As I write from Crete, we have now been gone for over a month. We endured camping in cold, rainy, beautiful Iceland (days 1-3 and days 4-6), then rejoiced in all things Budapest (days 8, 9, and 10), before spending fifteen glorious days in Croatia (days 11-14, days 15-19, days 20-21, and days 22-25).
We just wrapped three full days in Chania in Crete, and we received the biggest compliment of the trip: a local woman thought we were Greek! I tried to buy bananas in the supermarket without weighing them and putting the sticker on them first, and in Greek, she told me I needed to weigh the bananas, and Rich and I looked dumbly back at her. Then she said, in perfect English obviously, “Oh! I thought you were Greek!” We were thrilled and totally flattered.
Before I say too much more about our time in Crete, I want to recognize and pay respect to the national tragedy Greece has experienced while we were here: the Attica wildfires. While fires did break out in Crete, we were never anywhere near danger. The events are tragic and devastating, and our thoughts are with all of those who lost loved ones.
Day 26: Travel to Crete
Getting from Dubrovnik to Chania, Crete was quite the transportation undertaking that involved three buses, three flights, and a taxi. We left our AirBNB in Dubrovnik at 8:00 AM to arrive at our AirBNB in Chania at 11:45 PM. Whew!
A few highlights:
- Airport Lounge Access. Both our American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Saphire Reserve (our favorite) come with access to Priority Pass lounges. We arrived at the Dubrovnik airport two hours before our flight out and were able to enjoy free coffee, pastries, bottled water, comfortable chairs, and WiFi. We also took advantage of the lounge in Rome to eat again. Eating in airports could be a major budget buster, and we did not spend a dime on food or water the entire day- beautiful.
We enjoyed several coffees and several desserts in the Dubrovnik lounge! 
Lounge life in Rome. More coffee! - The Athens to Chania Connector. Due to an hour-long delay leaving Rome, our plane touched down in Athens five minutes before we were set to board our next flight. We are still figuring out when you have to go through customs and passport control and when you don’t so we thought there was a definite possibility we might miss our next flight. BUT luckily because Italy and Greece are both Schengen countries, we did not have to go through passport control, and we literally walked 100 meters from our arrival gate to our next departure gate.
- Our fabulous AirBNB hosts. Our hosts in Chania met us at 11:45 PM and had fresh olives, cheese, and cherry tomatoes, along with a chilled bottle of white, waiting for us when we arrived. The unit was the nicest we have stayed in and felt like home immediately. We love AirBNB- if you haven’t signed up, you can do so here and get a $40 credit towards your first trip (and earn $20 for us too).
Day 27: Exploring the town of Chania in Crete
After a busy travel day, we needed a slightly slower paced day. We slept in, then went for a run into town, explored a little, came home, blogged and planned a little, and then showered to go back out and explore some more. A note on the running: it was 97 degrees, and we saw not a single other human exercising. People were looking at us like the only place we could be running to or from was a psychiatric facility.
Chania is an ancient town on the sea complete with a centuries old lighthouse and many Greek Orthodox churches and mosques. We enjoyed winding in and out of the Old Town streets taking it all in.
Day 28: Relaxing in Chania, Crete
Rich and I learned our running lesson the day before and just did an Aaptiv workout in the nice air conditioned apartment when we woke up. We then took advantage of the air and the WiFi to do some catch up and sit around with our coffee- a luxury that after being in at work before 7:00 AM each day for the past year doesn’t get old.
Rich found a really great museum for us to visit: The Greek National Football Museum. Every jersey, trophy, soccer ball, pair of shoes, you name it from every World Cup and Euro Cup Greece participated in was on display, and our guide knew his stuff. He was so excited and Rich was so excited to talk sports that it made me excited– which is overly evident in the picture I got to take with the EuroCup. The museum was free, so we tipped 2 euros because it was so fun.
After the museum, we headed to the beach. Best news ever: the beach had real, honest to goodness, SAND. Resting on sand after spending days on rocky beaches in Croatia was glorious.
We spent a few hours at the beach and then went home, showered, and got ready for dinner. Rich picked out To Koutourouki, the best restaurant in Chania with the lowest price point on TripAdvisor, and it was our second favorite meal of the trip, behind Mazel Tov in Budapest. Overall, this was a great day.
Day 29: The Samaria Gorge in Chania, Crete
After gorging on food (ha!), the night before we decided we would hike it off in the Samaria Gorge. My good friend Steph saw that we were in Crete and sent me an Instagram message (follow us!) saying we had to hike this. We originally didn’t have it on the agenda because it is in the south of Chania and we were in the north, but we found a way to string together two buses and a ferry to pull it off.
So here’s the deal: You take a 6:15 AM bus to the top of the gorge, and then you hike 13 kilometers (~8 miles) to a small town by the sea at the bottom. Then you take a ferry to another small town to hop on another bus to get back to Old Town Chania.
I had never been in a gorge, but it was, in fact, gorge (last gorge pun, I promise). In case your recall of earth science isn’t great, a gorge is a small path in a mountain or between two mountains that has been worn away over time by water. We walked on A LOT of rocks, and we also saw some terrain that was unlike any I had ever seen. My mom likes rocks and geology– she would have been all over this.
While a fair amount of the hike was down, it was still challenging.
Oh yeah, and we saw a mountain goat! Rich was much more enthused about taking pictures of the goat than he almost ever is to take pictures of me (I told him I was going to include this– while he was taking pictures of a cat at dinner–and he said, yes, but I see you every day. How often do I see a mountain goat?)
We also climbed rocks.
At the end of the hike, we enjoyed the most refreshing beer and took our shoes off. Heaven!
The only real downside of the day was that we finished the hike around 12:45 PM, and our ferry didn’t arrive to pick us back up until 5:30 PM. We ate lunch in a local restaurant and looked at the spectacular blue coast, but five hours was still a lot of time to kill, and we were tired from staying up late at dinner the night before and, well, hiking 8 miles. When we got back to the AirBNB around 9:30 PM, we slept like babies.
Coming Soon: Rethymno, Crete!