So I can’t start the story of our last repositioning day without first regaling the experience Emily and I had going back into the village. As expected, the parking situation was insane, but we were lucky to find parking at the sister hotel of our place just 50m from the main square. Perfect!
The square itself was jam packed. They had closed off vehicle access to the streets entering the square (more on that later) and all of the restaurants emptied their inside tables into the street for more outside tables. Fabulous! Buuuttttt they were all reserved, so we couldn’t get one to save our life. Luckily, the Shisha Bar on the corner had a few spare seats in great position. This was an oddball place for sure. We found all of the youth of Archanes who all liked playing cards at the bar. You go, Gen Z!
For us, this was a prime people watching spot. Which is great because that’s a fun activity. Like seeing dozens of people just straight up ignore the tape blocking off the road and deciding it just doesn’t apply for them. Then they try to turn up the road where the tables are and have to sheepishly reverse. There as also the little girl who definitely didn’t like the fact that her mom’s dress was more sparkly than hers. And many young men all dressed the same like it was a glitch in the matrix (black tight t-shirt and jeans).
After another jaunt around the square at 11pm, we decided everyone was just going to keep having dinner and it wasn’t going to turn into a fun dance party or something any time soon. Live music had started only at like 10:30 and was a bit of a bummer. So we headed back to the car aaaannnnddddd the battery was dead. Huzzah.
So we wandered aimlessly on the street asking if anyone had jumper cables which confused the group of young men we asked first. Luckily, a family heading back from the festivities overheard our pleas (and translated for the young men) and realized they had a battery booster. Amazing! So they did successfully jump our car and were just generally so nice and kind.
On our way then. Only not so much. We were getting all sorts of warning signals on the dash and the car wouldn’t really go above 15km/h (and more like 5 or 10 up hills). No way it would make it back. So we drove around with our hazards on and had resolved to call a taxi to get us back when I did a hail Mary restart of the car which actually worked (instead of just getting stuck with a dead battery again). I guess the 30 minutes of driving around in limp mode while still putting solid revs in made the alternator do its job. Just to be safe, we drove around for another 20 minutes at full power before tackling our hill. And we succeeded! Phew. Hope it holds overnight.
With the packing all done in the morning, we headed out for breakfast. Last breakfast was pretty much the same as all of the other except that both Jordan and Kieran were ravenous. Like both are many rounds of breakfast buffet. Then, it was time to see if the car started. And it did! Woo! Though we did put all of the stuff in the trunk with the engine still running, as we didn’t want to take any chances.
Having seen everything within a reasonable distance, we parked downtown Heraklion again at the playground that we hadn’t gone to the other day due to heat. Goal here being to burn some energy off of Jordan before our flight. Then in the more shady park across the road was another playground. So we had to try that one too. Less good as a playground, but in the shade which was well worthwhile. Then we got a coffee in the park right next to it while Jordan played and lastly tried out the third playground right there. This one was way less good, but Kieran made a baby friend on the swings.
All playgrounded out (Jordan was not, but we were), we emabrked on the 4km, 15 minute drive to the airport. Had to fill up the car for the first time. 37 liters came to over €65 which is $107 Canadian. Luckily, the car rental return was good and we will get our huge deposit back as expected. Though they did get an earful from Emily about how they didn’t pick up the phone when we had the engine problem (it especially did not help that the guy at the desk dismissively said that she should ah e texted instead. Like how is that the way to do that?!).
We had picked up some food near the playground to eat in the airport, which was good because the line for the only food place at the airport was crazy. Much like the Athens airport, Heraklion departures is crazy busy with very little space available to manoeuver. But we made it work and the flight went off without a hitch, and Kieran even slept most of the way.
We even had an amazingly timed connection to get the every-36-minute train. And then the connection for the other train! Great success. Less great was the 1km walk with all the stuff to our last Airbnb. This place is a lot more “traditional” or “authentic” than the last one, but we got a cute tour from the owner and even met her daughter and 8-month old granddaughter.
Everyone was pretty exhausted, nearly everything is closed because of the holiday and we have an early day tomorrow, so we got some pies from a local bakery and ate them on the rooftop patio (with a giant bottle of wine of course). This was lovely, with a great view of the Acropolis. Emily put the kids to bed and made it back out in time for an incredible sunset. We head to the Acropolis first thing, and my phone is on 3% battery, so time to call it here. Good night!
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