Crete, Greece 2007

Hi, my dear readers! :)

As it's November already and it's not a nice time of the year to go somewhere and take photos, I'll tell you about another countries I have visited in my life (and show photos, of course). I hope there will be enough posts for long winter evenings ^^ All of them I'll put under a label `journeys`.

Sunset from the hotel

And today I'll tell you about my 12 days trip to Crete, Greece. I was there with my family in August 2007 and although I don't like hot weather and trips to countries where everyone just swim and sunbathe, it was really awesome!

View from a plane

So, take a plane and join me!

In few hours from Riga Airport we got to a little airport called Chania, and the a bus took us to our hotel. We stayed in Hotel Galini, which was not so far from the sea, but everywhere were private territories (with goats, sheep and cows around ^^), so it took a long time to get to the sea.

Nature near our hotel

But the sea itself (Sea of Crete) was very beautiful. There were also many beautiful fish near the coast, but no shells or beautiful stones. But there were many rocks with cute sea urchins on them ^^ They were everywhere, mainly on rocks near the coast, where everyone went swimming. Sunsets in Crete were also really beautiful. Even in our hotel, when we had dinner, waiter was telling every evening: `Look at sunrise!` (I don't know, why the sunrise, not sunset, but that's not the point).

The sunset

Nature near our hotel at night

The nearest city to our hotel was Hersonissos. We often walked to this city, because there were many shops, cafes and museums.

On the way to Hersonissos

The most I loved aquarium Aquaworld (visit their web page, there you can read about their animals and about the aquarium itself). In these 12 days I was there 6 times, I think, because I really loved all the reptiles there. My favourite animal was the common boa Cracos (it's him on the photo & also the crocodile Snap).

But there were also many other great animals - octopus Otto IV, green turtle Stephania (she's blind, so she needs care), green iguana Mr. Prickles (love him for his attitute!), African spurred tortoise Blondie (another awesome animal), Nile crocodile Snap (he now lives in another aquarium) and, of course, large, but so cute burmese python girl Burma (who unfortunately died in 2008). Everyone who wanted could hold snakes and pet all other animals. But Blondie was walking around like a tank, not taking people or other animals into consideration and stopped just when ran into a wall :D

Stephania

One day we went to an excursion to donkey farm in Potamies village. There were many different animals and birds, which everyone could pet and feed, like donkeys, horses, pigs, two ponies, two cats, little puppy Nelly, rabbits, turtles, goats, sheep, peacocks, chicken, turkeys... We had a nice donkey ride, which was about a hour long in mountains and nearest town. The funniest thing about this was that all the other group was from Germany, so guide tried to explain the way in German for me (I was riding first), and I didn't understand any word :D Then we drove the same way in a wagon, drawn by a horse. And the farm owner wanted me to become a girlfriend for his son :D

Donkeys ^^ On the left - dad's donkey Pedro. My donkey's name was Alex.

Another day my mom's friends (they went to Greece almost the same day as us and lived in a hotel just about 50 km from our) rented a car and we all together went to Vai beach at the eastern side of Crete island. It's a largest natural palm forest in Europe and it's such a beautiful place! The way to Vai took 2,5 hours, but it was definitely worth it.

View from the hill

Cretan date palms

Another view from the hill

One day me & my dad wanted to go to Samaria gorge, but the bus didn't came. As we woke up at 5 a.m. and didn't want to waste the day, we rented bikes and decided to drive around nearest places. First we went to Hersonissos to visit python and boa and then went to kart track (of course, with my love to racing). Then I (as a crazy girl, you know it) decided to go to a cave (with a nice name Skotino), which was near (at least it looked so on a map) from our hotel (on photos - small city on our way).

It turned out that the way was up the hill, and driving in a heat of 40°C was such an `awesome` feeling that I poured about 5 liters of water on my head and still didn't feel better. When we found a sign that the cave is just 4,5 km away, we had some hope again, but at the end we didn't find it. But we found a large plantation of grapes - so tasty and sweet that I was eating them for about an hour :D I apologize to the owner, but after 20 km up the hill I needed them to stay alive :D

Beach at night

At the last day we also visited a small town called Agios Nikolaos. We went there to have a ride on `Nautilus` - the only semi-submarine catamaran in Greece, from which you can explore the underwater world. It wasn't very interesting, as it was almost nothing underwater, just some fish and sea sponges. But then came divers, who fed fishes, and they also had an octopus, which they showed everyone. After this ride we had a tasty pizza near the lake, where lived some crazy fish - a waiter dropped pizza in a water, and fish ate it in about 5 minutes. Then we walked a bit around the city and went back to the hotel to go home next morning.

View from the hill

The city

The lake with crazy fish

And that's all for today, I guess. Next time (I hope it will be soon) I will tell you about a trip to a place with awesome untouched nature, many churches and some reminder of north. Can you guess the place (or at least the country)? It's not Finland, but close enough :)

View from a plane

See you soon! ^^