Day 31 Oia to Heraklion, Crete and Pepy has wi-fi now, I am SO happy!

Woke at 7am today- early haha! Had breakfast on the verandah looking out at yet another perfect blue sky day- is it ever anything else here? We packed our bags- it has been so good to have been able to have your clothes in a dresser these past 5 days, I always find it a pain living out of a suitcase!

We went walking then wandered around the back streets as we have found the restaurants there are a better price. When we first arrived Thomas who showed us to the villas, said that because of the recession, they have had to lower their prices but they are still up there.

We had really nice pasta today and a beer- many places off the main drag serve you the 500ml bottles of beer for about 3-4.5E which is pretty good. They also had free wi-fi so was able to catch up on internet from when I lost it at home this morning.
Had a siesta cos we were tired after walking back- such a hard life ! But man its hot today, you cant really stand in the sun cos it’s a scorcher with no breeze.

Finished packing up, left the butter and milk but took the ouzo lol! Priorities…..
Caught our transfer from Oia to the port- they are all 25E so about $40. The half hour trip took us down the windy roads again, much better this time in a small car than a big van. The young guy driving is from Poland- as are quite a few people in the service industry here. He was saying he works 7 days a week- they have no days off at all and can be working from 8am- 10pm depending on the pick ups. I thought it was bad that the Polish girl I met in the dress shop only got 1 day off a month! Obviously this is the norm here- they are really hard workers.

See the road winding down



Arrived at the port and the café guys are really good- obviously want you to sit at their café and buy drinks but they also directed me to the right ticket office and parked our bags for us. Sat in the shade and had a drink for about 45 mins till the ‘flyingcat’ arrived. It is double hulled with Vodafone plastered on the hull.

We didn’t realize when we got on that you have specific seats as the tickets are in Greek, and I suggested we sit at the front but Graeme said sit right at the back. Was funny when we realized we needed to find our specific seats- it was exactly where I had suggested we sit at the front haha!

This boat literally flies on top of the water- hence the name I guess, but its speedy and easy to ride in for a 2 hour trip, even though there were hundreds on board there was no problem- easier than the airport.

We arrived and retrieved our suitcases from the back deck- it worked quite well even though there were so many people getting their suitcases. Found the taxi man easy- they spelled Collis correctly this time on the name board! Usually it is Collins!

Check this out- whose life does Dad put first? Just like Morocco!

A half hour trip around the island and up to Nymphes where the wonderful owner Pepy was waiting for us, just like 5 years ago. She is such a soft, lovely lady. (last trip she had just re-opened a month before after suddenly losing her husband to aggressive cancer) She said she is much better this year and its so good to see her happy.

She has given us our apartment again, it feels like coming home- I just wish Danni was here to complete it like 2007 (Sam you would be welcome too but Ayla would fall off the balcony and we are a LONG way up!) It is so good to be back.

We are now sitting in our apartment drinking ouzo and coke (Me) and cretan wine (Gray) and eating pringles for dinner! Graeme is reminiscing about his old promise that if he won lotto he would fly a select group over here to stay at Pepys & go to Georges restaurant Kri Kri, including both sets of parents & kids, Rudy and Anna, Anne and Pete, Sue and Andrew, Alan and Maree to name a few.