June 14 - Snorkeling blind....or maybe not

Yay for swimming in and exploring Cretan waters! The main bulk of our day was spent on the M/S Irini a medium ship that for 3 1/2 hours took us out to two of the near by islands - Thodoru and Lazaretta. Thodoru is a protected island, home to the endangered Cri-Cri, a dear like animal that is native to Crete. But really, I was just amazed at how blue the water was. Yet it wasn't only blue. The water was green, teal, and turquoise all depending on the depth. And everything was so clear! The ship also gave members a chance to go snorkeling, which was cool to me in theory and then sad when I realized that without my glasses I wouldn't be able to see much (water helps, but not enough to really see). Luckily, or unfortunately for some, there weren't really any fish to see. So I just spent my time wading beside the ship in the VERY cold, beautifully blue water. The second island, Lazaretta is not protected, so not only could we swim in the water near the island, we got to swim onto the shore and walk along the small beach. Again without my glasses it wasn't as exciting as it could be, but it meant that I concentrated a lot more on the tectures and what things felt like between my toes.

We ended the cruise with a shot of Raki, a traditional Cretan alcohol. In my opionion? SO GROSS! It tasted horrible and burned all the way down. And then every time I burped afterward, I tasted it again! I feel it was a somewhat disappointing end to a great few hours. The lady who was heading the tour and gave out the Raki was nice though, so I couldn't really fault her on not noticing that her native drink was one of the most distgusting things ever. Oh Well.

After we got back from the boat trip, tired and salty, we collectively decided on a laid back evening. We have a quiet dinner and went back to our fantastic hotel room to shower, repack and an Amaretto Sour nightcap. All in all, I don't think my time in Chania could have gone any better and I would love to have more time here someday.