| Glenn's Crete Journals 5-8-02 The plan for today was to head to Agios Nikolas, which is a little town east of Iraklion. The postcards and pictures we had seen displayed the town as very scenic and worth seeing. First things first though as showering and breakfast were the first orders of business. (I always brings showering and breakfast up as you never know what to expect with each new place that you stay.) We'll start with the showers. Hot water seems to be a commodity in a lot of places that we stay. The shower was decent but the hot water either had trouble getting up to our room on the 5th floor or had run low by the time we were having showers. The water pressure was good though which may have had something to do with it. Breakfast was offered until 10:00 am and it was now 9:00 am, so we hurried down so as not to miss a free meal. Breakfast included bread with jam, a hard boiled egg, a piece of coffee cake, and coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Erin and I both agreed that the coffee and hot chocolate were the best that we had had since the beginning of the trip. This was definitely one of the best free breakfasts that we had had since the beginning of the trip. Now we were ready to go enjoy the day. We went down towards the port where the bus station is located. We grabbed the next bus to Agios Nikolas which left every hour. The bus ride provided an hour to see the sites of Crete as we winded along the beach roads. The ride also provided us other ideas of excursions for tomorrow. We arrived in Agios Nikolas and went straight to Information to gather a map of the city. The day was overcast which definitely took away from the beauty of the city. (We are finding that the cities we like the least had rainy weather the days we were there.) We walked through the downtown district while window shopping, waiting for the sun to come out and the day to clear. Most of the city has the same basic shops as every other city, the restaurants, tourist shops, and jewelry stores. Well, we stopped into one shop that displayed something different then we had seen before. We went in, and before we had left, we had purchased a beautiful piece (I am not allowed to reveal any more information as it is a surprise for someone back home that may at one point or another read these journals). From here we searched out lunch and then even returned to said store to purchase another similiar piece (for a different said person back home that may read these journals at some point during our travels). We then toured around the port and searched out a few different beaches surrounding the town. Again the beach weather left something to be desired, even though we were prepared for the beach by wearing our bathing suits under our clothes. On our way around town we did find a sports stadium in which a futbol (soccer) team was practicing and scrimmaging. This was definitely entertaining and it kept us dry under the awning of the bleachers while a downpouring of rain occurred. By now we decided to leave a little earlier than originally planned and caught the next bus back to Iraklion. After an uneventful bus ride, we had dinner at a local restaurant and headed back to the hotel. We enjoyed the sunset from our balcony as we listened to the crowds meander through the shops below, while reading and cleaning up from the day. We had identified a little town called Malia that sounded like a good place to visit tomorrow. A little television and off to bed. |
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| The Morazini fountain, backed by restaurants and shops |