The three of us are sitting up on the roof drinking coffee, listening to the church bells. There is an old mosque and a church right next to each other behind the house. Not the usual combination. I can see sea glimpses of blue in front of me. The streets are being cleaned. Someone goes around and sweeps all of the alleys every morning and they have machines to clean the streets. We have a car parked in the alley behind us so we're going out for another adventure today. Travelling is an adventure. There is always those choices of taking a cruise, staying in a hotel or staying in a vacation rental. They all have their pluses and minuses. We didn't have hot water due to plumbing issues the first few days and then the sun wasn't out enough and we didn't realize there is back up until yesterday. "Didn't read the book." Not all of you will get the irony of that statement because you don't make fun of visitors for not reading the book on a daily basis at work. But I have to give myself a little slack in this case as there are three books and they are in terrible disarray.
We love the vacation rental choice because we are in the neighborhood with the people and can enjoy these moments of sitting on the roof drinking coffee, having dinner and breakfast at home. Yesterday we had baklava, Greek yogurt (same brand we get at home which is amusing) and fresh fruit. Randy cooked squid on the BBQ the other night and has leftovers as it's not our forte. Randy is extremely adventuresome with food, Susan next and I'm the least. He has eaten goat, rabbit, snails all of which Susan tried. I tasted the goat.
I left off after our first road trip which was on Thursday. Friday we decided to drive east. We were going to go to a Palace of Knossos with 1200 rooms, but when we were driving by we realized the cruise ships were on their excursions and there were so many people we decided to skip it justifying it with "we've been to Versailles," which I know is not remotely the same, but it worked for us. We drove through many little towns and headed for Randy's favorite Crete winery, Lyrarakis. It was a beautiful winery and the young lady there said we were the first people from Hawaii that she had ever met. I guess we now represent the typical Hawaiian family :) Randy bought enough wine for the rest of our stay here (I'll leave the amount up to your imaginations) and had a very giddy time doing so. The scenery is brown mountains, blue ocean, tiny mountainous towns and large cities. While on our way to the winery we stopped at a vegetable/fruit stand and bought the most amazing produce. Grocery stores are extremely inexpensive (a quarter of what we pay in Hawaii) and the restaurants are comparable to Hawaii. Thus a good reason to stay in a vacation rental!
Driving is fairly easy outside of the cities as long as you keep your eyes open for goats, etc. in the middle of the road around the curve or a car that decided to stop in the middle of the road. Getting into the city and finding our alley makes for a lot of huge deep breaths and anxiety, but staying here for a while and getting the lay of the land has made each time a little bit easier.
We took Saturday off and walked to the art gallery to see the latest weird exhibit, ate gelato for breakfast and went to a beautiful ocean front restaurant after walking along many cobble stones to the lighthouse and back for adventure and exercise. Sitting in the ocean front cafes are a great place for people watching. I think most of the visitors are from Europe, all ages and some enjoying horse driven coach rides through the Old Town. We are staying in Old Town which is small and mostly a walking area although you do dodge a few cars and mopeds, but we are only ten minutes from the city where the locals shop.
Yesterday we took Maria's advice (one of my owner's associates) and headed for Hora Sfakion and Frangokastello, port side towns on the Libyan sea east of where we were on Thursday. The scenery is not as varied as Kauai (big point for Kauai), but beautiful in its own way. There are spectacular mountain and ocean views along the steep switchback highways. I only got glimpses as one needs 100% attention when driving here. The highlight of yesterday was Dourakis Winery where we met the owner Andreas who was totally charming. There were two little art galleries there and they have 24 cats and 7 dogs. The few cats we saw were beautiful. Randy bought wine (don't ask) and was suggesting one more wine tour which got a resounding "NO" from Susan and I.
Soon we will be heading off to the Botantical Gardens and surrounding areas. Another adventure to be described at a later time.
By: Linda Sylvester
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