Crete, Greece Part 1

We joined up with our friends and headed to Greece in October. They were great to travel with and it was perfect that they also have 3 little girls, all the same ages as ours. We were all in heaven there! When we flew in, we drove onto a nearby US base and stocked up on groceries from the commissary and then made a almost 3 hour trek to the other side of the island where our rental home was located.

Our rental house ended up being pretty awesome. A little deserted, close to the beach, a private pool and the owner had a Taverna (restaurant) that was in walking distance.



The first day was a bit cold and dreary, so we just walked along the nearby beach and let the kids get all cold and sandy. After hanging out all day, we decided to head off to find something to eat. We were staying in a pretty remote area and there weren't too many options. It was also considered "off season" when we went and it was obvious. There weren't very many people around and lots of places were starting to shut down. As we were driving along a dark road, we came upon a pretty neat looking restauraunt and decided to give it a try.

charming, right?



Plus, there was this cool castle right across the street. Score. Well, so we thought.



The restaurant was really neat on the inside too and the owner was really friendly. Let our kids run around and do whatever they wanted; after all, we were the only customers since it was off season! He even took our men to the back to see what he could cook up for us.







and then came our food... yum.





The owner and his wife talked to us for a long time. The owner was a little too nice. His wife was nice, but seemed uncomfortable the entire time talking to us. She kept saying, "so many kids!!" The food was good. We got the two fish, a handful of appetizers and chicken/fries for the kids. We didn't deny that this was going to be one of our nicer, more expensive meals. We were all guessing how much our bill would be. Brian had been to Greece before and it is normal for them to just take care of you and you not knowing the prices. In fact, I guess it is rude sometimes to ask if they are just letting you pick your catch and cooking it for you. He had several meals in the past similar to ours and guessed it would be about 100 euro, 50 euro each. We were there for several hours and to this point had a good experience. When Abe and Brian went to pay for the bill, it was 350 euro. THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY EURO!!! What in the......!!!! Liz and I started fuming and the guys were in disbelief. They dismissed us to the car before we starting making a scene. I can barely write this post without getting totally pissed off. That is $461.48. That was pretty much our entire food budget for the week. Now I know why his poor little wife was so uncomfortable talking to us. She knew he was going to ROB us!! My blood is even boiling right now and my fingers are shaking trying to type this. Words do not describe how I feel about this man. Turns out that he has a really big and bad reputation in the area for completely ripping everyone off that walks into his restaurant. It is very unfortunate that we had to walk into it on our first night there. Like Brian said, Karma will get him. We all tried to find a "happy place" after that and our trip just got better and better. You win some, you lose some.

After the "incident", we never returned (for obvious reasons). Instead, we spent a lot of time at the Taverna right down the street from our house in which the landlord owned. We figured we would rather support him AND the food was awesome.... and affordable :) Most mornings and evenings were spent walking to and from the restaurant.





The best part was that we almost always had the entire place to ourselves. If you ever go to Greece, go right before or after the travel season. It is so peaceful!! Our kids could just do whatever they wanted and we could actually enjoy almost every single meal!



Our days consisted of trying to figure out which beach to hang out at all day. Tough life I tell you.

On our first beach day, we went to Frangocastello Beach. The beach was sandy and there was a Castle right above the beach. I loved that beach. Only problem was that it was really windy and a bit chilly. We didn't have long at the beach that day, but the girls still enjoyed it for the time being.





Abe chased the kids around and acted like a monster in his scuba gear...



Meika ate sand













The next day we had amazing weather. After we ate a little breakfast on the patio



we drive a short ways and randomly found an awesome secluded beach!

Great views on our way down to the beach...































After a long day at the beach we went to a nearby fisherman's town to eat dinner.