My ferry to Crete wasn’t departing until the afternoon, but after a big action packed day yesterday I decided that I would have a lazy day hanging around Perissa.
I had an awesome English breakfast in a very pretty little garden restaurant on the main street, then took up a sun lounger by the pool at the hotel and updated my blog in the sunshine until my taxi transfer arrived.
Remembering the chaos of disembarking the ferry and the lack of cafes and infrastructure at the port, I decided to give myself a wide berth and leave for the terminal a full 2 hours before my scheduled departure. I’m so glad that I did as the narrow, winding road down to the port was quite congested and there were almost no tables available at the restaurants on the strip. I nabbed myself a spot, ordered a giros and a corona and watched the chaos as people piled into the port.
The ferry to Crete was another longer journey and as this was my last Greek island ferry that I would be taking, I treated myself to a prosecco when I took my seat – 2 hours later we were pulling into port at Crete.
The disembarkment at Crete was so different from the last 2 stops because we were pulling into an established, commercial city! Docks full of containers of imported and exported goods, real roads, a taxi rank of cars queued orderly. I felt instantly calm, this was much more like the travel experiences I am used to.
I hopped into a taxi cab and started the 1 hour journey to my hotel in Agios Nikolaos (which ended up costing the same amount as that 12 minute ride in Santorini!). I chatted to the driver about the island and the different regions while I watched the scenery through the window. Around 40 minutes later the ocean appeared on the horizon and we started making our way through the winding roads into the bay at Agios Nikolaos.
As soon as I stepped out of the car and breathed in the sea air I knew I was going to enjoy this place – there were a few small beach bars to the left of the hotel and to the right, around 5 minutes walk up the road was the town, which centred around a huge lake with colourful row boats moored on each side.
It was nearing dusk so I dropped my suitcase in my room and walked down to the beach bar – which had a very different vibe from those on Ios and Santorini as the demographic was largely families and young couples. I ordered a glass of rose and a big pot of mussels and watched kids frolicking on the shoreline and lovers swimming and splashing in the bay while the sun went down.
