Panagia Kera. Kritsa, Crete
We packed and got a receipt and left quickly the car being parked in front on some paid parking spots for which we did not have tickets. We left towards Agios Nicolaos following the road to Kritsa. The village is no big deal, touristy with people having their merchandise hanging on the street in front of the store. Laces, leather shoes, carpets and weavings. We left quickly after a short walk to shoot and stopped outside Agia Panagia. The church is renovated outside and does not have that old look but the frescos inside are amazing. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed and they even follow you inside to be sure that you don’t sneak any. They have also a nice icons shop, a great tradition in Crete. On the way back we stopped at an olive oil mill driven by donkeys, a museum that had an amazing shop on top full of natural products. When we wanted to leave and got in the car to leave, a man called us back and introduced to us Dora the donkey that turns the mill. He showed us the process of making manually the olive oil. Outside was a wine press and the rakki alembic. In the end he refused the entry fee of E1.
Ierapetra, Crete
From there we drove on the beautiful Mirabello coast and all the way to Ierapetra, a city of white houses with a beautiful promenade on the shore of the Libyan Sea and a Venetian fortress. I went to visit and take shots in the citadel with great views over the town. At the info center they advised us to drive to Heraklio on the new road on the coast, the same way as we came, this taking 2 hrs comparing with the one through Lasithi that may take 3 hours. So we drove directly all the way to Knossos following back the Mirabello Coast where we parked right near the ruins, the large empty parking lots speaking volumes about the lack of tourists. At the ticket booth we gave the last Euros, less than the needed amount for the entry fee, and luckily he gave us tickets for one adult and one for student. You rarely can pay by credit card in Greece and this makes life hard when you come with no Euros.
Knossos Palace, Heraklio, Crete
Knossos Palace is amazing. Now, at my second visit, I enjoyed it a lot, its reconstruction giving a better understanding of life in the palace. The rebuilding done with cement is imitating wooden beams. We spent almost 3 hours inside the ruins and left around the closing time at 6:30pm at the closing time, and went directly to get money from a nearby bank. At 7:00pm we arrived in front of Motorclub in Heraklio, parked the car and went for a walk, shot some video on a commercial street, went to the Venetian fort and stopped at a restaurant on the shore for a quick dinner of baby smelts and Greek salad. At 8:00pm we took the car and we were driven to the port by the guy from the agency to the ferryboat Festos Palace where we boarded and were assigned the cabin, 5-007. The boat was huge with 9 decks, a pool, Jacuzzi, discotheque, many restaurants, lots of shops and even one cinema. We stayed on the deck watching our boat leave followed by ANEK Lines that had the departure at the same time and followed us parallel the entire night. We slept all the way through Piraeus and we walked up when the boat got in harbor, at 5:30am hanging out longer in the cabin because we knew that the boat stays open till about 8:00 am.
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