Crete is a massive island! It takes about 6 hours to get from one end of the island to the other. We were staying at Elounda Mare Hotel which was a 5-star hotel and spa situated about an hour from the main city of Heraklion. Neither Carissa nor I had realized how large Crete was and all of the famous beaches I wanted to visit were on the other side of the island. Therefore, we never got to see the famous beaches of Elafonisi or Balos Beach. It was also rather difficult to get around Crete as there was no public transportation so we had to hire a car for the day.
The car was an automatic car but I am not quite sure we ever figured out exactly how it worked since the gear shifts were different than the US ones we were used to. There was also no parking gear and the lady informed us just to leave the car in neutral. The E and M gears will forever remain a mystery but the E gear got us to where we needed to be.
We took the car to visit the largest city on Crete - Heraklion. The city is known for its history and archaeological site of the Knossos Palace. The Knossos Palace was the largest palace on Crete and dates back to the Neolithic period about 6700-3200 B.C. The Knossos Palace has been rebuilt and renovated several times which brings up the question of authenticity. In Greece, only up to 30% of the original site is allowed to be reconstructed. There was a lot of maintenance work to preserve the existing structure but most of it was in ruins.
The site was pretty crowded with tourists arriving on big coach buses. In one part of the palace area, I caught sight of a male peacock. I am unsure if I have ever seen what I call my spirit animal in real life. Certainly not this close either. The peacock was striking with its dark blue neck, crown and veil of feathers that trailed along behind it. The bird definitely made me jump the first time it let out the loudest and jarring squawk I have heard. I was hoping it would fan its feathers but it was the only one around so no chance.
Most of the excavated objects that were found in the Knossos Palace are now on display at the Heraklion Archeological museum in downtown. The museum was pretty large and the first floor was full of clay pots and figurines of all sizes. Some of the pots were so small I can't imagine what they even held. It was interesting to see their way of life back in 1400 BC and the tools they engineered for everyday life. On the second floor, there were many larger pots and paintings that were still on the slabs of rock they were originally painted on. Carissa absolutely loved the museum so we spent quite a bit of time there.
For lunch we ate at a Greek and Texan restaurant. We asked the hostesses there what Greece and Texas had in common and she joked that they both loved their guns. The Texan aspect of the menu was how they smoked their food. They also had a Texas section on their menu. I just found it funny how on a Greek island you somehow find Texan food.
Back at the hotel Carissa's dad opened a bottle of wine we drank while I tried to convince Carissa to go in the hot tub with me. I was really giggly and as we went down to the hot tub the hotel clerk told us it's cold outside and we reassured him we were going to sit in the warm pool. The warm pool did not exist. It was a kiddy pool so we decided if we were going to be cold we might as well jump in the ocean. The beach we went to was right next to the yacht club and we tried to keep our giggles down so we wouldn't be kicked out. The ocean was cold but it was a lot of fun to just be fooling around in the dark taking in our last night in Greece. I loved that moment laughing my head off with Carissa and I daring each other to get deeper and deeper into the water.
After our little beach excursion Alex took us out for appetizers and dessert at the yacht club. I ordered a squid stuffed with eggplant and gruyere cheese and boy was it good! For dessert I had a chocolate mousse with strawberry ice cream. We had wined and dined well!
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