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| Iraklion's port had lots of colorful fishing boats |
| Erin's Crete Journals 5-8-02 Wednesday we headed for Agios Nikolas, a small beach town that we'd heard had some of the best beaches on Crete. First we enjoyed a great breakfast at the hotel - two kinds of breads, hard boiled egg, and the best hot chocolate and coffee Glenn and I have had on the trip. We tried to catch the 10:30am bus, but missed it by about 5 minutes. So we sat and watched the tourists and locals at the bus station and challenged each other at our travel Yahtzee game (our mainstay for travel days!). We caught the bus at 11:30, and sat through the mountainous 2 1/2 hour journey on a pretty crowded bus. The conductor checked our tickets, and they were later checked by a controller who came on at another stop. They were very strict about bus tickets in Crete! We arrived in Agios Nikolas in the early afternoon to a somewhat gloomy day. It was windy and a bit chilly, and nobody was on the beach. We walked through the town instead, doing the usual window shopping, and ended up finding a couple of really great things. One was for my mom as a retirement present, and one was a splurge for me! After the bargaining and acquisition, we were ready for food! We walked a little off the beaten path and found a reasonably cheap place with good-looking grilled meats, and sat outside, as it was not yet raining. I fed some beggar cats the scraps (I know, bad Erin, but I have a soft spot for animals and there are SO many stray cats & dogs in Greece!). We walked around town after that, but didn't see much other than shopping to do with the beach out of commission. We'd seen a sign for mini-golf, and headed over there. We found it closed, but on the way had seen a soccer field with a team practicing, so we stayed for a bit to watch the practice game. Before it was over, the rain started pouring down, and we were glad to be under cover of the stands. We waited till it was down to a drizzle before heading back toward the bus stop. We had planned to stay for dinner, but with the poor weather and our shopping urges satisfied, we caught an earlier bus back to Iraklion around 6:30. |