The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Crete

We arrived in Crete at about 9pm and got a taxi to the area where we were staying called Malia which is one of the biggest tourist destinations on the Island. Driving to our hotel it felt a bit like being back in Phuket with all the people walking around still in swimmers and all the shops and restaurants along the road. The Hotel where we stayed, the Neon Hotel, was very close to everything and about 200 metres from the beach and had a nice pool and free (but basic) breakfast.

Our first full day in Crete and we headed out to what would become our favourite restaurant called Kostas Golden Beach where we ordered a mixed grill plate for two which was huge and amazing and only $24… you can see the picture of it below!

We basically spent most of the first day relaxing around the pool reading books and checking out what was available at the tourist office. In the end we booked a dusk horse ride with dinner for the following evening ($45 each) and an all-day boat trip with BBQ for the day after when the swell was meant to die down a bit ($30 each)

On our second day in Crete we spent most of the day relaxing around the pool again… it’s pretty much what you do in Crete! We did however get our act together eventually and headed off to meet up with the min-bus that was taking us to do the horse ride at about 4pm. The horse riding place was meant to be about 20 minutes drive but ended up taking about 40 minutes as the min-bus nearly died on the way there!

On arrival at the stables we met the rest of the group (about 14 in total) and we were allocated horses based on our experience and size. Unfortunately we were one horse short at first and they had to get another horse out that they had been having some trouble with. In the end Bec ended up with the paint she wanted called Cherokee and I ended up with the horse she was meant to get called Viagra which in the end turned out to be a much more active horse during the ride.

The ride took us up a mountain in a valley filled with vineyard and olive groves. We spent about an hour and a half ascending the hill followed by having a drink at the top and getting some photos before heading back down to arrive back the stables at dark. Once back at the stables we all settled in for a dinner of shish kebabs, veges and salads with some home made wine and spirits. After dinner Bec managed to get the owners to let here had a more energetic ride of one of the horses in the arena and she was given my horse Viagra which was fairly fast but not very easily controlled.

Day three in Crete and we got picked up again to go on the boat ride. We ended up on a fairly big boat with about 40 people and got a good spot up on the front deck for the day. The swell was still quite big and when we went over some of the big waves (referred to as doosh doosh by the captain) we had the feeling of loosing our stomachs. We ended up sitting right at the front of the boat getting drenched with every wave... may not sound enjoyable but was the best place to be on the boat and a great day.

The boat ride took us around the bay area on front of Malia and west toward Heraklion where we stopped in a cove area for a swim and a bbq lunch. It was here that i managed to step on a sea urchin and ended up with a heap of spines in my foot which took some time and pain to remove! luckily i managed to get nearly all out without breaking any off and was fine afterwards and back in swimming.

The morning after the boat ride we headed off early to catch an 8am ferry to Santorini further north and had a great deal of fun picking up our tickets to the SeaJets boat. No one turned up at the ticket office until 7:50am and there was a big line up which lead to the boat leaving nearly an hour later. We had heard that SeaJets were really unreliable and we witnessed it for ourselves.The Boat ride itself was advertised at 2 1/2 hours but one of the staff told us it is 3 1/2 and they just say its shorted to attract customers!