Well, it has been 3 weeks now since we flew into Chania Airport on the western end of the island of Crete. We arrived at night and one of Matt’s coworkers met us at the airport to make sure we got in okay. Once we got our rental car, he showed us the way to the town of Stavros where we stayed at a villa on the beach for a few days. It was a beautiful view! The pool there was filled with sea water that was pumped in from the sea and flushed back out when cleaner water was needed.

After a few days, we moved to a different hotel, where the suite was much larger, but we lost the view. Oh well; we’ve got at least 2 years here to see all of the ocean we want. Matt has started work and is getting settled in there. We have been on two housing runs so far and have seen a couple of possibilities:

We haven’t decided on either one yet; we think we are going to hold on a bit longer to see what else comes up. We go back and forth on this, but the biggest factor in all of this will be how long we can hold out in the hotel. The walls get closer and closer by the day.

Driving around the island is pretty crazy; the roads are really small and while there are driving laws, they really don’t seem to matter. What does matter is that you make sure not to hit any sheep/goats or any olive trees. Other than that, anything goes! Well, not really, but that’s what it seems like.

The first trip we took down to the city of Chania was the first Saturday after we got here. We went down to check out the big laiki (farmer’s market) in the center of town. It was filled with delicious looking fruits and vegetables, lots of feta cheese, some clothing, and a whole bunch of other goods. It was sprinkling when we went, but we still enjoyed it. We even picked up a couple of outfits for the boys there.

Yesterday we took a trip down to the municipal park so the kids could play. We ended up on the wrong side of the park, in what seems like must have been the old, long abandoned park. We nicknamed it the ghetto park and I’m pretty sure you can see from the pictures below why we called it that:

Then we found the real park right across the street and were pleasantly surprised! After that, we headed down to the old harbor in Chania and walked out to the old lighthouse. It is so beautiful down there; I’m sure we’ll be spending quite a bit of time down there just walking around and enjoying the views and the food around the area. We stopped for lunch at one of the local fish tavernas and shared a mixed plate of seafood. We definitely ate some things we never thought we would: octopus, cuttlefish, fried whole little fish, etc. But, the octopus was probably our favorite of the meal. Of course, we could probably eat nothing but greek salad and be happy; it’s a pretty simple dish, but absolutely delicious. It basically just has cut up onions, tomotoes, cucumbers, and olives, along with some olive oil and topped off with a good slice of feta cheese. They add some olive oil and vinegar on the side, but it usually doesn’t need any.

Well, there’s lots more to tell, but I’m all typed out. Tomorrow I head out for a 3 day trip to get my car. It was supposed to arrive in the port of Piraeus just outside of Athens, but due to a strike in Greece, it had to be rerouted to Volos, which is about 5 hours north of Athens by bus. So, I get up early to take a flight to Athens, catch a bus to Volos, pick up my car, drive back to Athens, get on a ferry in Piraeus to take me back to the port of Souda just outside of Chania. Fun stuff! Wish me luck.

See all the photos