Falassarna Beach

Saturday, May10th, 2014 Kissamos Crete
Yesterday we walked up to the little travel office on the main road and got tickets to Falassarna Beach for the day. Naturally, the bus wasn't exactly on time but it wasn't bad. It took only 20 minutes to cross the peninsula that runs to the north and get down the mountain to the very western side of Crete. The bus dropped us off at a little market about 500 meters up the hill from the beach.

 The beach is quite long and also really wide in spots. On the slope above the beach are olive groves and lots of big greenhouses. There are a few little pensions and tavernas here but not very many. All afternoon while we soaked up some sun we kept wondering why it's so undeveloped. I guess the developers just haven't got to it yet. Some people were swimming but we still found the water a little cold. I splashed around a bit to get some of the sand off me but that was about it. The sand here is brown and a bit coarser than the fine white sand on most Caribbean beaches. This is a beautiful beach but, in our opinion, not quite as nice as the beaches we've seen in Cuba and other Caribbean destinations.
At about 5 pm we caught  the bus back to Kissamos, bought some more yogurt in the market and walked back to our hotel. We cooled down with a shower and a beer and went back along the waterfront to "Papadikas" restaurant again. Once we find a restaurant that we like, we often go back. We could try more restaurants but at the end of a day we often feel that if we're happy, why risk being disappointed. I suppose that's not very adventurous but we're pretty lazy travelers.

For starters we had the obligatory bread (really fresh and good), olive oil, vinegar, tzaziki and some other dip plus we ordered stuffed vine leaves with sour cream/greek yogurt - we're not sure which, along with a 1/2 litre of the house white wine (3 euros).

For the main course we had fresh, lightly breaded calamari and stuffed tomatoes and peppers. It was a great combination. When the owner (the Cap'n himself ) stopped by, Anita told him how much we were enjoying the food. A few minutes later he was back with another 1/2 litre of wine, on the house. Later, the waiter brought the dessert and a small carafe of raki (again, all on the house). We ended up sitting there for over 2 hours and didn't meander back to our hotel until about 10:30 pm, which is unheard of for  us.
This morning we did the usual organizing and laundry before going out for a walk along the beachfront and then up into the main part of town to the bakery for a loaf of bread and to a little market for an orange. Anita always has our balcony breakfasts figured out plus at least something for us on the road. This is part of our travel education. That is:
-In a restaurant, never take a seat where you can see into the kitchen. It might be okay here but it was a hard lesson in southeast Asia.
-On a bus, never take a seat where you can see the driver talking on his cellphone, flirting with the young ladies, eating his lunch, smoking a cigarette out the window and, oh yeah, driving narrow roads through little villages or hanging over cliffs on switchbacks.
-Never have no food or water when you're traveling. Being hungry and tired is way worse than just being tired and it's been known to make one of us a bit cranky (at least, according to Anita).
This afternoon we lounged on the beach in front of the hotel for awhile. It's rocky but there is a bit of sand here and there. Not so bad.
Tonight, we're going back to Papadikas on the waterfront again for another great meal, no doubt. We're not the only return customers. Tomorrow morning we'll check out of our hotel about 11:30, walk up to the travel office on the main road and get the bus back to Hania. From the Hania bus station we'll get a bus out to the Hania airport. We already have a flight from there to Athens as well as a hotel there for 2 nights. We didn't want to leave our arrival in Athens to catch our flight home on Tuesday until the last minute because Greece is notorious for strikes and delays. We should be fine.