Greece Part 5

Greece Part 1 | Greece Part 2 | Greece Part 3 | Greece Part 4

Our final stop in Greece was the island of Crete. In writing, Crete sounds just like the other islands we visited: steep mountains, winding roads, and gorgeous blue water. In person, it felt like a totally different destination. The lush greenery covering the mountains instantly reminded me of the landscape in Hawaii. There were olive tree groves and vineyards, bee boxes and tractors, all indicators of the thriving agricultural scene in Crete.

Day One

We arrived via ferry at the port in Heraklion. From there, we rented our first and only car of the trip and drove two hours east to our hotel in Chania (pronounced “Han-ee-a"). Other Holly deserves a round of applause for safely chauffeuring us around the island for three days and adapting to Greek traffic etiquette, i.e., straddling the line on the edge of the highway and driving on the shoulder to create a makeshift passing lane. They do drive on the right side of the road in Greece like we do in the U.S, so that helped.



The evening of our arrival, we stopped halfway to the hotel to have dinner at a taverna called O Makis. The unique appeal of O Makis is the owner takes you on a tour of the kitchen before you order. The four of us filled most of the modest kitchen as we got to peek under the lid of every pot simmering on the stove, behind the oven door, and even inside the refrigerator. Touring the kitchen was a mouthwatering marketing strategy beyond any curated instagram shot.

While we waited on our food, we spotted a woman carrying a tiny puppy and must have all been staring, because she stopped and brought him over to our table. “This is George Clooney,” she said. We soaked up the rare puppy sighting and our unexpected M&G with George Clooney while no less than three cats rotated positions under each table.
The meal was another delicious display of Greek cuisine, and my only regret is the language barrier somehow led us to an accidental serving of beans instead of the stuffed mushrooms we were trying to order. No disrespect to the beans, but stuffed mushrooms are one of my favorite foods. I was disappointed, but way too full to rectify the miscommunication by the time we realized they weren't coming.

After dinner, we stopped at a market on the way back to the car to stock up on snacks for the hotel. By this point in the trip, I had narrowed down the best juice to Amita in the blue box and the best candy to strawberry Lacta bars. I felt something rub against my ankles as I reached for my new favorites, totally unsurprised to find yet another cat at my feet even inside of a grocery store. I couldn’t tell you the name of this town that we stopped in, which is probably exactly why it felt like an authentic experience of off the beaten tourist path. I can tell you that the cat's name was Simba.

By the time we made it to our hotel, it was dark and another day was behind us. For this stay, we splurged on a suite at The Tanneries. Our room had two floors, two bathrooms, and a balcony view over the water. The upstairs shower doubled as a steam room, and the downstairs bathroom had a jacuzzi tub. I think it's safe to say I've now shared the entire spectrum of accommodations with these girls, from the streets of New Orleans to suites with remote-controlled bath tubs. This one was no House of Blues sidewalk.

The included breakfast was incredible. It's probably wrong to say this, but after all of my foodie fangirling, I think I might miss the Tanneries breakfast most of all. Our stay was absolute perfection with the exception of the morning I returned to our room after breakfast to find a random steak knife on the bathroom counter. We joked that the staff must be bored and trying to see what drama they could stir by leaving a weapon in a room full of girls who have spent two weeks together in tight quarters. Spoiler: no one was harmed by the misplacement of this cutlery.

Day Two

We spent our first full day in Crete visiting Elafonissi Beach which is famous for its pink-tinted sand. Unlike our beaches at home, this one had a backdrop of mountains, trees, and the occasional goat, and it involved a long, rocky walk from the distant parking lot. I knew from my research not to be fooled by overly edited social media photos making the pink sand appear more vibrant and widespread than it really is, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the phenomenon isn't all just exaggerated editing. The pink hue is subtle and confined to a few inches at the edge of the water, but still a pretty sight to see. Even without the pink, this beach had beautiful crystal clear water.

It was cold, but not Santorini "hot springs" cold, so we swam and stuck around for a couple of hours. I hung my towel in a tree to dry for a few minutes before leaving, and naturally, a cat appeared out of nowhere to nap under it.

By the time we made the lengthy trek back to the car, we were hungry enough for a spontaneous girl lunch of shared weird chip flavors. For the record, I'm team Prawn Cocktail.

Pink sand photos are unedited

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped for real food at a beachside taverna and were treated to the pinkest sunset I've ever seen in my life, a fitting way to end a day spent at a pink beach. I won't drag you through another set of mouthwatering food photos and their corresponding cats, but rest assured, neither were lacking.

Day Three

During our final full day in Crete, we divided our time between a town called Rethymno and the Old Town area of Chania. I have to admit, whether due to natural similarities, falling at the end of two busy weeks, or the simple fact that I've been home for over a month now, the details of these two locations are starting to blur in my memory. I can tell you that both had a sort of coastal historic charm that reminded me of Charleston in my home state of South Carolina. Both towns had lighthouses and never-ending mazes of shops; aged brick and gray stone replaced the white Cycladic architecture of our previous stops. Chania in particular seemed covered in frozen yogurt shops and had the colorful picturesque look of Charleston's Rainbow Row.

Some details may have blurred, but I won't soon forget my quest for fish soup. Blame social media for showing me some drool-worthy video of the dish before we ever made it to Greece. I have no idea what was in it or where it was served, but it stuck with me enough that I searched every menu for it from day one. By Crete, I had yet to find any, and by our last day in Rethymno, we made a conscious effort to stop at a taverna that had excellent fish soup reviews. I was tired and hangry, and despite the shared five to seven dishes we averaged at every other meal, my own personal bowl of fish soup was truly the only thing I wanted in that moment.

So when the waiter took our orders and responded to my request for fish soup with "Sorry, I just served our last bowl to that guy over there," I was more bothered than I should have been and decided that if I couldn't have fish soup, then I didn't want anything at all. You know what I'm talking about, that hangry level past the point of reason that leaves you angrily speeding away from a McDonald's empty-handed after they refuse to put both fudge and caramel on your sundae. No? Just me?

My friends, ever supportive of hunting great food and stopping escalating hanger, encouraged me to see if anywhere nearby served fish soup. We discussed placing a Wolt order (Wolt = Greek Door Dash) directly to our street-side table, but ordering food delivery to a different restaurant felt too ridiculous. I finally caved when I saw that fish soup was on the menu of a restaurant that I could see from our table. I left my friends to wait on their food and took off on my absurd side quest. Two minutes later, I was back, grumpier than ever after being told that restaurant number two was also sold out. Who knew that fish soup would be in such high demand or such limited availability?

I probably would have given up and resigned myself to sharing whatever my friends had ordered, but Jackie convinced me to give it one final shot. She found a place a few blocks away on Wolt, no delivery option, but you could order for pick up. It was a 15-minute walk away and closing in 30 minutes. After a few wasted moments of trying and failing to order on my phone, she ended up ordering on hers to save time. That's how I found myself wandering alone down the streets of Greece, ultra tourist mode activated, double-fisting a pair of phones with Wolt in one hand and Google Maps in the other.

Naturally, when Google Maps indicated that I had "arrived," there was no sign on the building, and it appeared to be closed and/or a dry cleaning business. Out of other options and almost out of time, I reached for the door and hoped someone could point me in the right direction. There was a man with an adding machine at a desk, and when I tried to pronounce the restaurant name to ask if I was in the right place, he gave no indication that he understood. I showed him the Wolt app on Jackie's phone instead; confused silence. Next I used the Google Translate app on phone number two to write "I ordered food online" in Greek. Still blank stares. I'm sure I looked insane shoving two phones at them and butchering their language.

"Fish soup?" I blurted in one final exasperated attempt.

"Fish soup!" A woman repeated from somewhere in a back room, then finally placed a heavy to-go bag in my hands.

I wish I could wrap up this story by saying it was the best fish soup of my life and totally worth the herculean efforts, but it was oily and bland, and I pulled an entire backbone out of the flavorless broth. There weren't even any cats around to help. I finally got my happy ending when we returned to Athens the next day and successfully located half-decent fish soup. The staff accidentally gave us four full servings instead of one--clearly divine intervention to make up for this epic fail.

Final Thoughts About Greece

I wanted to make a separate post wrapping up the entire trip with a few key takeaways, but I fear that would run the risk of me never actually finishing this series. I'll leave you with an abbreviated version here instead.

1. Every time I travel, people tell me to "be safe" and not go anywhere alone. It's solid life advice no matter where you are, but I have to admit that I did wind up alone at some point during every stop of this trip, and I honestly felt safer in Greece than many places I've visited in the U.S. There was one moment in particular when I was hunting $10 dresses on a questionable-looking side street in Athens where I started to wonder if I had made a mistake. Halfway down the block, I looked up and realized that there were easily 40 other people walking down the street, and every single one of them was male. It was such a strange phenomenon to be the only female in a small crowd, a weird glitch in the pedestrian matrix. But I kept walking and minding my own business, and you know what? So did they. What a wild concept. (I did make a mental note to exercise a little more caution while bargain hunting in the future, because actual nefarious individuals probably could use that weakness against me.)

2. I was dreading the public bathroom situation in a country where you can't flush toilet paper, but I swear to you that every single public bathroom I went to in Greece was cleaner than 95% of the public toilets I've used here. One of the beach bathrooms that we saw had a $1 admission fee and had me thinking if I could throw a dollar at a gas station bathroom here and not run out gagging, I'd do it with joy and consider leaving a tip.

3. On a serious note, sometimes I take a step back and look at all of the experiences I've had because of Hanson, and as cheesy as it sounds, I thank God that I was born into the same timeline as them. This trip made it more evident than ever that I should also be thanking God that I was born in the time of convenient travel technology. Having a handheld device that can translate languages, bring a ride to my location in minutes, and help me find the closest...ANYTHING...is a truly amazing blessing not to be taken for granted. I can plan it, book it, document it, and then come home and bore you all to sleep with the details, all with the touch of a few buttons. And I can do it all with a couple of long distance friends that I never would have met without that same technology. From streets to suites, and five star feasts to fish soup fails, I'm always grateful for the adventure.