Crete

Hello!!

I hope everyone is doing well. Here are some of the last entries of the trip. I can't believe that it is already time to come home! It has been a FANTASTIC experience, but I am definitely ready to return home and get reacquainted with my friends and family again! But before doing so, I will fill you in on the fun in Greece...

After leaving Hydra, I flew to Crete where I rented a car and drove about two hours to Plakias, a small beachy, resort area on the southern part of the island. My grand plan for this part of the trip was to drive to little cities and villages all over the island for each of the five days that I was here, and then return each night and relax on the beach. But for some reason, as soon as I saw the beach my plans changed. I think all the moving around for the past five months had finally caught up with me so the idea of just laying on the beach with a good book and enjoying some quiet and relaxing time sounded perfect! So my days mainly consisted of laying under one of the umbrella-lounge chairs during the days; either reading, sleeping or swimming in the water and then going into the little town for dinner. It wasn't very eventful but I welcomed the time to relax!

The only drama took place the night before I left the island. On that Friday (June 2nd), I got up early so that I could drive to another city (Rethymno) which is rated the top city to see on the island. I spent the day strolling around the old town part peeking into shops and snapping some pictures. It proved to be a great area for fun people shots. From there I drove to Irakleio (Crete's capital) to drop off the car and stay at a hotel for the night, in order to catch an early ferry the next day to Santorini. All was going great, until I took the taxi from the airport to the hotel. This taxi driver must not have been having a great day. Before getting in the car, we agreed on a flat rate, and he drove me toward the hotel. However, instead of driving right up to the entrance, he decided to stop at a side street below the hotel which would cause me to have to lug my gear up a steep staircase and half-way down another street to get to the hotel. I was a bit shocked. I kept insisting that he take me straight to the entrance, but he kept saying that it was a one-way street and refused to drive the extra distance to go down the one-way street and drop me off at the entrance. Seeing that he wasn't going to move, I got out of the taxi and started getting my gear. When it came time to pay, I only paid him half of what we agreed upon seeing that I didn't get the full service. Needless to say he wasn't too thrilled with this and started yelling. In the midst of his yelling he asked if I was American and asked why all Americans think everyone else in the world is stupid. And after more yelling and swearing he got in the car and left. The second he pulled away, my cell phone rang. It was Chris, from Athens, checking in to see how my trip was going. The timing of the question was hilarious. I gave him a quick synopsis of my fun taxi ride and he commented, "Yea, taxi drivers aren't our strong-suit here." Unbeknownst to me, while I was standing on the curb with my gear talking to Chris, the manager of the hotel that I would be staying at was in his parked car and had just witnessed the ordeal with the taxi driver. When Chris and I ended our call, the manager approached me to introduce himself, told me that he witnessed the event and then offered to help me up the stairs to his hotel. While we were walking, he repeatedly apologized for this man's actions and hoped that I wouldn't think badly of Crete or Greece because of this (I hadn't at all). I was very appreciative for his help, but was extremely shocked to find that this man went a lot further to help me. He felt so bad about the experience and was so determined not to have Crete's tourism reputation tarnished that he tracked down the taxi driver and made him return to the hotel to apologize to me and return my money. I was shocked! That is customer service!! If anyone ever finds themselves staying in Irakleio, Crete they must stay at the Marin Dream hotel!! The funny thing is that when I checked out the manager asked for my mailing address in the States so that I could be on their Christmas card list!

On Saturday, I took a cab from the hotel to the port (less eventful ride) where I took a ferry to Santorini! More in the next update!

Jun 3, 2006

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