Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Today we went on a two-and-a-half hour cruise with Captain Nick (the Greek) on his boat the Aphrodite, to the offshore islands of Thodorou and Lazaretta. That probably reminds you of a certain 1960's television show, doesn't it? Don't worry, we made it back to port safely.

We started the morning with a few errands. It's really hard to tell on the Greek SIM card how much it actually costs to call the USA. We called Kathy's folks last night and when we checked the balance, we found we only had 5 Euro left, so we wanted to top up to make sure we weren't caught without a phone on some remote island. (Data is separate, so we could still Facebook, Instagram and email while sunning on Mykanos; we just wouldn't be able to make any phone calls.)

After my half-day ordeal at the Greek OTE (telephone) store the other day, I was hesitant to spend another morning in line. I told Kathy (who had stayed home), how I had used Google Maps to find the Vodafone store, but that it had always taken me to OTE (Cosmote). However, it turns out I had made a small mistake. I painstakingly checked each building for the Vodafone store, using the built-in GPS. I just failed to look across the street. There was the Vodafone store, with no customers. We got the phone topped up with another 20 Euro for calls in less than five minutes.

Since we got our errands done so quickly, and our outing didn't start until 1:00 PM, we went seeking out different lanes we hadn't yet walked through. We found a large hostel or commune on the top of the hill that looked interesting, but both of us were too embarrassed to ask what it was, exactly. The graffiti on the wall was fascinating though.

 Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with a little reading break at Starbucks.

We got to the boat a little before 1:00 PM, but it didn't actually leave until 1:30. It was a nice day with about a 10 to 20 knot breeze (only a few white caps). The boat did roll a bit, though, with about 30 passengers. Both of us felt a little queasy and were glad we hadn't eaten lunch. (Actually, I was kind of sorry that I had a banana and melon ice cream cone while we were waiting.)

Thodoru is the Greek equivalent of a National Park or nature preserve for the endangered Cretan wild goats (Kri Kri). Just off the island, Nick hovered the boat over the ruins of a WWII German airplane that crashed here during the invasion of Crete, so we could look at it through the glass bottom. Then, we drove around the island, looking for goats. We saw a few, but we were pretty far away, and didn't have binoculars.

The ride around the island was a little rougher, and a few of the passengers got seasick. Kathy and I didn't get any worse, though. When we got to the little island of Lazaretta, we all put on our fins and snorkels, and jumped into the water. The captain put out some fish food by the side of the boat, so all of the local fish came swimming. I actually couldn't see much (since I can't wear my glasses inside my mask), but Kathy tells me that there were a lot of nice looking fish. One of the reasons I like snorkeling in Hawaii is that there are so many fish, and they get so close, that even I can see them.

The ocean was really clear, and the water wasn't too cold. I thought that I saw a few octopus on the floor of the seabed, but when I went and grabbed Kathy to show her, she told me that they were just rocks. Captain Nick did manage to grab an octopus, though, and brought it on board. Several of the passengers got a kick out of holding it or taking a picture with the octopus on their shoulder. Kathy and I did neither of these.

Instead, when we got back, we took a nice shower and then went out for a final dinner in Chania, where we got a platter of appetizers, including a salad featuring the poor octopus' cousin. I never though that I'd say this, but it was delicious.