I really struggled with accommodation booking, because I really could not visualize what each city/island would look like or where things were. So as not to overthink it, I just made it up.
I have really stayed everywhere on this trip.
In Athens, I stayed at Soph and Chris Backpackers. I chose this because it said it was central and had A/C in the rooms. The location was perfect, however the Air con was a lie. I was in an 8 person dorm with 2 seperate rooms. One room had A/C and the other had a window and a shitty little fan. I'm sure you can guess which room I was in... I started taking a freezing cold shower right before bed and another as soon as I got up. It was the only way to survive those 37°C nights. Overall though, it was a good value and I even got continental breakfast!
Next was Santorini, I stayed in a 4 person dorm at Anny Studios in Perissa Beach. Ot was a 30 m walk to the beach and had a pool and pool bar. The A/C was beautiful and the staff was helpful. This is the place I accidentally booked for the wrong dates.
Next, I moved on to the island of Crete. I was oroginally supposed to go to Mykonos, bit forgot to book any accommodations and by the time I realized it, everything in my budget was booked, so I switched my ferry ticket and headed to Crete instead. My ferry to Crete was supposed to arrive at 7:40 and the 3 hour bus to my ocean front appartment was supposed to leave at 7:45. Perfect! Except that the notoriously late Greek cruise line arrived at 8:30 instead. I was stuck in Heraklion for the night. Luckily I thought this might happen and had jotted down a just in case hostel that doesn't do pre-booking. It was just called "Youth Hostel". It is right close to the port and the bus station and was only 8€ a night. Once I got there, I understood why. There was no lock on the front door and reception was empty after midnight. The rooms upstairs had no locks either and nowhere to lock up valuables. One of the 2 bathrooms shared between 40 people was broken and the other was crawling with little red ants. Luckily it was only one night.
The next day I caught the first bus to Makrygialos. There I had an Ocean Front apartment to myself, complete with kitchen, clean bathrooms and bedding and A/C. The family who owns the apartments was great and kept checking in and bringing me treats, like olives or iced tea. Now I am headed back to Heraklion for a night, one night in Fira and then I fly to England for 2 nights, then one night is Reykjavik and home. I am looking forward to my own bed for 2 nights and some puppy snuggles and then we're off to Merritt to see my dad, my Jen and my sister.
Last night I got really sick. Muscle aches, sore throat, fever, vomiting, just generally the worst. The thing about traveling though, is that no matter how sick you are, you have to keep moving, because missing that 6:30 a.m. bus back to Heraklion would mean I miss my next day ferry which would mean I miss my flight as well, so here I am, sweaty, nauseous and tired on a 3 hour bus...
Puke.
**At the end of my bus ride, I got off to get my bag, only to find they had taken it off an hour ago, thinking it was someone elses... so my bag was sitting an hour away at a bus stop... I started to lose my mind on them, because they kept saying I forgot to transfer it, but I never switched busses. Anyway, one of the bus station employees caught a taxi there, got the bag and got a taxi back. That was a waste of 2 more hours of my life. The joysssss of traveling. At least I have my bags back!
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