lepor colonies and the cave of zeus

today we got up way too early, i was actually kind of joking when i said we'd get up with the sun.  seems we didnt have much choice because of the location of the hotel.  the road below was quit loud and we had to leave our balcony door open because there was no air.  anyways we said goodbye to the coral hotel with another delicious breakfast with the old germans and then headed up the coast to Plaka where we had to wait around for enough people to get a boat to spinalonga island.  as it was we were the first people there and aside from the 4 other people on our boat we had the whole place to ourselves.  its basically been everything from a military stronghold to a lepor colony.  there is. lot of construction going on and before we knew it we were surrounded by russian tourists.  it was pretty awesome and i'm glad we didnt skip it.

then we hit the road towards lassithi plateau, on a tiny tiny back road that took us practically straight up from the town of Plaka.  it wound through some seriously awesome little villages, one in which we stopped for lunch.  the locals were sitting around drinking raki while we dined in grilled chicken, pork, potatos and tzsiki.  then we got back on the road and came across the old road to lassithi.  it too was a windy sonofabitch, with sheer drop offs and 15 degree inclines.  i am quickly over coming my fear of driving mountain roads for sure.  just when we thought we were there, we discovered we were only halfway up and continued to zigzag up the moutain, past scarey buses and people roasting goats who beconed us to dine with them.  finally we reached the top, a flat fertile plateau surrounded on all sides by mountains and at one time the agricultural center of all of crete.  perched high on one side sits the psychro cave, reported to be either the birthplace of zues or the place his mother hid him when his father the titan was killing allmof his children.  as someone who loves caves, this one was pretty poorly maintained, there was no guide and lots of stuff looked like it had been destroyed.  i was still quite impressed with the feeling of antiquity in the area and got a kick watching the russian mobs stare round in amazment as if theyd never seen a cave before.  the best and worst part of the experience was the crazy rock path to the cave from the parking lot, which left us both a little out of breath.  we could have ridden a donkey up, but we're saving that experience for santorini on friday.

after the cave we took the longer less crazy way down the moutain and even drove by cretes one and only golf course.  80 bucks to play, no thanks, but it did make me drool just a little bit.  finally we reach heraklion our destination, and promptly drove past our hotel twice looking for a place park.  we bit the bullet and paid for public parking and walked 3 blocks to our hotel.  a short rest before we go explore the dock which is right across the street and then dinner on the seaside.  i'll try to get pictures up as soon as they transfer from julias phone.