Author: Robin Chartier

Reporting live from the middle of nowhere

Our 3rd home base isn’t my favorite, but I have been spoiled by perfection everywhere else. I actually really like it here so saying Sougia isn’t my favorite is like saying Dove dark chocolate isn’t my favorite. I love it, would eat it every day (and usually do), but See’s or some other high end brand would narrowly edge out Dove if I had to choose.

It’s a small place with one main street with 2 mini-marts and a few restaurants and bars and a handful of B&B type places like the one we are staying at.

Our home for 3 nights. Ground floor apartment with the large patio
Carter is reading Swiss Family Robinson as an assignment for school. Perfect for our travels around this exotic island. The kids love swinging in the hammock on our patio. Carter is grinning because he’s trying to get out of unpacking the car by doing schoolwork. 

The beach here is made up entirely of smooth stones. We walk 5 minutes down our street, the only street and end up here. 

Lots of stone skipping going on. 
I prefer the previous town we stayed in because it was bigger, with 2 beaches (sand on one side of town, smooth stone on the other). A few more restaurants and shops and there were more day trips in the surrounding areas. There’s plenty of stuff to occupy our 2 days, but with kids, I’m missing a beach full of sand for them to dig up all afternoon. It kept them from throwing rocks at each other and being loud near my beach chair. 

We finally have reservations for the remaining nights of our vacation. 2 more nights here in Paleochora (Pay lee OH hor ah), then moving on down the coast to a little place called Sougia. Supposedly it’s pretty remote with a rocky beach, but sheltered with no current so good for swimming and lounging. And a great place for hiking and exploring at the base of the white mountains. Too many amazing places to visit, not enough time. I guess we’ll find out when we arrive if I made the right decision. It was between that and a larger city on the North coast with an old harbor and shops. More exploring and shopping, still a great beach, but Josh voted for remote and quiet. Hope the kids don’t get bored.

I would say I should have more time for blogging now, but between my compulsion to read every TripAdvisor forum post about Sougia and every review of the local tavernas (Cretan family run restaurants) and our nightly Chicago Fire marathons, my evenings have been pretty full. Josh and I send the kids to bed and then watch 2 or 3 episodes back to back on his computer. It’s the fire and rescue version of Grey’s Anatomy (I’m assuming, since I’ve never watched Grey’s) and full of jaw dropping twists and life and death rescues. Completely mindless and fabulous. 
Today we are off for a hike in the hills to a small village that I don’t know much about, but the woman who managed the last place we stayed recommended it. She hasn’t steered us wrong yet so I think it will be a good morning. 

On the curb while Josh goes to the bank.  

Gyros, of course. The shwarmas of the Greek islands. Sliced pork, fried potatoes (not french fries, actual slabs of potatoes, seasoned and fried), sliced red peppers/onions, and a cucumber yogurt sauce (that I can’t be bothered to look up the spelling for) all in a chewy warm flatbread. For $3. 

And Greek salads with slabs of feta, cucumbers, olives and tomatoes

More time at the beach

And “grabbing a bottle of wine” is a lot more casual here. These upscale ones even have labels.

Choose your own adventure

Traveling on the fly is pretty fun, but there is one drawback. In the evening when I normally would be blogging about my day, going through 200+ photos and deleting all but the best ones, and writing updates, I’m busy planning our next adventure. I did get lodging booked for tomorrow so we do have somewhere to go, but by the time I’ve read over 23 different reviews of 6 different apartments, I’m too tired to write. I’m also a compulsive researcher so as long as travel details aren’t fully cemented, I feel compelled to keep gathering more information. This trip is like a real-life choose your own adventure and just like when I used to read the books, I’ve got fingers in a bunch of different places trying to determine the best path.

We have one more 3 night block that hasn’t been decided so I’ve been debating North or South coast? village or city? Beaches or ruins? Cheap lodging or cheaper? They are fun decisions to make, but I never feel like I know enough to be sure. 

From what I’ve seen so far, there might be no way to make a mistake when it comes to Crete.

This is a massive tide pool on the northern edge of the Mediterranean 

She had a fantastic afternoon playing with local dogs

Another day, another fabulous beach

Hopefully our next location will be just as favorable. We’ll find out when I turn the page tomorrow. 

crete

I’m already planning a return trip. I love this place the way I love Turkey. It’s probably not coincidental since Crete was occupied by the Turks (Ottomans) until a little over 100 years ago.  It’s got everything we love:

Cats, of course. The kids are in cat heaven. Friendly strays all over the place. 

Beautiful old buildings

walking paths

Blue skies and oceans

places to hike

gorgeous vistas

grapes and other plant life growing everywhere we look (including overhead at lunch)
the harbor

more cats

and goats

beaches

swimming

and relaxing
Just a taste of our first 24 hours. Loving our time away!

Home stretch

I know I haven’t been writing lately. I’m finally feeling better this week, but am preoccupied with trip “planning.” I still haven’t (and won’t) reserve any places to stay, but the side of me that likes to know the future keeps reading all that I can about Crete, trying to absorb every last bit of information into my brain so I can “wing it” in a well prepared way. I’m also needing to hand off responsibilities to people who are going to take over for children’s church and a few other things while I’m gone. And I need to get some Euros. And pay our rent. And Josie. And the guy who started washing my car last week (though I don’t know his name or how much he charges). And buy dog food. And refill my prescription. And pack. And make sure the kids all have hiking/trail shoes that fit. And some sort of waterproof outer layer. Since this is turning into a massive To Do list instead of a story, I’ll end here with a warning that there may not be any other blog posts this week. It means I’m busy packing up for our Thursday night flight. Fingers crossed since we’re flying Space A and nothing is guaranteed. The flight this past week was delayed for 2 days so this is going to be one big inshallah experiment.

Side note: I think I want to get inshallah tattooed on the inside of my wrist. That is, if I ever actually get a tattoo, which is a remote possibility. But I want it done in brown, so it looks like henna and not a regular tattoo. 
To wrap up this week: This scene makes me so happy. Calvin and Carter have Arabic class together so they are studying and listening to the audio files that help with pronouncing their Arabic vocabulary correctly. The boys look at me like I’m crazy when I fawn over the fact that they are in class together or ask if they sit by each other. I think because one of my favorite memories of college is when Carrie and I had a class together (Anatomy/Physiology and we were lab partners and learned every bone in the human body and cut up a dead cat. Good times.) I hope they have the same great memories of sibling teamwork. 
Twinsies — Caleb was climbing on the railing and Zeki hopped up to join him

And then Camille had to get in on the action too, of course. 
So if you don’t hear from me, all is well here, just prepping for Crete!