Thursday, September 27, 2012

Saturday (8/25) - Goodbye Crete, We Love You

Day #13

As we awoke to our final morning in Crete, we definitely had a bit of mixed emotions, as we were ready to make our way back home and tell everyone of our two week journey, but had trouble leaving our favorite island of the trip. For the second straight day, we just threw on some clothes and walked out to the hotel lobby to have another wonderful, fresh breakfast (similar to the day before) as we looked out the harbor windows. It was definitely a huge perk to have such quality food and service right in our hotel. Once again, I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have married such an accomplished travel agent.

With plans to fly back to Athens later in the day, we decided to pack up our stuff and leave it with the hotel, then go out and walk to the local beach just up the road. As with the other beaches, we paid our eight euro to have an umbrella and two lounge chairs, and after relaxing in the shade for a bit, we made our way to the crystal clear water. The water was so clear we could see all the clear fish that were swimming around our toes, looking as if they want to eat our feet, getting closer and closer, dangerously close to actually...HOLY SHIT! He just bit me! Now, for the record, the fish just peck at you and there is zero pain associated with it, but it's hard not to flinch when they go for your toes. And put those things in front of my already-scared-of-water wife, and we had a good old-fashioned anxiety attack right there in the ocean in Greece. After making me carry her cuz she didn't want her feet sucked on, we swam out to some visible protruding rocks and explored around there for a while. Finally we made our way back to the showers on the shore, changed over into walking clothes, and walked back into town.


Local beach in Chania

Sampling the local cuisine...

We ventured around the town's back alleys and shops one last time, and ended up buying some olive oil and olive wood items for family back home, and of course, a tiny t-shirt for our godson, Paxton. After I tapped out of shopping for the trip, we made our way to a late lunch in Crete at a small place in a back alley called Portes (it goes without saying, but it was an LP Bible suggestion). Portes had a good-sized chalkboard posted on the front wall listing the day's specials, of which there were easily 10-15 items. We ordered some tzatziki and bread, Julie housed a plate of olives, and then we got lots of cheese, amazing stuffed mushrooms, baked feta and meat pies. We seriously ate more cheese than I believed possible.

Finally it was time to go back to our hotel and say our goodbyes. The hotel assistant (a very tiny, nice woman) called us a cab to the Chania airport, and she carried Julie's roller bag all the way out to the car parking area, despite Julie's urgings that she didn't need to do that. Our cab driver was very pleasant asking about our stay in Chania, and after a nice 40-minute ride through the outskirts of the island, we made it to the airport. We checked in with relative ease, this time having to check bags due to all the wine we were bringing home from Sigalas Winery in Santorini and the gift bottles from our hotels! Security was a breeze, and we found ourselves with plenty of time to kill in the airport.

Our plane was on time, and it was a small plane with two seats on either side of the aisle. The flight itself was only about 45 minutes, although a ferry ride would have taken upwards of 6-7 hours. Definitely worth the airfare. Since we would be staying in Athens just for one night, and waking up way before dawn the next morning for our 6:50am flight back home, we chose to stay in Hotel Cecil, where we stayed when we first came to Athens, so we could have a place of familiarity and not take any additional time having to get to know the town to find the hotel and a place to eat. Again, excellent call Julie!

 
Last night in Athens

We rode the metro back to downtown Athens, walked our two blocks to Hotel Cecil, said hello to the second nicest of the three-man lobby team, got our keys, and stayed in the room right next door to where we had stayed a week and a half before. By this time it was getting dark, and knowing that we would be getting up early, we decided to eat early (8:30pm) and then go crash. We trekked back to a place called Platanos, which was closed when we had tried to go earlier in the trip, and this time found it to be open! The place was quite busy, and we had another nice meal of wine and white fish (I can't remember what Julie had). I was exhausted, and dreading the night of little sleep I was about to get, so Julie caved into my tired mood and we walked back to Hotel Cecil. We laid our clothes out, ready for the morning, and got ready for what we hoped would be a relatively stress-free, easy trip back home.

*Up Next* - Athens to Paris to Los Angeles to San Diego...and our luggage left somewhere in between.

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