We disembarked at Crete and made it to our bus. Not everyone from our package (presumably most of the people if not all of them on the same bus) were staying in the same hotel, as we had picked a slightly more economical option, so not many people got off at our hotel with us.
The traffic in Crete seemed more restrained in terms of what traffic was willing to do, but we were shocked at the new experience of a huge bus driving down the narrowest of streets. The final turn to our hotel was amusing, since it was too narrow for anything else to get past, and we actually had to back up quite a distance at one point to let other vehicles pass.
Hersonissos Maris, 4 stars, 3 of us, 2 pools, 1 keycard
The Hersonissos Maris was a 4 star hotel, and it lived up to that rating in our opinions. It was built like a small village and we found photographic scenes on the hotel grounds itself while waiting for our room to be ready. There were two main pools, but we found that no one seemed to actually enter them, they just sat in the recliners around them and contemplated the pools instead. Some of the rooms had private or shared mini-pools, which is the type of decadence that really appeals to me.
When we checked in, we chased our bags being driven to our room by a guy in a golf-cart thing and took our key. The room was very nice and pretty spacious. It had a double bed for the girls (two singles pushed together with a common headboard is as good as a double) to practice their ‘just-friends’ spooning, and a separate single bed for me. There was a balcony, but the doors weren’t particularly good at staying closed, and in the night we were forced to put a chair against the doors to keep the wind from blowing them open. The bathroom seemed incredibly large compared to the cabin bathroom, but came with it’s own twist: you couldn’t flush toilet paper down the toilet, you had to throw it in the trash. It took a little bit to get used to that, but took absolutely no time to return to the old behaviour once we left the islands.
Other than the toilet, there was another interesting quirk with the hotel. We were only given a single key, which was attached to a fairly bulky plastic card. This card (and thus the key) had to be inserted into a slot near the door, and this seemed to be a kill-switch for the room’s power. Once you pulled the card (to leave), the lights, TV, and incomprehensibly, the mini-fridge, would all lose power. However, we later discovered, this didn’t apply to the air conditioner for some reason.
We had a Transat meeting to discuss excursions. We had already decided the ones we wanted to do, but then we were thrown a curve-ball: they changed the days for a couple of them and created conflicts for us. One we initially wanted to do was a Crete Jeep Safari, but that one was relatively expensive, and required one of us to drive the Jeep. Alicia doesn’t have her license, I have mine but never drive, and Laura didn’t want to drive. We initially inquired about whether someone could drive for us, but it wasn’t looking very positive, so we bailed out of that one and signed up for a similar tour, by bus, called Unknown Crete. One of the ones we wanted to do was the Knossos Palace but the conflicts took that out, so we decided to do that on our own. The other excursion we signed up for was the Spinalonga Island tour. In the end, it was a good thing none of us decided to try to do the Jeep tour and have either Laura or me drive, since we didn’t think that, being 4×4’s, would be standard, and neither of us are able to drive stick.
First order of business was to go for a swim, so we went down to the beach right across from our hotel, it was pretty rocky, but still picturesque. I decided not to swim at this point, but was content to guard our belongings. There were some people there bathing topless, which sounds exciting at first, but as the average age of the people around was something around double our own age, you learned to keep looking at the pebbly beach. We returned the towels we had rented from the front desk and reclaimed our 5 euros each.
It may have been cold for the locals, but canadians have no qualms
Later we decided to adventure around the town. We first went to ensure we knew where our pickup would be for our excursions, since it was to be near another hotel instead, presumably due to the bus fun in getting to ours. It was around this day that my dehydration was really starting to set in, and since the water here was undrinkable as well, I wanted to source bottled water. We stopped by the snack bar, and they said 1.50 euros for a small bottle, which Laura asked and the attendant confirmed, was not a good deal. We looked in a couple of shops as we went, including a place very near to the hotel. When we asked how much for bottled water, the look we got back was baffling. They said they had all sorts of water at all sorts of prices, and the exchange was taxing enough for us to decide to move on. Eventually I found a place selling six 1.5 liter bottles of water for 2.50 euros, which was a very good price, so I loaded it in my backpack. This was a bad move since my feet were already sore, and we ended up looking around town for what seemed like forever. We even happened to pass by the store on the way back, so karma could rub it in that I needn’t have walked around with the huge weight on my back. Alicia was out of Halls to combat her cold, so we found a pharmacy during our journey and she bought 4 packets of Fisherman’s Friend, since that’s what they had. A single package lasted her the rest of the vacation.
When we got back, we settled down, threw water into our lukewarm fridge, and went to the buffet for dinner. I wasn’t overly impressed with the selection, mostly because I’m a very picky eater. They didn’t serve anything to drink freely, not even water like on the cruise ship, so we began the pseudo-ritual of getting coke, which came in 250ml glass bottles, which was neat, but cost 2.20 euros, which was less neat. That dinner was the first one where, when asked for our preference for seating, we asked to be out on the patio area, and that stuck with us for the rest of the trip, even when we preferred to stay inside. As much to the wait staff as to the other vacationers, we were pretty recognizable.
After that we showered and got ready for bed, watched some BBC world news describing the increasing financial meltdown, and fell asleep. We needed to be up the next day for our first excursion, but not too early this time.
To be continued
