A lemon tree of our own

...but then again, too few to mention

If you think that there haven't many stories about Chania on this blog recently, you are not wrong. And that is because we feel like we've barely been there in 2008. In fact, between January and the end of September this year, we've spent as many days away as we have at home. And that is part of the reason that we have decided to move on. Sadly this is to be the last entry on 'A lemon tree of our own'. We left London just under 3 years ago for an adventure around Europe, and to try our hand...

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Greek animal cruelty comes to our street

We went for a walk down to our local beach the other day under a very broody sky. As we got near to the beach I suddenly spotted three ginger kittens scurrying along in the undergrowth, trying to clamber up a concrete kerb. They were very small, and very, very cute. "Aah, cute!", we said, and stopped to watch them. Then we saw a fourth kitten. And a fifth. And a sixth. And then we found the box that they had been abandoned in. In all there were twelve kittens, maybe more, as at least one hadn't ventured out of...

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The Iris Museum in Agios Nikolaos (at last!)

Whilst we were recently on holiday in Elounda we made a day trip to Agios Nikolaos. Whilst we were there we got to visit the Iris Museum. We'd wanted to see the Iris Museum during our road trip last year, but when we were visiting then it was shut. It is a folklore-ish museum, about the history of herbs on the island. It is particularly concerned with how Crete's plants were traditionally used to dye wool. Most of the exhibition consisted of cuttings from the many, many herbs that naturally occur on the island, with descriptions of their medicinal properties....

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Cocktails in Elounda

We recently spent a week in Elounda on the Eastern side of Crete, a place we had visited the previous year on our Cretan Road Trip. Whilst we were there we obviously had to check out a couple of the "cocktail bars". The first was the Malibu Bar, which was on the main drag as you approached town. Although not to be confused with the Malibu Club in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City it nevertheless had quite an 80s theme to it, mixed with football memorabilia, as it had three screens showing sports all the time. The wall of photographs...

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A holiday in Elounda

We recently had a week's "holiday" on the other side of the island. We hired a car and drove to Elounda, to meet up with some of our family who had come over to Crete. We stayed at the Alykes Apartments. These were right on the sea-front, about 500 metres walk from the main town square. To get there and back you had to run the gauntlet of about 15 tavernas and their touts, or you could go on the main road running behind the sea front parade. This was less hassle, but not as pretty, and a lot steeper....

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