Today was mostly a travel day. We left Chicago yesterday afternoon on a flight to Rome. The flight to Rome was uneventful, other than the fact that they only turned out the lights for a few hours making it very difficult to get any sleep. I think I may have had about an hour. Alexandra got a bit more, but mostly interrupted. After arriving in Rome we boarded another flight to Athens. This flight was only two hours, but the plane was more cramped than the flight to Rome and left about an hour late, however we still arrived in Athens with plenty of time to catch our next flight. We sat next to an interesting man from Sparta who had only done a little traveling outside of his home town. After arriving in Athens we were greeted by an agent from Gate 1 who gave us our tickets for the three ferries we'll be taking in the coming days as well as the reservation information for our flight to Heraklion Crete. The flight to Crete was nice and short with great views of the Greek Islands. We were met by another Gate 1 agent where we boarded a bus and finally made it to the Grand Hotel. Total travel time: 20 hours.
The Grand Hotel really lives up to its name. The entire complex is beautiful with gorgeous swimming pools (four all together, including one with two large water slides) and a beautiful backdrop of scenery. After getting settled in our room we went to the main restaurant for dinner. After dinner we went for a short walk (merely across the street) to the beach to watch the sunset.
One of the things that Alexandra and I as well as other American tourists thought was really gross was that you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet anywhere in Greece. Instead there is a waste basket provided next to the toilet where you dispose of the toilet paper. Luckily these baskets are emptied frequently to prevent the inevitable odor.
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