2019 Crete

March 2019

After an early start in Sheffield myself, Joe and Connor arrived in Chania. I picked up the hire car at the airport and we drove over to our fills for the next week. Despite taking a wrong turn and ending up on some very steep rocky roads we made it just fine. We settled into the villa and that evening we went into the local town for food and raki.

The second day was forecast to be overcast and in the low 20s, we played some card games in the morning and then headed into Chania, driving into a huge rainstorm on the way - the rain being so heavy I could hardly see anything out of the windows of the car. But shortly after we arrived the rain subsided and we headed to the seafront, walked around the sea wall and relaxed with a few drinks.

On the drive home we stopped for BBQ food and supplies, and when we got back Joe and Connor cooked up a feast. Our host came and joined us bringing a bottle of Raki and some artichokes soaked in lemon and salt water for succulent relief, which we finished before moving onto some mint liquor we'd got, before promptly finishing that as well, well-lubricated we chilled out for a while before calling it a night.

Our third day was something I never usually do. I got up started the day with some shots (which means I’m not driving) and so we spent the whole day sat around (and in) the pool. The weather was wonderful and we had another BBQ for dinner. It was nice to relax and not have to do anything although if I spent a week like that I’d feel as though I missed out on doing other things.

I drove us from our villa over a mountain pass to several small villages along the coast on the Sunday, taking in the wonderful views as we went. At our furthest point we got to Aradena bridge a somewhat rickety iron bridge spanning a valley with the ground 140m below. At the far side of the bridge is the abandoned village of Aradena. The village abandoned around 1950 when a bloody vendetta between two families, lead to multiple killings and the remaining villagers leaving out of fear.

Unfortunately by the fifth day the weather was a little grey and overcast. We spent the morning by the pool having brunch before driving 50km to the Monastery of Arkadi which was involved in heavy fighting between the Cretans and the Ottomans. The following day however we went to a water park with 14 slides and had the place almost to ourselves before crossing the road and spending an hour razzing around in ago karts! It was good fun but we ached for quite a few days afterwards.

Our penultimate day was quite chilled out, me and Connor headed to Georgioupoli (close to our villa) and walked along the beach before we had a BBQ for lunch and vegged out. We stayed up and finished the alcohol before bed. We got cakes in the local village on our final morning before heading to the airport, the sun was roasting as we left headed back to Manchester and back to work.