Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming. I’m trying to move on from my sadness and by that I mean I’m drinking Chardonnay. I’ll post more about the insanity of quarantine in a bit. I’ve got to tell you about Crete, though!
Of course, I have hindsight as a BFF now but at the time I stepped foot onto Crete and heard our guide deadpan say, “Crete might be the ugliest of the Greek islands,” I had no idea I wasn’t going to get to see 3 more Greek stops. My brain wants to do all sorts of wonderful things with the fact that I will only see 1 of 4 and it was the “worst.’
But we don’t have time for that. We’re moving on.
I enjoyed Crete. We visited the ruins of an old palace. The most shocking thing there is that every single other Princess cruise passenger also visited it. Man can we wipe out a palace! There was quite the commotion at the end of the tour when all of had to go to the bathroom and it looked like they were charging us money. Most of us aren’t walking around with euro coins.
This brings up an interesting thing I’m noticing. Europeans don’t seem to need to pee as often as we do. Perhaps we can blame it on the very large sizes of everything we consume. I’m not sure. But, most of our tours have not included really any access to any bathrooms. If people have to go, sometimes we have to stop at a bar and people have to buy something just to get to use it. I’m ok with that- since this is something common in the US. But it’s interesting to think about even organizing something that’s 4+ hours long with no bathroom consideration! There is no drinking consideration either. Which goes hand in hand, of course. But no access to water or anything. We’ve been bringing water bottles along which helps with one issue but complicates the other.
Back to Crete, once we all managed to get through the restroom, we were off to do a wine tasting. The location was nice- way up on a hilltop with pretty vineyard views. The tasting room was enormous. Wedding receptions could easily be held there. I was hoping for another lunch surprise but alas, just a little snack. We got to try 2 whites and a red. We were having a leisurely time when our guide realized we needed to leave in like 3 minutes so we all power chugged down the red and I have no idea what it was or if I even liked it.
We got to sit with a guy we’d met a few times but had never talked at length with. We discovered he is a retired Canadian Mounty! Man, he was chock full of interestingness. He gave us some great ideas about Victoria this summer when we go to house sit for a week.
Once we got back to port, Jason and I took off walking back into town to feast on Greek food. I have been waiting my whole life for this! As is required, a few weird turns, criss crossing, and uphill hiking and boom! We found the main drag. And then, we found Rich and Ginny siting at a table for 4 in a great looking little cafe. They were all done but let us join them and stayed for a few minutes to chat while we ordered.
The place was so delicious. I’m so glad we stopped there and got to try several things. The art gallery crew was in there too and MAN it was amazing to see their actual faces. The crew all wear KN95 masks all day, every day. I’ve never seen their smiles! Somewhere in there, they send a bottle of ouzo to our table and start chanting for us to do shots. When in Crete…!
A couple little local girls wandered in and out a few times trying to get money. Ginny had already warned us about them - one of the little girls had stolen a little flower hairpiece she’d bought!!!! The wait staff ran them out each time but they were very stubborn. We kept our eyes on them the whole time.
Rich mentioned he’d gotten a great exchange rate at a local bank ATM down the street so we cruised down there when we were done. Wouldn’t you know, here came the little girls? Geez!
We hit a couple of shops and I hit the jackpot!! I’ve been waiting to order cabinet hardware for the kitchen I just repainted. We came across the most lovely assortment of cabinet pulls. All painted in multiple styles. Greek colors. I loved them! We picked out 15 different ones and I can’t wait to see them on our navy cabinets.
After that, it was time to head back to the ship. I hadn’t found a Christmas ornament or postcards yet…but I still felt like I had time with more Greek ports coming. (AHHHH!!!) Before that though, it was looking like we’d actually make our 2 port calls in Turkey. I’d been low key worried that those wouldn’t happen because of the Russia-Ukraine war. I just knew any minute the captain would pop onto the mic and we’d hear him again say, “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the captain…”
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