I just finished traveling for 12 hours. I had breakfast in Greece, lunch in Italy, and dinner back home here in Spain. I am thinking, 'Is now really the time to be blogging about my trip?...' The answer was no, until I tried to sleep, quite unsuccessfully. So now the answer is yes! I think the last 5 days of waking up in the same bed as my husband (such a novel idea!) has now ruined me for a few more days to come, even for the comforts of our eurotop. Now that we are on the same page: I want to share some pictures and brief details about the highlights of my most recent adventure.
I would like to preface this by saying what our goal was for this trip. Most importantly, we wanted to see eachother. We booked our tickets, and for two and a half months I counted the days until this vacation designed to truly relax with my favorite guy. So here goes!
We stayed on the island of Crete, a part of Greece situated in the Mediterranean Sea.
We visited Chania, and more specifically, stayed along the coastline of a small local beach called Kalamaki about ten minutes away.
We checked into the Porto Kalamaki hotel. You can see the Cretan Sea across the street!
We found an array of restaurants that had beach chairs off the deck with the sand literally in your toes during breakfast...
And this is where I would not read further if you are hungry. Don't say I didn't warn you!!
We had many delicious meals and I realize that a lot of my pictures are of the dinners we had together. Part of this was because you are supposed to take pictures of your food. This is Social Media 101 right? But really, for us it was trying new things, traditional Greek entrees, and hours at the dinner table relaxing on the water and just talking, in person.
This is a breakfast parfait, made with local Greek yogurt and Greek honey. The only thing that would have made this more Greek would have been to throw olives in it! It was super delicious. I think I have a new affinity for Greek yogurt.
We immediately went on a stroll along the beach. There were several super tiny islands, enough to fit a boat or two on... Just maybe a house. Charming!
We headed into Chania Town at one point to do some exploring and took advantage of their markets... Some were inside with a lot of local olive products, fresh fish, etc...
And into the main market. There were plenty of nice shops in this area. However, we were in knockoff country. Very real looking Ray Ban's? €5. A "Michael Kors" bag? €15. It was a lot of fun. And I was truly surprised at the amount of people who spoke English well enough to peer pressure me into buying things! Naturally...
Stopped in to get a gyro for lunch. This thing was made of magic I think.
We stumbled across the Church of the Trimartyri, a Greek Orthodox Cathedral open to the public.
There were several carved tables with hundreds of thin candles and water-soaked bins where others had lit and placed candles. I was very curious about this practice and have since discovered that apparently individuals attending the church will often light a candle on the way in as a symbol of burning away fear, or a darkness within life as well as a reminder where light in our lives originates before entering a service. It was definitely interesting!
The interior was breathtaking.
So that was neat! We left and returned to stroll on one of the more quiet streets. We went mid-day on Friday and got to beat the crowds a bit...
So here's where this turns into a foodie blog. Hey, I don't make the rules. Up for dinner was Chicken Schnitzel a la Creme. Apparently this is originally an Austrian dish, but very common in Greece and cooked in local olive oil. It's essentially breaded chicken breast with a lemony/parsley crust. This is where I knew I was about to be in for a real treat...
The house wine at every restaurant we went was delicious. We frequently had Vin de Crete, a local blend that I wish I could send back home by the barrel. In this pic, we have Dokas, a bruschetta type appetizer except with barley rusks and feta cheese to top. I seriously considered eating no other form of food for the rest of my life after trying that...
Also, the olives they served with dinner are purple here. So there's that.
Here's another favorite appetizer called Kalitsounia. It's a sweet cheese pastry consisting of a careful concoction of special herbs and the all of the honor, dignity, and truth in the world you could fit into a handheld delicacy.
I have made my Aunt Denise's Chicken Souvlaki recipe before and couldn't resist the urge to get some while I was there. It's a chicken kabob marinated in deliciousness and grilled quickly. I am so happy to say that this dish was familiar to me and I was already doing this one right. Thanks Auntie!
My last favorite dish of the week was Moussaka. It's like a mashed potato casserole with shredded meat and a layer of eggplant. I have a love/hate relationship with eggplant but this turned out to be pretty amazing.
In all reality, our trip was very low-key.
We ate, we drank, we sunbathed.
We made a few Greek friends.
We knocked off a few days from our deployment countdown.
I had such an amazing week at the beach and just spending time with my guy...we already have our next trip in the works!
<3 <3
RSS Feed