Rethymnon: Day 1

I awoke this morning to Lynnea (our third roommate) tapping on my shoulder and saying softly “It’s time to get up.” This has become an every morning occurrence. I always wake up at the alarm, but never get out of bed right away. So I held in my frustration and mustered a “Good morning.” We had another crappy breakfast, then an hour bus ride to Rethymnon.

Rethymnon is Crete’s third largest city, right on the Mediterranean. It was occupied, and therefore influenced heavily by the Venetians and Ottomans, and is really beautiful. We are staying at Hotel Ideon, just across the street from the water. Our rooms weren’t ready when we arrived at 11 AM, so we set off on a tour of the city with Vangeli. It was pretty interesting and reminded me a lot of Venice (obviously). I photographed so many arches for my photo journal … I am arched out. We also climbed up the Venetian fortress and there were some awesome views of the city.

The worst part of the day was, without a doubt, the heat! It was the hottest day of the trip at about 110 degrees and I can’t even describe how much sweat I produced. My face was dripping, as were my shins and back. All of my clothes were sopping wet. It was just a very uncomfortable state. The most grueling experience was when we visited the oldest phyllo dough bakery in Crete. This little old man stood in a back room and we watched him throw the dough on a big wheel and spin it into shape. The room, however, had no circulation and I thought I was going to just pass out from the heat. But the baklava I got to taste afterward was unbelievable. It was way crispier than any I’ve ever had and didn’t fall apart.

We checked into the hotel at about 1 PM and were free for the rest of the day. Katula said some of us may get apartments, so we were pretty psyched about that. But I don’t know why Sarah and I bothered to think we might be one of the lucky ones, considering we’ve managed to have a problem with every single room we’ve had. They gave us the key to room 125 and said it was across the pool in a separate building. We approached and saw a medium set of stairs. I told Sarah and she started to groan, as we realized we’d have to carry our 50 lb. suitcases ourselves. So we made it to the top, only to find rooms 121 and 122. I saw another set of stairs, and this time both Sarah and I let out a groan. This was a big staircase. I was already sweating so it didn’t matter too much, but my suitcase was very heavy! Once I made it up, I yelled down to Sarah that there was a third staircase. At this point she sounded like a woman going into labor and we were both moaning the whole way up. I was wishfully thinking that maybe we’d gotten a penthouse apartment on the top floor, so you can imagine my disappointment when I opened the door to find one very small and stuffy room.

We bitched and complained for about fifteen minutes, and were furious when we saw the girls next door to us having their luggage carried up by the hotel porters. I took a quick shower to cool off and washed my clothes, so my mood was gradually improving. Once we discovered how to turn on the air conditioning, I even sort of liked our room. I went to visit the other girls in the apartment and have to admit I’m pretty jealous. It is three rooms and has a kitchen, so they decided we’re going to cook a big meal one night.

I headed down to lay by the pool, but immediately turned around because it was just way too hot. Even if I stayed in the pool all afternoon, it would still be miserable. So five of us went out to a crepe place, creatively called “Crepe Land.” I had a crepe with turkey, mozzarella, tomatoes, and corn. It was one of the best lunches I’ve ever had and I’ll surely be making another visit to Crepe Land, as it’s just around the corner. I’m giving my mom a new objective … learn to make crepes by August!

We then went in search of a grocery store, but were told everything was closed because it was Sunday. That’s what they do in Greece; close every store on Sunday. What do you do if you need something? Apparently you’re out of luck. We ended up finding a small market though and bought some supplies for PB&J’s, fruit, wine, and snacks to cut costs for the week. I have about 200 euro left, so can only spend a little over 20 euro/day, which is difficult. To be honest, I’m starting to get really sick of Greek food, so this will be a nice way to mix it up a bit.

I spent the entire afternoon in our room because it was just so miserably hot outside. A bunch of people found a wireless network down in the lobby, but I discovered that I can get it in our room, which might have made my day. Oh and the other great news of the day … we get an extension on our assignments! Rumor has it we get three extra days for our research paper and a week for our photo journal. I’m so happy I can just enjoy the rest of our time here, as well as my first few days at home, and then do the work.

Sarah, Kristyn, and I made peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dinner; had a little picnic around our coffee table. It was nice. I went down in the lobby to get some gelato and it was amazing! I had stracciatella (chocolate chip), and creme brulee. Usually you get one very small scoop, so for .80 euro more I could get a second. Of course I decided it was a good deal at the one place that gives huge scoops. It was worth it though.

The three of us started to get ready around 10 PM and had some wine in our room before meeting everyone else down in the courtyard. Boy, did we have a fun time! None of us was able to get the cork out of any of our three bottles. It took three of us holding and twisting and pulling to get each one out. We were laughing hysterically and documented our trials and tribulations with plenty of pictures.

Once we finally met up with people, the hotel lady screamed at us for bringing our wine downstairs. I didn't think they would let us bring our own wine anyways, so wasn't too surprised, but this lady was just rude! The staff at the last few hotels have been very nasty to us; whether it's our nationality or age, I don't know, but it's getting old. So we hung out in one of the rooms, just talking and whatnot. We took a little walk down by the water around midnight, and some of the girls asked us to go dancing, but we chose to come back and go to bed.

Tomorrow we have two ancient Minoan ruins to see and then an afternoon at the beach!