Cretan Christmas!

We haven't seen any reindeer yet, but we are keeping our eyes open. If ever there was a place that Santa and his crew would hang out, this is it!
Imagine if you will this scene from Tyrn's point of view in the driver seat. Kelsey, his lovely wife, is trying to take a picture of a roadside donkey, when it decided to come right in the window. Animals are very friendly here and we couldn't help but think of Mary riding a donkey to Bethlehem at Christmas, quite fitting.

Christmas Eve

Even though Greece is not a balmy 25 degrees in the winter, it can be quite nice, especially on the south coast of Crete. Even if the locals thought we were loco, these Canadians relished in the fact that we're not in 3 feet of snow and headed to the beach for a swim. We'll admit, it was a bit chilly, but at least it wasn't frozen.

It was tricky, but we did manage to do some secret Christmas shopping in Athens before we came to the island. Buying gifts while backpacking presents the continual problem: "Would I want to pack this with me for the next 6 months?" We bought socks from street vendors in Egypt, and then filled them with goodies. Alas, the stockings were hung by the chimenea with care, in hope that Saint Nick would soon find them there.

Christmas Day

Ty REALLY loving his new touque that he pulled from his stocking. It seems that even across the world in Europe a Canadian style gift had to be given at Christmas. Hey Kelsey, you're looking a little sleepy. Wake up, don't you know it's Christmas?
These socks aren't quite as big or stretchy as our wonderful stockings at home, but we did the best we could.

Kelsey with her Christmas gifts. She is back to lying down, apparently she needs a little sister to properly wake her up on Christmas morning.
Ty's favourite is the model plane that he has already put together and moved on to a puzzle. Not the most practical backpackers gift, but the funnest one for sure.

Pretty much the rest of our Christmas was spent trying to communicate with people back home. We were fortunate enough to borrow a laptop from the people who own the hotel that we are staying at to say Merry Christmas to Canada. Unfortunately, the connection is not very good here and so we had to try for a VERY long time to actually get a signal to call home. We were able to talk to both families back home. We would like to say that we did our best to have a great Christmas in Greece and we did a pretty good job. But we definitely felt that something was missing when you're not spending Christmas with family and friends.

Touring Crete

We had to say goodbye to our beloved 5 speed yesterday and so we are limited to our very immediate area from now on. But before we gave over the keys, we got to know the middle section of Crete quite well. The island is large and as you can see from the above picture it is very beautiful and the roads very windy. So, we did have grand plans to see it ALL, but we soon changed our minds when it took us all day to drive an inch and back on the map.

Silver olive groves are really putting on a show for their visitors, they are gorgeous. This is the season to pick the olives and the trees are bursting with fruit.

The sunset never seizes to astonish us. We could have many pictures here, as well as more of the landscape or activities that we have done, but we will wrap it up, so you readers can get back to your holiday fun. On one of the outings we took the car to was the gorge that is a 10 minute drive from here.
After hikng down the steep gorge, we were welcomed with a clear stream to refresh our feet in.
Our first days on the island were greeted with amazing weather! However, the last couple of days have turned sour. We are being blasted by very strong wind and small spurts of rain.
This is the tree outside of our window. It may not look too crazy to you, but it normally has it's fronds hanging down like an umbrella and is now being whipped and pulled by the wind. Don't worry this weather won't stop us, despite the real issue of being blown off the cliff, Tyrn and I decided to walk in the wind today.

Now that Christmas is over, we look to the beginning of 2008. So to everyone reading,

Happy New Year!

K & T