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Old 15 Aug 20, 10:08 PM  
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srh
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Crete - the raki diaries. Day 1

So woke today to brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies.
The village is so quiet in the mornings.
Got up and packed the beach bag ready for today’s trip and went down for breakfast about 9.
Breakfast is open air with a buffet in a small room. So the procedure is you mask up, put gloves on and wait your turn outside. No more than two people allowed in the breakfast room at any time.
We ordered coffee and orange juice and got PPE’d up. I waited my turn in true British style and was just going in to the breakfast room when the lady already there (from a different European country) asked me to leave because she wanted her teenage daughter in there with her. I didn’t quite understand and she pointed to her daughter behind me in the queue and said her. Well, to avoid a diplomatic incident, I gave her my best Darth Vader look ( it stops children and turns them to stone) and stepped back outside. I was fuming, but in true Brit style said nothing.
I should add that I love children, control 30 of them on a pre Covid daily basis.
Said lady then demanded ‘bigger teapots’ from the young waitress. How rude!
Anyway, onwards.
Today we were driving to the famous pink sand Elafonissi Beach. It was a fair drive but was going to be worth it.
There are two ways to get there, through the mountains or round the coastal road.
We set off all jolly and adventurous and turned off the coast road through the mountains. All it took was one wrong turn and we were in the middle of nowhere down single track roads with a shear drop down the gorge. I decided to remain calm while DH performed a 25 point turn and told him when he was ‘too close to the edge’.
We back tracked and found ourselves back to a point where we knew where we were. We could either
1 give it up as a bad job.
2 Try the coast road.
3 plough on over the mountains.
We decided in true explorer spirit to plough on.
At points we drove through the middle of a mountain, met vehicles coming the other way and learnt that the goat Highway Code means that you always give way to them.
In all honesty, it was beautiful. It took us about two hours though with the wrong turn.
There was a large car park where we parked for free and walked over to the beach.
By this point it was about 11.30 and all the umbrellas for rent were taken.
For six euros though we did get two sun beds which we took down towards the water and set up camp.
The beach was beautiful, with a taverna, toilets (50 c a go) and the water was clear but cool.
As the day wore on it got fairly busy and the sun was strong.
Coastguard helicopters were flying down and filling buckets with seawater and flying back up to the mountains. I assume there was a fire somewhere.
Towards three o’clock my husband sat up, there was a ripping sound and he was sitting on the sand in the middle of what should have been his sun bed.
Time to leave I think.
We packed back up and returned to the car. The choice was mountain road or coast road. Nothing could be as bad as the mountain road, so coast road it was.
Bearing in mind this was the main road around the west of the island, we expected tarmac all the way at least.
The coast road was worse than the mountain road! Single track in parts, covered in rock fall. In truth it’s not as bad as I am painting it, but the M6 it isn’t.
We drove until about four o clock, when starving we drove past a bakery.
It looked modern and fairly new. So masks on, in we went.
We ordered a turkey roll which the lovely lady cut in two and I spied some baklava.
Well, what a feast. The roll was gorgeous and fresh and the baklava was the size of a brick. It was absolutely delicious.
We decided to order another turkey roll and keep it in the fridge for tomorrow’s lunch. DH also bought a sugar donut the size of a car tyre.
It was only another thirty minutes back to the hotel, and once there we grabbed our towels for a quick snooze round the deserted pool with only a cat for company.
A cool mythos revived us and it was shower and tea time.
We decided to try the other taverna in town. This one was a two minute walk down hill.
It was busy when we arrived, but found a table for two and sat down.
We ordered tzatziki with bread, mousaka for me and pork souvlaki for DH.
We had a half carafe of wine and two large beers. It was 27 euros. We were brought fresh fruit and a massive raki bottle. Husband said that for someone who sips Diet Coke gently, I can sure down raki!
To be honest we both rolled back to the hotel where we were greeted and escorted back to our room by the dog and a cat.
First full day over.
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Old 15 Aug 20, 10:55 PM  
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mitch84
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Love a trip report I’m writing mine too, would love some photos though x
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Old 15 Aug 20, 11:05 PM  
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mrsdjh
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The drive to and from the beach sounds a bit hair raising. My daughter wants to go to Greece but she’s scared of cats - she’d never go in the pool if she saw a cat round it!
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Old 15 Aug 20, 11:09 PM  
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Ciano
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Sounds like a wonderful day bar the getting lost bit. We r in lockdown at the moment so lovely to read of your adventures. Thanks for sharing.
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Old 15 Aug 20, 11:49 PM  
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darbs
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Sounds lovely apart from the terrifying sounding car journey!
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Old 16 Aug 20, 05:01 AM  
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katebush95
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Fab trip report! We’re keeping our fingers crossed for Crete in September 👍
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Old 16 Aug 20, 10:27 AM  
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mickeyspal
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This is really funny. You're description of the roads is spot on to the one we drove on to get here. Dh actually checked under the car this morning to make sure we still had a fuel tank!
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