Wednesday 6 September 2017

Paleochora, Crete Day 1

Today we moved on to the third stage of our European adventure. Our place in Chania was perfect. The kitchen was incredibly well equipped. It's proximity to what interested us was ideal. And to top it off, the price was on the low end of what was available. The views and balcony were awesome. 

Today the morning started with lots of clouds coming from the mountains as we hauled our bags to the bus station. The hike took us just 30 minutes with a few rest stops in the shade. We had purchased our tickets online before we left Canada which guaranteed us seats. Our route took us across the mountains to the south shore of Crete. Lots of up and downs and hairpin turns in this one and three quarter hour journey. We were amazed to see the driver use one hand to steer and one hand holding his phone while driving a stick shift bus. He was a pro. 

From the bus depot we humped our bags through the narrow streets to the sand beach side of Paleochora where we searched for the Blue Horizon. We asked lots of people for help but they either didn't know or didn't speak English. Jill knew what it looked like and that it was across from the sand beach and after a brief while we found it. It is only a year old and ultra modern. Our room is a studio with a ground floor balcony. It wasn't ready when we arrived so we headed to the rock beach side for lunch where most of the restaurants are located. We found a busy pizza restaurant and ordered avocado salad, baked spaghetti and a schnitzel. We were blown away by the portion sizes and ended up taking half back with us. The avocado salad was enough to feed four with tomatoes, arugula, leaf lettuce with a mustard oil and vinegar dressing. Jill's pork schnitzel was enormous as was my portion of baked pasta with ham, bacon, cream, and drowned in mozzarella. Crazy delicious but far too much. With two large beers, a mere 25 Euros. As I write this it is 7 pm, 24 degrees and 69 percent humidity.

Beach lounges with a grass umbrella are included with our room. After lunch we went for a lovely swim. The water was crystal clear but the sand was so hot. Jill laughed her ass off watching me run to the water. Jill wore her sandals, smart girl. Fabulous water framed by mountains on the west side. 


Jill and I bought a bottle of Spanish bubbly for watching the sunset on the roof terrace where we met a couple from Lillehammer, Norway who had also watched the Netflix series Lillehammer with Little Steven from the E Street Band. We had lots of laughs as we watched the sun go down and learned a few things about Norway. Nice couple. His commute to work in Oslo is a total of five hours by train. He wasn't complaining. His attitude was, it is what it is.




















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