A weekend in paradise..

My second travel weekend is over and it’s safe to say it wasn’t long enough. I spent the weekend in Greece on the island of Crete and right on the harbor of the city Chania.

The group of us arrived in Chania and took taxis to Old Town where our hotel was located. When we arrived at the hotel expecting it to be open all night like they had previously told us it would be, it wasn’t. Fortunately, we happened to arrive at the hotel at the same time as an Italian woman who was on the same flight as us and booked at the same hotel. She was able to talk to surrounding restaurant owners to find out what we could do next. In the next half hour she helped us find a new hotel, at a discounted rate for the weekend, and with amazing owners that welcomed us in at 1am. The first hour in Greece was definitely a whirlwind, but I think we could all agree it worked out for the best. We ended up in a beautiful hotel that looked out on the harbor of Chania and it was within walking distance of everything we visited over the weekend.

The first day in Chania was started early with a walking tour of Old Town by a local tour guide, Alex. She walked us around the city for 2 1/2 hours showing us the history of Chania which goes all the way back to Minoan ruins they’ve found within the city. We couldn’t have asked for a better tour, we learned so much from it and we were able to navigate around Chania for the rest of our stay. We left the rest of the day to laying on the beach and soaking up the much needed sun that we rarely saw in Paderno for the first two weeks!

The next day while walking around the harbor, we were talked into taking a glass bottom boat tour. We ended up having a blast since there were only the four of us, the diver, and his friend on the boat. I held a starfish for the first time, learned even more about Chania, and we were able to really get out on the water! The rest of our stay in Chania was focused on shopping in the many, many shops they have around Old Town, eating gelato (you can never have enough), and sitting on the harbor. My favorite part of the weekend ended up being the last morning in Chania when we made the long walk out to the harbor’s lighthouse. We ended up sitting at the light house for over an hour just watching the water and enjoying the beautiful day until we had to pick up our bags and start the trip home.

This trip started off a lot different than I had anticipated but it was so amazing to have the chance to experience Chania. When I went to bed the first night, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to come back to Greece, but now I can’t wait until the day that I can revisit Chania!

Ciao

Evan