Lauren Goes to Europe: The Villa...

Our ferry got into Herakalion, Crete last night at around 7pm. We went to our hotel and then headed out at about 9 pm with the Phillips to get some dinner. We just had made it to the middle of a square, searching for dinner, and the entire city went black! Literally all the lights just disappeared except for a few emergency lights on a few buildings. It was so weird, but the weirdest part was how unfazed everyone in the square was by the sudden darkness. People just continued on eating without missing a beat. We walked a few blocks to see if there was any section with lights so that we could find food, but everything was out. We went back to our hotel and they said that they could feed us in the upstairs restaurant. Just as we had ordered 9 pastas (they said they could easily make them on the gas stove), the lights went on. Such an odd experience.

At the port in Herakalion, before we left to go to our Villa

The next morning each family got a rental car. Somehow, we basically ended up with a small bus—which is great haha, except for the tiny roads we sometimes overtake. We then met up with two more, Judy & Steve, and started our drive to our villa. The drive was about an hour and a half a way and we had to meet up with the villa’s owner about 15 mins before we got to the villa so that he could lead us to it without getting lost.

Meet the ‘Villa Focus’ Guests

Keba Family: Shari, John, Michael (brother) and Me

Phillips Family: Sandy, Mark, Michael (my brother’s age), Aryn (my age) and Jake (going into 10^th grade)

Hunt Family: Judy, Steve, and Brian (my brother’s age)

Our villa is in this tiny town of about 300 people! It’s a super quite and cute town and the ‘Villa Focus’ is even better than the pictures we saw online prior. I'll post pictures of the amazing villa soon.

The Villa Focus!

Our entry way

Entry way again-- pool on the right

TV section

Office

A hall way to the roof top

Rooftop patio

More rooftop

Funny story: The building blocking the view from the villa is new-- the owner said that someone just started building this, and it ruined the view, so he just bought it so that he can tear it down. NBD.

Little area between rooftop, rooms and the the downstairs

Plants like this are all over the villa

Another patio

The villa’s owner was so nice, he had already stocked our fridge and had snacks out for our arrival. He then proceeded to give us a complete tour. The highlights: a pool, Jacuzzi, wine cave, rooftop patio (I’ll give a little story about that in a min…), projector screen for movies with surround sound, and most importantly, a cappuccino maker. After that, he took one from each family and drove them around town to show us all the best places to go and things to do. When we were all back together, we went to the only Taverna in our town and met our new friend Yanni. He made us all types of delicious foods, then sat down and chatted with us for a while. Yanni said that Greek fish are very expensive because there are not many to catch and it’s hard to catch them, but that he was fishing the following day and would cook us fresh fish if he caught any. Steve wanted to fish in Greece, so Yanni said that he could come with. If Yanno didn’t go fishing at 8pm for about 4 hours, Steve might have said yes, but it seemed slightly sketchy. Anyways, it ended with Yanni getting our cellphone number so that he could call us if he caught any fish—don’t think that has ever happened in America.

Our first lunch (5pm) at the local Taverna

Aryn, Jake and I quickly started exploring the town, finding much of it kinda under construction, but in a pretty way. Some of the villas are uninhabited and unkept, but it just adds to the character of the town. Flowers flourish in the deserted villas, making each look like it contains its own secret garden. The people that live on Crete are called Cretians, so naturally we involve ‘Cretian” in about all of our conversations. We then went to the church and asked the people outside the adjacent house if we could go in. They nodded, but it was closed so they motion to a man who was apparently the priest sitting across the street. He quickly got up and came over to let us in. He’s about the first person that I’ve come into contact with in Greece that hasn’t spoken a word of English. The church was small, but beautiful, and even though he didn’t speak English, you could tell he was happy to show the church to us.