" Crete Jawnuta & Santo 2006 " a Chania Travel Page by Jawnuta

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OUR 2006 WEEK LONG TRIP ALL OVER WESTERN PART OF CRETE.

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Every year we go to Poland to mingle with my family. 2006 was different...
So, I made extra money in July and just by searching the web found a cheap flight from Warsow to Chania. Santo came from work....
"Would you like to go to Crete, honey?"
"Sure!"
I booked the flights in next 5 minutes.
We arrived in Chania around 10 pm. I asked taxi driver to drive us to the center of Chania arround the Cross Market. He pulled over the car and asked " so....where to now??" I said "that's it, thank you!" and we get off that taxi....next 15 min we spend rolling our suitcases through Leather Street looking for a room to stay.... We found a cheap (35 Euro per room) room at Diktynna Hotel. www.deltanet.gr/diktynna . Room was clean but tiny and old looking (junky) no AC but 4th floor and view of the harbor and turkish part of the Old Town of Chania. Next morning we rented a Hyundai Accent (2 huge bags of my and only my clothes according to Santo) and we drove to Elafonisi, planning to stay overnight there.
Elafonisi, Elafonisi, great ride, great views (old monastyr) and the best beach on the world....no hotels....no nothing, just beach. We went back to Chania after sunset and got a great room at Anemones hotel. hotel_anemones@hotmail.com. Only 50 Euro per room, great owners, clean, nice and AC!!!!
Next day we went to Rethymno via Georgioupoli (great private beach right east of the town with frendly Bulgarian bartender). In Rethymno we found 40 Euro room with AC just by walking in less touristy part of the OLD TOWN. On the morning we follow the local housewifes and we went to the farmers market, got some fruits and herbs from very, very old grandma. After some bikini shopping (before Santo lost it.....it=patience) we made our way to Bali. Picturesque little town with 3 small srescent shape beaches tucked between the rocks. We found great appartment for 45 Euro right on the main street. Pretty town looking from the highway, but closer we got ...... babies, and todlers everywhere.... strollers....dipers.... Gerber food.... OK, ....Beach was OK, water was fantastic, but send was very fine and dark (dusty-like) everybody walks with dirty feet.... We went to touristy restaurant, ordered food from menu with photograps (no restaurants for locals) but....surpraisingly....food was great, and the table with the view of the sunset was also great until we got surrounded by family of 10 Russian tourists with small children eating pizza.
After our funny stay in Bali we went to Matala. Beach small but great, however water gets deep pretty fast, so you have to know how to swim. We found great Grandma-mom-daughter restaurant right on the beach where we had out lunch. I took a nice walk to the far east end of the beach and took a nice pictures of Santo frying his belly in the sun from acros the bay. Matala is crowded, but it is a good crowd, old, young, kids, hippie... After lunch we made our way to Agia Galini passing Phaistos on our way.

Agia Galini, beautiful town on the hillside, however beach was sot nice at all (water and sand). We found great (3 generatios of the same family) restaurant and asked lady to make us a seafood dish of her choice. She set us up really nice. Food was great, just like at home (no, not like at home in US, more like at home in Greece, heheh)
Since we were not happy with beach in Agia Galini we decided to drive after the sunset to Georgioupoli since it was our favorite beach (after Elafonisi off course). We arrived to Georgioupoli after 9 pm and started wondering dark empty streets (family resort, kids go to sleep early). We were very lucky, a pizzeria owner approached us and asked if WE are looking for a room. It was great, she had a 2 rooms appartment upstairs for rent. 45 Euro, I had king side bed for myself and Santo fall asleep in the living room on the couch at front of the huge AC.
On the morning we went to our favorite beach just east of Georgioupoli (behind little stram) and had breakfast with our friendly Bulgarian bartender. We spend the whole day on the beach, jumping through the waves and sunbathing.
Just before the sunset we went to Vamos, a small village (preserved by locals) betwen Georgioupoli and Chania. We had a magnificant dinner in taverna right in the centre of the village. (look for the garden on the corner of the main street with grape vines hanging down over the tables). Finally late at night we went back to our hotel Anemones in Chania, where we spend the whole next day shopping for gifts (oil, herbs and honey).

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PS
This year (2007) we decided to go back to Crete with my niece Zuzia (8 years old). This time we will stay in Rethymno and drive to the beach in Georgioupoli. A family vacation :-)

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When in Crete don't forget to see all the historic places on your way to the beach. Crete is very reach in history of our civilization.

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Check out my CRETE & RETHYMNO pages as well

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