Souda Bay 2012

A map of Greece shows Crete as it's largest island to the south of it's mainland.  We are on the north western side,  near the town of Hania. Yesterday found us traveling south into the mountains to the southern coastal beaches.  Our 2 hour road trip through the mountains was filled with windy one lane roads,  grazing goats crossing in front of us occasionally,

One lane mountain tunnel

bought homemade olive oil here

had lunch here in Elon, a mountain village

Our waitress

mountain one lane tunnels, impressive postcard gorges,  flowering bushes and vines everywhere even on the mountain sides, unique rural Mediterranean villages with it's old men sitting outside enjoying coffee, outside cafes filled with  vacationing people just 'enjoying life', roadside stands selling homemade olive oil and honey, and red dirt growing vegetable gardens.  Paul and I stopped at a sweet little cafe in Elon for a lite lunch and enjoyed a conversation with an engineer from Austin, Texas and his 3 month internet girlfriend from the Ukraine.

Our destination was Elafonisi Island where the warm lagoon water was a glistening aqua color and rocks jetted up there like boulders in a pond.  We saw people walking through the delicious waist high water out to the island to explore and find their spot in the sun.  How could we not have brought our bathing suits?

Kalyves harbor

perfect boat for us

Our next day was another road trip heading East with no purpose in mind but to see the real Crete, off the beaten path.  We followed the coastline just cause we just love the water.  The seaside towns have so much character, rock covered homes built hundreds of years ago with porches viewing the sea, small shops just trying to etch out a living, Greek women dressed in long black dresses, ornate Greek Orthodox churches in the center of town,  One Mediterranean seaport village that caught my eye was Kalyves which had it all, everything that I love about Greece...water, town center, mountains, and beauty.  It's fun dreaming of living there, devouring all it has to offer.  I even found a boat that Paul and I could use to explore all the other seaport villages around the whole island of Crete.  OH to dream!  Several villages later, Paul suggested that we turn around, go back to Kalyves to explore and enjoy lunch.  AHHHH, so wonderful.