we were staying for more than a night as everyone we met here was so friendly.

Coincidently our breakfast the next day provided by our hotel was at the same restaurant.  I realise I have had little to say about breakfast in the past.  Before heading overseas I loathed the word breakfast and would purely because I knew I had to. It has taken 20 or so years, but I am not looking forward to breakfast each morning! My newest addiction is Cretan honey with greek yoghurt and muesli.  This was one of the nicest breakfasts I have had since being away with the inclusion of stewed like tomatoes with the most amazing flavour ever and feta on toast. 
After saying farewell to our new favourite town we headed to the bustling Chania to spend a night.  It was just that, a bustling city with a large number of tourists crawling the streets.  We had an early dinner, grilled salmon with potatoes and a side salad, while watching the sunset of the beach.  The salmon was cooked to perfection and my only real disappointment was the large amount of bones I had to pick out before swallowing.  We then headed into town to check out the old town and the port.  There were some beautiful views including the lighthouse and well worth the walk before hitting the hay.

Another early morning drive heading towards Crete’s capital, Heraklion.  We decided to head out of town for breakfast to  Venizelou’s tomb, an influential Greek politician.  The tomb is located on a cliff face with some gorgeous cafes and views overlooking Chania.  I settled for a Cheese and Bacon crepe and it was a great start to the morning.  Back in the car to the next stop, Tzagarolon Monastery, one of few monasteries where Monks still live today.  I had no clue what to expect, but it was beautiful.  The old buildings were a sight on their own, but the well kept grounds make the place stunning.  We have also come to notice the large number of stray cats that wander Greece, the monastery was no exception as they wander around like the own the place.  Next stop was for lunch and a dip in the Kourna Lake.  I opted for a refreshing ceaser salad, although it was drowned in dressing, while sitting on a cliff face overlooking the lake.  It was a nice change from the beach to be looking out at the mountains when swimming versus the endless horizon of the sea.  Our last stop before our final destination was Rethimno where we wandered the old town and the beach.  Another town that would be lovely to stay over in as the stretches of beach were magnificent.  We finally reached our destination of Heraklion which evidently is a large industrial city with not a great deal to do or see for the tourist.  We headed to a strip of restaurants and being as hungry as I was, I took the fallback option of mousakka!  Definitely not as nice as previous encounters but still nice enough to continue being the fallback option in future should I need it.

Finally the long awaited day of our departure to Santorini arrived.  We couldn’t be more excited to head to one of, if not the most famous Greek Islands of them all.  A ferry did not leave until 4pm so we had a late brunch in town, I opted for a bacon and cheese baguette.  I found it very strange that all the meals are served with potato chips at this cafe, but that did not stop me gobbling them down!
It was time to drop of our trusty car and head to the port for our ferry.  The sun was belting down so we took cover under shade and met some other travellers also waiting for the ferry.  It was a long wait as we didn’t end up departing until 5:30pm. It was an enjoyable ride seeing the sunset and meeting some more backpackers along the way before finally arriving around 11:30pm.  

We are now in Santorini loving life here and look forward to giving you updates on the delicious food and amazing time we are having the next time I stumble across wifi, but for now we are off to check out the night life xoxox