Yasus, Yamus and Effaristo Crete
Thursday, 14 August 2008
The long awaited summer holiday had arrived, and so our lust affair with Crete began. After a dodgy(ish) flight and a confusing bus service, we had arrived in Rethymno City to soaring temperatures and a pretty impressive beach - ahhh bliss!
We stayed with Tor and Dom in a little village called Messi, about 14km out of the main city. It was good to get into rural life that came with an overprotective 'spinning dog', a language we could barely understand and even the token old man and his donkey living across the road!
There are too many highlights, but there's a few:
- Gyros - tzaziki, shaved pork, onions, tomatoes and fries wrapped up in pita bread. Cheap as chips and very tasty
- Arkadi Monestary - a beautiful old monastery that was going to be invaded by the Turks, so they decided to blow themselves up before the Turks could
- Georgeopoulis - a morning of snorkelling then hiring paddleboats to go down 'Turtle Lake' to feed the turtles. Special mention to the little white church at the end of the rocky pier - did we or didn't we ...
- Spilli beach - we were told to swim where the locals swim and only jump off rocks that the locals jump off. This secluded beach had 6-8m high rocks that young kids were jumping off. Initimidating to do it, but worth it
- Preveli and Plakias beaches - scooter #1/4 got us there and only just got us back, but it was totally worth the trip. As was seeing the ANZAC monument, very impressive with a stunning backdrop
- Gramvousa - the mighty fortress with a hundred million steps to climb to reach it, but with a view worth more than a hundred million dollars.
As well as: hanging out with Dom in his office (the beach); meeting Tor and lots of new faces in the old town maze; vague recollections of a big night that started in hostel rethymno and ended up crashed out on the beach with slices of pizza; and of course the introduction to Raki - serbian styles (some would describe this as a cross between tequila and meths!).
posted by Em @ 7:16 pm,
