Corinne CrawfordWe packed up our things and headed towards the metro station to go back to the airport to catch our flight to Crete. We had noticed that the weather reports were predicting unusual rain and storms during the exact 5 days that we would be on the island. Of course. As we were about halfway between our apartment and the metro station rolling our bags about to cross a busy street, a taxi driver stepped out of his car and asked if we wanted to take a taxi to the airport. Our first instinct was to say no, to save money going by the metro which was 9€ each with no transfers. He told us it was 30€ and it took a minute to register that for just 1€ more each, we could go door to door and not sit on the metro so we jumped in and John, our taxi driver, regaled us with stories and photos of his life in his native city in Greece where he dove and hunted for octopus. The skies were getting grayer and grayer and by the time we arrived at the airport, it was looking pretty ominous to the south. We checked in and tried to find a place to grab a beer before having to board our flight. I glanced at my ticket with about 45 minutes to go before our flight boarded and I noticed it said Sky Lounge on the bottom of my boarding pass. I guess because I paid for the upgraded ticket to be able to check my bag, it gained me access to the lounge. Jodi had done the same type of ticket and hers also said Sky Lounge on it. Debbie looked at hers and because her bag was not as heavy, she just bought the regular ticket and had no such indication on her ticket. Well, knowing that a lounge has free food and beer, Jodi and I jumped up and looking over our shoulder to tell Debbie we would return shortly we hightailed it to the lounge. After satiating ourselves with finger sandwiches and sweets along with a beer, we returned to where we rudely left Debbie and presented her with the few sandwiches we sneaked into our purses for her to make up for ditching her. We then made our way to our boarding area, and waited until the appointed time to board the flight. Which came and went. And then we waited some more. And then we realized that our flight was definitely not leaving on time. And then we realized it might not leave at all. Apparently the storm that hit Crete at that exact time was immense and caused 50 year flooding in areas. It washed cars out to sea and even took the life of two people. This was no minor storm. The airline announced that we were not only delayed about an hour but that we would find out in an hour if the flight was able to leave at all. We quickly pow-wowed and tried to think of what we would do if we could not get to Crete and just as I was about to email the Airbnb host where we had stayed in Athens to see if another night was available, people started lining up at the gate to get on the shuttle to go to the small plane that would take us to Crete. It looked like we were going after all. We got on the shuttle and all boarded the small plane and then we sat there. It was then announced that because no flights could land on Crete for several hours, there was a back up and we would be waiting to taxi for about another 45 minutes. There was definitely the fear that we would wait on the runway only to be told that we were not going to be taking off after all. But finally the plane started to move and we took our place on the runway to take off. We had arranged a private transfer from the airport to our Airbnb in Rethymno, which was a town a little more than an hour away from the airport in Heraklion and we were definitely concerned that the driver would not be there as we were about 3 hours later arriving than we planned. When we arrived to the airport, it was chaos. So many planes were finally arriving after the small airport being shut down due to the storm for several hours. The place was packed in the arrivals and departures (no one could fly out either) and it was shoulder to shoulder in the whole place with many people on their phones trying to make another arrangements, flights and accommodations due to their change of plans. As we were trying to figure out where our luggage was going to be dropped off, I messaged the transfer service and lo and behold, our driver was waiting for us outside. We were so grateful as it seemed getting a taxi or bus with all that chaos was going to be next to impossible. When we arrived in Rethymno, we did have to walk a bit because our accommodations were in the heart of the old city, which was pedestrian only. But we were so grateful to finally arrive safe and sound and we tipped our driver handsomely for waiting around for us. The old town of Rethymno, just like many Greek island towns, has windy, narrow cobblestone pathways that can easily turn a person around so we had a bit of a time finding the correct street. As we stood at a particular intersection, we finally had to call our apartment host to try to locate where we should be and when he asked me where we were I told him we were on a corner in front of a jewelry store. I figured he knew the town very well and that would give him an idea of how to direct us to the apartment. Well, only after did I realize that literally 7 out of every 10 storefronts were jewelry stores so that was about the most unhelpful things I could have said. But it turned out we were very close and he popped his head around the corner and said…. “So close”…. We followed him around the corner to the door of the apartment tucked in between another jewelry store of course and a restaurant.
The apartment occupied the 2nd and 3rd floor (although in Europe this would be the 1st and 2nd floor). He told us the apartment belonged to his grandmother and when she passed away, the family remodeled it turned it into an airbnb. He told us the building was about 400 years old and it still held some of that charm but with updated fixtures and amenities. The first floor was the kitchen, living room, bathroom and one bedroom with a small terrace that looked out over the pedestrian street and the second floor up an old wooden curving staircase was the 2nd bedroom and a large outdoor terrace with another half bath off of the terrace. The terrace was wonderful but unfortunately due to the inclement weather, we would not be enjoying it much between the rain and clouds.
