Sorry for the delay, friends. Since real life has kicked in, I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and write.

On Monday, October 1st, I set off to Crete with Eli over Sukkot break. We arrived around 2:00pm and I had no idea what to expect. We booked an all-inclusive package at a resort in Stalis, one of the three main towns in this particular area of Crete. After we settled into our hotel, we decided to go for a walk and explore. Our hotel was right on the water, which was such a nice perk. There was a walkway along the water (away from the roads) that leads straight from our hotel into town. It was about a 15 minute walk into town, which I had no complaints about because it was so beautiful. The town is rather small, consisting of one main street with all of the bars, shops, travel agents, etc. That night we shopped around for excursions for the week and got a great deal because it was the end of the tourist season. Buy two excursions, get one free! Of course! So, we booked our excursions for the week and headed back to the hotel for dinner. Dinner was buffet style and the outside seating area had an incredible view of the water and the town. After dinner we walked back into the town and went to Robin Hood. This bar caught our attention because it had free bingo and quiz night. We figured it was a good way to meet other people in an interactive environment. It was definitely fun and we were soon known as "the Americans" because there aren't many Americans who travel all the way to Crete.

The next day, Tuesday, we had our first excursion to the water park. This happened to be our free excursion, which was a fun treat! We embraced our inner child and had a blast at the park. In the morning it was completely empty so there were no lines at all. Toward the afternoon more people started to come, but still, the lines were no longer than 5 minutes. This is nothing at all compared to Adventure Island in Tampa. It was a smaller water park but still a lot of fun! We were able to meet some new people there as well. I was surprised at how many Israeli's were in Crete, but it made sense because it was a holiday. At our hotel, we found a little orange kitty that I nicknamed Tiger. He was extremely cute and playful, yet somewhat defensive. Every once in a while if you stuck your hand out he would get in a pouncing position and pounce at you. It was adorable. He might have been a little feisty but he was adorable and I wanted to take him home with me! I guess the kitty lived at the hotel because we saw him every day.

The next day we decided to rent a quad bike to explore the nearby towns of Malia and Hersonissos. We had no real destination in mind, just the urge to explore. We ended up coming across an aquarium in Hersonissos. We decided to go in, despite the fact that it seemed really small. It was definitely small but I actually had a wonderful time! The reptile handler was in the back and he had a tortoise and two iguanas out. He then proceeded to take out snakes one by one for everyone to hold. I discovered that I actually really like snakes and wouldn't mind owning one someday. I never knew that about myself! After playing with the snakes, including a 45kilo (about 100 lb) snake, we went back to our hotel for lunch. We then drove to Malia on the opposite side of our town to explore and take a look at the nearby beaches. After dinner we had to go back into town to return the quad bike. Earlier in the day we had passed a crepe place, so we decided to go there for dessert. Let me tell you, the crepes were amazing! It was a great end to the night.

On Thursday, we had another excursion booked to Knossos, Lassithi Plateau, and Dikti cave. Our first stop was Knossos Palace, which consisted of many excavated ruins, Minoan frescoes, and more. Legend has it that King Minos lived in this palace and the legend of the Labyrinth and Minotaur occurred here. After Knossos, we stopped at a family owned pottery store and were given a demonstration as to how the husband makes all of the cool souvenirs that they sell. He made them so fast and with such ease that you could tell he had been doing it for quite some time. We continued on our way to the Lassithi Plateau and Dikti cave. It was a bit of a hike up to the cave entrance, but the views were amazing. According to Greek Mythology, it is believed that Zues was born in Dikti Cave. The cave was smaller than I had imagined but it was really interesting to see. There were a bunch of coins thrown in the water in an area toward the bottom of the cave. I am not sure what the meaning behind it is, but it seemed to be a similar concept to a wishing well. We hiked back down to the bus and then stopped at a small church on the way home. This excursion was nice because we were able to learn some history about the area.

The next day was probably one of my favorites. We went on another excursion that consisted of Spinalonga Island, another small island nearby, and Agios Nikolaos. We took a bus to the port where we got on our boat, Europa, that would take us to Spinalonga. Spinalonga Island used to be a Leper Colony in the early 1900's. The last leper left the island in 1957. The island was really interesting to explore because of the complexity of the layout. There were so many different paths to take. The only bad thing about being on a tour was that I couldn't explore too far without getting lost or losing the entire group. The views from the island were beautiful as well. After the tour of the island, we got back on the boat to head to another island nearby. At this island we were able to relax and swim in the water. The water was crystal clear and beautiful, but the water was very cold! After about an hour we went back on board for lunch. They served us chicken (at our request), salad, bread, and fruit. The staff had set up a grill on the island to cook for us while we were all swimming. We ate lunch on the boat ride back to the mainland. We landed in Agios Nikolaos, a small coastal town. We had some time to walk around, look in the shops, and of course, buy some ice cream! Around 4:00pm or so we headed back to the bus to head home. Since we had already been in bathing suits from the swim off the island, we decided to jump off the dock behind our hotel. The sun had started to go down so it was a little cool out and the water was freezing - but I just went for it. I got in and adjusted to the water but I had some convincing to do in order to get Eli to come join me. We only stayed in for a little bit before heading back to the room to shower before dinner. After dinner we walked into town again to go to Nemo, a bar we had noticed a few days prior. They offered free mini golf to their customers, so of course we had to go. I bought a delicious hot chocolate there topped with whipped cream and sprinkles, while Eli bought a Greek coffee. We then played a few rounds of mini golf before heading back to our crepe guy for another delicious crepe! Dessert overload, but it was so worth it!

On our last day in Crete, we spent our time walking around town and buying souvenirs. We ate lunch (a chicken pita with chips) at our crepe place and got ice cream for dessert. We were getting picked up at 2:20pm to go to the airport so we headed back a little early. I got to play with Tiger one last time before it was time to say good-bye. As we got to the airport, I learned that the Heraklion airport in Crete is one of the most disorganized airports ever. They didn't even let us check in until 2 hours before our flight left but the line was absolutely ridiculous. We had to go through that line to check in, then passport control, then security, and then to our gate. It wasn't a surprise when our plane took off a little bit late because of all the chaos. It was finally time to go home after a wonderful vacation.