Strength, Serenity, and Wisdom: Possessed Shower Heads (Greek Adventures Vacation Journal, Day 5)

Well, I was wide awake in the middle of the night. I finally got up and played around on my phone for a little bit, and then took a nap before everyone else got up. My circadian rhythms were definitely a bit confused, but after this sleep, things started to finally settle in.

Breakfast in Sougia, before hitting the road to our next destination in this Beautiful Delicious Country.

Greek coffee (didn't like it. Too bitter and sweet, at the same time.)

My apple pastry, and Julia's cheese circle. Bread & Cheese = Love

I loved loved loved Sougia, but was also excited to move on. We had an adult slumber party while at the Oceanis, our hotel in Sougia. They didn't have two rooms, so us two couples shared an apartment style room. Adult slumber parties can be fun, but 4 adults sharing one bathroom can be tricky. The showers in Europe are SO MESSY. Plus #travelpooooooops. We were ready for our own rooms again. And I came to appreciate American shower heads. In fact, this blogger explains it perfectly:

I’m easy going, handle changes well, rarely complain and enjoy being places different from home. Especially Europe.

But no matter how many times I go to Europe, I am always confounded by one thing: those European shower heads.

These are not like the ones here in America, which are affixed to the wall. Instead, they dangle on their own and when you turn them on, they take on a personality thier own. No matter how much I try and control them, they act as independent as a cat.

I first encountered this contraption in the Greek Islands. I had never seen one before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. After all, with water spraying out of it, where do you put it when you lather up with soap and shampoo?

Needless to say, despite repeated trips to Greece, I never did get the hang of it. I would soak everything in the bathroom to the point my friends always made sure they had taken their showers first and cleared out all of their stuff because they knew I would soak everything in the room.

In European cities, and in finer hotels than the pensions I stayed at in Greece, I expected things to be more civil. But that’s not the case. I even have trouble in 5-star hotels.

Sure, the nicer places have a bar where the shower head slides up and down to different positions. But I can never ever get it to stay affixed, and it slides down the bar as I’m taking a shower, causing me to bend down further and further until I’m practically on my knees in the tub.

I also have the problem of the shower head not pointing straight ahead. Instead, it positions itself to one side and I have to continually move it over which, of course, winds up soaking everything withing 10 feet – the floor, the toilet, my clothes if they are in the wrong spot.

As this is happening, I keep asking myself the same question over and over again: why can’t the Europeans get this shower thing right!?

(from https://www.pubclub.com/destinations/europe/europe-travel-blog-those-darned-european-shower-heads/)

Our next stop: Elafonisi. This was a beach in a guidebook that I saw and was 1 of 2 specific requests of places I wanted to see. It is a spectacular beach, but of course very popular and crowded. The day was beautiful. The sand was easy to walk on and we walked through the entire area. The day was perfect temperature and the sea breeze felt SO GOOD. I did stick one foot in the water. It was still a bit chilly from spring. (Sougia was too! In fact, Chris still laughs at when he walked up behind me and I was cursing as I was trying to enter the water. Nope. Turned back around.) If I hadn't had my stupid toe injury, I would've been in my happy place just walking barefoot across the water line (my favorite thing to do. Loves walks on the beach, yeah yeah yeah. That's me.) If not for the throngs of people, it would've been a nice morning to just be lazy again on the beach. But we moved onward.

My foot slipped in our rental prius. I smashed my toe into the bottom of the passenger seat in front of me. It HURT! And it broke the toenail. Ug. I only bled a little bit, but I bandaged myself up and was sulky on our walk on the beach because I didn't want to put my injured bleeding toe in the water.

Pink sand!

You aren't allowed to drive on this road. Danger. Danger.

Then we drove to restaurant called Spilios for lunch, close to Phalasrna beach. Spilios means cave, and it was indeed built at the entrance of a cave.

figs!

photo credit: Brent

Photo credit: Chris

Onward to Chania. Chania is a modern city, however, the interior is a labyrinth of old Venetian houses. There is also a major Minoan palace and town beneath the city (but we didn't see any of that). The hotel in Chania was, I think, our most expensive nights. We stayed there two nights, and it was LOVELY. Porto Veneziano.

photo credit: Chris

Tunnel on the way to Chania.

Awwwww....his & hers toiletry bags. We cute.

Hot water kettle in the room. YAY! I love tea.

It took me about 12 days to get in the habit of putting toilet paper in the trashcan and not the toilet. Then it took me about 12 more days at home to not look for a trash can next to the toilet. sigh...

Wandering around Chania