On June 9th, we took a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, England. We then took the train to Nantwich, England where we stayed for a few days at our home away from home :) On our first night there, I was googling last minute trips from Manchester and came across an incredible deal that was too good to pass up. Flight, hotel and transfers for 7 days in Crete, Greece for £79 (credit card charge came through as $120 CDN per person). Needless to say, we booked the flight the next day and headed out on Sunday June 12th to Greece! I was so excited!!!
We had a great time in Greece! I rented an ATV for the week and Matt rented a scooter. These were great in helping us get around town and allowed us to take a day trip from Malia (where we were staying) to Agios Nikolas. We also used our vehicles to drive to multiple beaches and to explore Malia and its neighbouring villages.
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We had a great time in Greece and look forward to going back in a few months.
We had a great time in Greece! I rented an ATV for the week and Matt rented a scooter. These were great in helping us get around town and allowed us to take a day trip from Malia (where we were staying) to Agios Nikolas. We also used our vehicles to drive to multiple beaches and to explore Malia and its neighbouring villages.
The landmark for Tropical Beach!
I bought some bananas from the back of a truck for €2/kg. Pricey but tasty bananas!
Crusing on my ATV
One of the many views while driving around the island of Crete.
On our day trip to Agios Nikolas, we stopped in a tiny village for lunch. Our vehicles are parked nice and close.
Walking through the old village of Malia
Greek Tavernas are decorated so pretty! Even people's homes are lined with flowers on window sills, on door steps etc. I loved it!
Old scooter getting around town!
We lived off pita's for the week. I'm drooling just thinking about how good they were.
I will definitely be vacationing again in Greece. This picture is from the town called Stalis, where our favourite pita and ice cream spot was located.
Beautifully decorated window sills in the villages.
This is how we spent most of the week - chillaxing by the water!
We had a great time in Greece and look forward to going back in a few months.
Ok, First off. I have a keyboard not typing on am ipod, down side is its a spanish keyboard. Some of the keys on here just look cool.
ReplyDeleteDown to Business!
Dublin to Holyhead..... Interesting fact, it is the biggest vehicle ferry in the world! Its was massive, 11 decks, a shopping mall, and a helicopter landing pad! Wow BC ferries you don´t have anything on these vessels!
But Greece!
So we booked our very cheap trip! I knew that I wanted to go back to Crete from the first time I was there in Heraklion! There is so much history and beauty I thought that a week would be enough. So I had planned to rent a scooter and drive from one side of the island to the other, the east side to the west side (mainly Souda Bay and Chania).
We arrived in Malia at 2 am and little did we know it was a the UK´s destination for college students much like our Cancun is to us! Wow were we in for a week!
Nevertheless, I still wanted to see what I originally had planned. So I rented a scooter (125cc). We explored Malia and area the first day and went to a local beach. The next day I wanted to take a drive before I made the journey to Chania just to see scale size of the island and what kind of ride I was in for. When I rented the scooter the guys looked at me as if I was insane when I told them my plans. Well we did some touring around to Agios Nikolas and found out that this ride to Chania was going to be way too far for a day trip. It was going to be roughly 5 hours there and 5 back never mind the time I wnated to spend there! So I scratched this off my list for now and decided I will have to come back to Crete a 3rd time to visit Chania and Souda Bay.
Since I wasn´t doing my journey I looked up a local dive shop near our hotel. I found that I could do 2 dives about 45 min each with rentals for 100 euros for the day.
This had been my first dive in the open water since September so I was a little rusty but to top it all off the gauges were in Bar not Psi which also meant that all the underwater signals were different from what I had learned. I managed to complete both dives without running out of air so I figure it was a success!
The first dive was called St. George. It was 11m deep. It had a nice reef but not much marine life as I was told it had been mostly fished out by locals. It was neat to be able to be able to swim in the many carvases of the reef which in some areas were only about 2 feet wide.
The second dive was called Santa Barbara. It was 13m deep with lots of different shelfs off the reef there was some more marine life here. We dug out a clam and put it back down and watched it dig back down into the white sandy bottom, but the highlight of this dive was indeed the squid that I saw. It was about 3 feet long but it just wanted to keep grabbing your arm and pull on your air lines very strong creature, took a lot to pull off. Then when it would try to swim away we put our hand in front of it. When it realized it wasnt going anywhere it shot off its ink!
After the dives I started talking to the 2 girls that worked on the boat as dive assistants and found out that they had almost nothing for experiance and were working there for the summer to further their dive education! They made about 200 euro each a month, dive twice a day, 5 days a week. The shop pays for their accomodations as well as all their course expenses and fees! This seemed good being Greece´s economy and the fact that this was exactly what I want to do when I get to Australia. I am looking forward to my future dives!
That night was Game 7! I came back to the hotel and slept for 4 hours and woke up at 3am to stream the game live on Jane´s netbook! If I wasn´t so exhaust I probably would have started a roit in greece! Just kidding! Good effort boys! Your year will come!
The next day I met our new neighbours! The Welsh Boys! Wow what an accent! UK newfie just to put it in perspective! Chris and Elliot if your reading dont worry not a bad thing! We went out to experiance the night life of Malia clubs open at midnight and dont close until 7am! It was pretty much everything I had expected of a european club! As I was the sober one I can remember what happened most nights but at the same time I will not post these things on the internet! The clubs were packed in, right next door to each other on the main strip and I don´t know how many their were but if I were to guess I would say about 30 on the main strip! I also met on our excursions Siobhán (prenouned Shivon... still really like that name) and Rhea, both from Ireland. As well as Ben and Jack from England! Good times! Will have to meet up again one day! Malia would not have been the same without these people! OOO Ah Malia! (Heard Constantly throughout the night by everyone!)
ReplyDeleteThe Greek islands is stil my favorite vacation place and looking forward to going back! Pitas, Greek salads, Street legal quads, Diving, Beaches, and HOT weather! Whats not to love!