This is my final blog post for our trip "Around the World in 180 days." Our last 12 days consisted of traveling from Rome to the Greek Island - "Crete." It was one of our favourite places! We stayed in the beautiful little village of Chania on the West side of Crete. While there we went swimming, got to know the locals (they are so friendly), explored the historical little village that we were staying in, did a 16km hike through the Samara Gorge (on the South West Side of Crete) and ate lots of yummy food. The food in Greece is so cheap, but really good quality and it tastes amazing!!!
From Chania we traveled across the top of Crete to the Eastern side of the Island where we stayed in "Agios Nicholas." While there we did more swimming and ventured the another village - "Elounda" about 10 mins bus ride away. It is a beautiful little fishing town which we explored and we even took a little boat across Elounda bay to Spinalonga Island (a historical place that used to be a leper colony) and we also got to see some authentic old Greek windmills.
Ather Crete we ventured to Athens. A different place to Crete altogether. Athens is HUGE, very busy, and the people aren't so friendly. But we still enjoyed our time in Athens. We got to visit the Acropolis and all the Greek ruins! We also climbed up onto "Mars Hill" also called the "Areopagus." This hill is mentioned in the Bible in Acts 17 and tells how the Apostle Paul stood on it and preached to the Athenians. We finished our trip with a dinner out at an authentic Greek restaurant. The food was delicious!
So our trip finally came to an end, Loretta and I said goodbye to our dear Cousin Amber and we flew from Athens - Abu Dhabi (4.5hrs) then caught a second flight from Abu Dhabi - Sydney!!! (only 14hrs :) Also as we where crossing over the top of Australia we saw Uluru out the window!
Our landing in Sydney was a bit dramatic! Firstly there were gale force winds and the plane was swaying from side to side. As it touched the ground it bounced like a ball and rebounded, everyone was screaming. Then it touched the ground a second time and stayed there shuddering to a standstill. Everyone clapped and cheered and looked at each other in relief.
Well that was an exciting end to our trip. I really felt God has been looking after us and we really have been blessed with such a great adventurous 6 months of traveling! We have met amazing, inspiring people and have made so many friendships across the globe!
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| Flying to Crete! |
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| The view from our little balcony in Chania |
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| Chania! |
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| The cute little beach we had a swim at. There was a cave there as well! |
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| A view of Chania from a hill. |
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| We made lots of doggie friends... |
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| ...one even kissed Amber's hand! :) |
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| There we so many beautiful pots and lanterns! |
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| The beach that we spent a day at. |
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| Yummy! |
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| Having a fish spa! The fish eat the dead skin off your feet. |
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| More food! We often had gyros (a wrap with meat and salad) for lunch which only cost 2 euros. So cheap! |
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| Olives |
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| Sometimes the drinks had very long straws! :) I don't think they were for drinking out of |
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| Agios Nicholas |
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| The start of the Samaria Gorge! |
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| Some sections of the walk had cages over the paths to stop rocks falling on people. |
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| The rock piles that appear frequently along the walk have been created by all the tourists. We contributed by adding a rock :) |
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| An old village |
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| The narrowest section of the gorge. It is only 3 meters wide. |
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| At the end of the hike we came out at the Libyan Sea where we were able to swim. |
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| We caught a boat to Sougia where we got our bus home. |
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| Elounda Bay (one of my favorite old movies was made here - "The Moon-spinners") |
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| Spinalonga Island |
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| Catching a boat to the island |
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| The water was crystal clear! |
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| Back on Elounda Shore where we had a swim. |
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| We visited some old windmills... |
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| ....which I had to explore! |
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| ATHENS! The view from our hotel balcony! |
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| The Acropolis at night |
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| The Acropolis |
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| Areopagus |
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| Loretta on top of the Areopagus where the Apostle Paul stood! |
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| Food! |
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| Yummy! |
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| Amber didn't eat all this :) |
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| Yogurt....REAL....GREEK....YOGURT! |
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| More dogs. There are a lot of dogs wandering about. They are all actually cared for by the government so they are not completely wild. |
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| This one was a little cutie! |
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| Having fun on our last night together! |
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| Bye Bye |
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