Back from holiday

[deeaa]

Had a 9-day 'fall vacation' as usual at this time of year, we went to Crete. 3-4 hour flight only, but the difference in weather is quite a lot going from near the polar circle where at nights the puddles are nearly freezing over already, to what is by our standards full-blown summer of 80-90F temps constantly and seawater so warm you can spend whole days in it. Although for the locals it was the end of the season and some places were already closed due to that, it was a great trip.

Here's a few photos in case you're interested what Crete looks like. We rented a car for 3 days and drove around the island as well.

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This is what most of the 'tourist areas' of Crete look like. Small streets lined with various shops and restaurants, literally for over ten miles straight. Probably hundreds of steak houses alone. Good, cheap food too.

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My eldest checking out the stores.

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The western end of the beach in front of the hotel - a little rocky at this end, nice to snorkel for fish etc.

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A view towards the east from Platanias beach.

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There's a LOT of friendly wild cats everywhere in Crete. You also saw quite a few dogs roaming freely here and there; anywhere you went, there'd be a dog or a cat sleeping on the bus stop bench or whatever. Literally had to push them away at times.

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All photos taken with my cell btw. so quality especially in the dark isn't the best. Restaurants often had live dancing etc. like here.

One thing about the restaurants, virtually all restaurants end the service by offering free Raki (which is a clear drink that kinda tastes like Tequila and Vodka mixed) and/or Ouzo, the local sweet Anis booze which tastes a lot better. Often they brought on more and more, in hopes of keeping you there, I guess so that you'd spend more money hopefully, and to keep the restaurant full as the competition must be fierce as the season draws close, and people rather choose more occupied restaurants than empty ones to dine in.

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A bit more normal street view from a 'big city' Chania, which used to be the capital and is the 2nd largest city in Crete.

There was not much evidence here of the mainland Greece financial crisis really; meanwhile in Athens there were molotov's cocktails flying and violent rallies with police firing tear gas. Quite peaceful here...

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Looks much like any mid-eastern country.

[deeaa]

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These pics are from the old Venetian harbor built by the Italians.

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In Old Town the streets are VERY narrow at times. I made a mistake of driving into the old town once, man, it's impossible to navigate there, took me over an hour to get out of there.

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The very center.

[hr]
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The traffic is just nuts. Very few bigger cars there, mopeds are plentiful. Cars just shuttled however they pleased; when they wanted to stop or turn or anything they just turned on emergency lights. Most every car was at least a little banged up, the people didn't seem to care much for small fender-benders. The speeds aren't very high, but I take it there's a lot of small accidents I guess nobody cares much about...they might really just zoom right by you leaving less than an inch between.

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As I said, cats are everywhere...have to be careful sometimes to to step on one. In the shops, restaurants as well.

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A lot of the foliage was withering for winter already, but there was a LOT of flowers and grapewines etc. everywhere.

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Then onto the mountains...lots of fir and cypress, I guess mostly it's olive trees though. The smell of olives and pines etc. is sometimes overwhelming.

The island is full of really impassable areas, ravines and canyons and really steep hillisides everywhere. The soil/rock is quite weak and porous as well, and for that reason the houses in the hill areas are built right on the road, with main roads going literally through their yards. But the road is where there's at least a wee bit of level and certifiably solid land to build on; if you build 10 yards from the road, you have to have a driveway going up or down at 45 degree angle already.

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Lunch break somewhere. I wish the pic could somehow convey there's like a half-mile vertical drop a few feet behind my family there. No barriers, nothing, just crumpling, rocky soil, so you don't want to go any closer than a few feet at best. In many many places the road even had caved in at the edge, offering a straight drop to certain death.

[deeaa]

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Our little rental Peugeot. In the mountains, I could basically only use the 1st and 2nd gear. This road, however, was very wide by local standards.

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Paleochora beach at the southern (Africa) side of the island. Nice surf there!

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Night shot from a German cemetery over a town; 4500 german soldiers died in 1941 buried here.

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Relaxing at the hotel pool.

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The final day there were some clouds finally, and some nice waves also at 'our' beach.

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The cell phone camera is surprisingly good, really, in good light.

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A parting shot of the hotel.

[deeaa]

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The kids (Paul here) really enjoyed the sea. They would have played on the beach all days long; the water was really warm still.

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The kiddie pool was a smash hit too, though.

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We didn't change our daily routines much, waking up at around 6-7 anyway, and so on, so in many many cases we were the first customers and alone, as others came only later. Here some driving fun.

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And I took the opportunity to have a proper cig.

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This I found interesting; almost every building was built flat, no real roof except a concrete flat top (well there is hardly any rain and no need for much heating here) but they almost without exception left the rebars standing up at the ends of pillars. Maybe that makes it easy to build a new floor later if need be? But it seems it is just the way it's done, it was this way in over 90% of the buildings. Only on the more ambitious architectures like hotels etc. this wasn't the case.

Also, every single house had one or more of either black plastic or clear metallic water heater/tank systems and solar panels. Our hotel roof was full of water pipe panels as well...I take it that's the main way for them to heat water and get electricity.

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Signs of the economic crisis? There were hundreds of empty lots, semi-finished or just abandoned/stripped buildings everywhere. Already starting from the airport, you drive past dozens of them. I suppose you could snatch a piece of property or a frame of a house for peanuts right now.

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This is the main 'speedway' of the island, the 'New National Road' and the only place where you'd need gears past 3 on your car :-) by and large the roads crisscrossing the islands would hardly qualify as private cottage roads up here. So narrow if a truck comes along, you need to find a place to park somewhere to let it pass.

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Chania.

[deeaa]

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Here's a normal road...no barriers, very very narrow, and a sheer drop right at the edge of it. Quite scary at first, but you get used to driving on them quickly.

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[Katastrophe]

Just beautiful, Dee... Looks like you and the family had a fantastic vacation!

[Spudman]

Really nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.:AOK

[Tig]

Looks like a great trip for everyone. Quite a change from the chilly North.

[kidsmoke]

Cool stuff Deeaa...you're a lucky man, and spending your time wisely.

The building construction you referenced....looks like the working class towns in Los Altos de Jalisco...basically central highlands in Mexico. All the buildings have the rebar continuing into the sky, and the large water barrels on the roof. May be very prevalent globally, but I'd never seen it before either.

thanks for sharing!

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l58/tiokimo/Los%20Altos%20de%20Jalisco/P1110958.jpg

[mrmudcat]

Wow nice pics,and looks like a good get away!!!

[Tig]

The building construction you referenced....looks like the working class towns in Los Altos de Jalisco...basically central highlands in Mexico. All the buildings have the rebar continuing into the sky, and the large water barrels on the roof. May be very prevalent globally, but I'd never seen it before either.

I believe some regions in Australia require houses to have water collection and/or cisterns like those.