Badshaa’s Blog - Travel and more…

As promised I gotta catch up with my old trips of this year….

So as I told you in my last blogentry….after Uni work life got even more intense. Working till late, doing a lot of overtime and almost no free time. That what happens when you like your job und you are pretty encouraged to achieve a lot in little time…

Well and then it was time to take a break and relax for some time. As you might know, here in Germany we have 30 days per year, which we can take off from work… well and as almost half of the year already passed by, the pressure increased for me to get rid of my available holidays.

As my brother also had the chance to take somedays of at work (he is doing a work integrated study where it is really difficult to take some time off) we decided to travel somewhere, where there is a beach and we can just relax, and yeah of course party a bit… so we looked for good deals, it took some time, but then we got a nice deal for flight and hotel to the island Crete, which is the biggest island of Greece.

Here some wikipedia info about Crete:

“Crete (Greek: Κρήτη, transliteration: Krētē, modern transliteration Kriti) is the largest of the Greek islands and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea at 8,336 km² (3,219 square miles). Crete is one of the 13 peripheries of Greece and covers the same area as the Greek region of Crete from before the 1987 administrative reform It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece; while it retains its own local cultural traits (such as its own music and dialect), Cretans identify themselves as Greeks. Heraklion is the largest city and capital of Crete.

Crete was the centre of the Minoan civilization (circa 2600–1454 BC), the oldest Greek civilization. The island is the location of significant ancient history, which provides popular modern day tourist destinations. They include the Minoan sites of Knossos and Phaistos, the classical site of Gortys, the Venetian old city and port of Chania, the Venetian castle at Rethymno and the Samaria Gorge. The Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport is located just outside Heraklion.”

So we flew, early in the morning from Düsseldorf airport to the Nikos Kazantzakis International airport next to Heraklion. There we were picked up by a bus which  drove almost everyone to each of the Neckermann contracted hotels. Our hotel is located in a small town which is called Stalidas. Actually most of the cities in Crete along the beach are the same. You have

the beach,

one main beach road, lots of restaurants, only hotels and always

the same shops along the road. And it was exactly what we wanted. The beach is directly infront of the hotel door

has nice sand, the weather was amazing, and the water

was perfect to just enjoy almost the whole day in the sea……

We spent 5 days there… mostly with just relaxing and enjoying life….enjoying the sun, reading a good book, or even two… and enjoying great food!!!

We did one short trip per bus to the capitol of Crete, which is called Iraklion…..

“Heraklion or Iraklion (Greek: Ηράκλειον IPA: [iˈɾaklio̞]; Venetian: Candia), is the largest city and capital of Crete. It is also the fourth largest city in Greece. Its name is also spelled Herakleion, a transliteration of the ancient Greek and Katharevousa name, Ἡράκλειον, or Iraklio, among other variants. For centuries it was known as Candia, a Venetian adaptation of the earlier Greek name Χάνδαξ (Chandax, “moat”) or Χάνδακας, which in turn came from the Arabic rabḍ al-ḫandaq. The English form Candy, derived from French Candie, meant the city of Candia or all of Crete (as in Twelfth Night 5.1). Under the Ottoman Empire, it was called Kandiye. In the local vernacular, it is often called Κάστρο (Kástro, “castle”) and its inhabitants Καστρινοί (Kastrinoí, “castle dwellers”).”

We went there especially to visit the ruins of Knossos…..

“Knossos (alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Greek Κνωσός pronounced [kno̞ˈso̞s]), also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square. Detailed images of Cretan life in the late Bronze Age are provided by images on the walls of this palace. It is also a tourist destination today, as it is near the main city of Heraklion and has been substantially restored, by archaeologist Arthur Evans.”

Funny thing is, when you walk around there, that everything was built up, according to that what Arthur Evans thought….like he thought that a room that he found was used as a shrine… but how can we be sure… so it was nice to read the boards…but it strange to have the feeling, that actually he could have interpreted it all wrong…. anyway here you find some nice photos from Knossos:

after visiting Knossos, we took the bus back to the main city… at the port of the city we visited an old venetian castle….

City Center, was ok, little, quiet, nice….

after our city trip, we went back to stalida for a relaxing evening…

On the last days of the week, we met more and more people and of course went for some partyining…
Now you must know that Stalida has two neighbor cities… one is Malia (where all the british, spend their vacations)
and the other town is Hersonisoss which is the main town for Dutch traveler…. so one night we went for partying in
Malia and one night Hersonisoss….. Here are the pictures:

And on one of our last days in Crete we went for a nice boat n’ barbeque tour…. which is actually not expensiv and really fun, as you have also the possibility to snorkle….

At the middle of the tour we also went to a small fisher village which was also ok….

Well what can I say, time flew by and it was again time to fly back home… I must say, that after a night of no sleep, the bus drive from the hotel to the airport was pretty long. And guess what, my brother got so brown by the sun… so that the police checked him twice at the airport in Greece

I would defenately go again to Crete, but I wont take the first best cheapest hotel….

Till the next blog entry….

Kawe