Ian's travels

Nafplion

We rented some Volkswagen Golfs for the drive from Athens to Nafplion, which was again a fun and astonishingly beautiful drive through mountains and along the coast. And the Golfs were a little more responsive and fun!
Nafplion so far seems like a great city, very clean and there are lots of shops, cafés, and taverns (restaurants) to choose from. Right after arriving, we trekked up to a castle that caught our eye to watch the sunset - which worked out pretty well, except it was closed as of 14:30 (2:30pm)! We still got some great pictures however, and it was still fun to go up there with everyone.

Now we're off to find some dinner and plan for the coming days - we're working out the details of our one-on-one cooking day with the chef in Athens, which just sounds like it'll be fantastic!

Another fun thing we've come to notice about Greece thus far is the huge abundance of stray cats and dogs everywhere - but they're all friendly and cute, albeit often a big mangy and thin. I took this photo of some energetic dogs we came across while driving over a mountain near Knosis.

More to come soon!

Crete

It seems like we just got a quick survey of Crete - but still a thorough one! We rented two great, tiny Hyundai sub-compacts for the six of us, with myself and Joe driving - definitely a great way to see the island. It's pretty quiet this time of year, but we were still able to find some things to do and great places to eat. One thing that has always stuck in my mind about Greece is the iconic, bright, cerulean blue paint used on window shutters and doors, against bleached white stucco walls. It turns out, thats completely true! Especially within the smaller towns in the country-side and along the coast of Crete. I have several good photos of them, it's fun to finally be met with something that's been a memory for so long, and a blast to photograph it just as it was in my mind beforehand.

As we arrived in, and stayed in Chania and were leaving Crete from Heraklion, we had a nice drive up the coast through beautiful mountains and villages. We didn't really get to see any of Heraklion, as we arrived late and all quickly fell asleep - and then woke up bright and early at 05:30 to catch our 08:30 flight back to Athens. It seems like a very big, dense city - and initially it reminded me of Mexico City in terms of the streets and buildings.

Iconic Crete

Yesterday we drove from Chania to Sfakia, a small town on the south end of Crete. It was a great destination, a really beautiful small Greek town surrounded by the amazing blue water of the Mediterranean sea. We've got to head out now - but I'll post more details soon!

On to Crete

I write this as I'm on the flight from London to Athens, and from there we have just three hours and then we're off to Crete to start our journey in Greece! Having a half-day in London was a good idea, as doing all of this travel in one day would have been quite a bit, if it would have even been possible.

While in London we had dinner at the Harwood Arms, the only Michelin star rated gastro-pub in London - fancy! It's definitely off the beaten path, and it took us a bit to find it. Once we did find it, it was a rather nice place with some interesting menu items. There was a dedicated vegetarian menu, with four items, which was handy. Apparently the non-veg dishes weren't anything to write home about! Three of us had the same vegetarian selections - onion tarts (quiche, really) to start, and roasted field mushrooms stuffed with butternut squash for the main course. Both were great, and rich. After dinner we dropped in at a pub near the hotel to try some local ale, and it was humorously disappointing! We decided that we're spoiled by Pacific north-west beer.

Once in Crete, we'll be staying three days in Chania, and one in Heraklion where we'll be flying out of, back to Athens.

I look forward to Crete! It's supposed to be just amazing, I'll try and get some photos up as soon as I can, too. Another long day of travel!

Greece, and beyond!

Hello! I've set this blog up to post updates from my travels, currently starting off with a trip to Greece. I leave this evening, with a day pit-stop in London, and then to Athens, Crete, Nafplion, and all around!

More info soon - stay tuned for details and pictures as I get them!