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October 6th : We arrived on the Greek island of Kreta (Crete), and our first surprise was the rental car ( budget operation booked over internet). It was a very old, faded green Fiat Panda Convertible without power steering and a hole in the roof. ( It rained as we arrived at the airport). I realized, that I could not negotiate any type of quick turns with this car and was able to rent a much better new car at the same price ! You have to have quick reflexes, if you want to keep up with Greek drivers and I would have had an unfair disadvantage barely being able to turn the steering wheel of the Panda.
We had a reservation for Maravel Beach Appartment and discovered that the Maravel family owns about a dozen hotels/ condos in town. We found the correct one after only four tries. The apartment is a little house on the beach and very romantic and “local”. The doorlock was broken, and we could not use the front door. We locked ourselves out the next morning and JoAnna Maravel, our very friendly host, invited us into her house. She served us Greek tea and told us the story of the Maravel family.
Greek families are very close knit, and grandpa Maravel made his money working in a coal mine in the USA. According to Greek custom, he sent all his savings back to the family in Greece, and they started to buy land, built hotels etc.
JoAnna moved us to a different appartment after I flooded the whole place. I had taken a shower and apparently overworked the drain, resulting in the water running out the front door. I did not even throw any toilet paper in the WC, which is a no-no in Greece. The drain pipes are too small, and there is a bucket for paper disposal next to the toilet. With dry feet again, from Crete, Lothar

This entry was posted on Friday, October 8th, 2004 at 6:52 am and is filed under Greece. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.