Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 2

July 16

We had such a good time the night before that most of us slept late on Tuesday morning. I say most, but not me. I was up early as always so I went out and read on the patio. By the time we all finally made it down for breakfast, they were closing the place up. We were the last ones there and there wasn’t much food left. 

While we ate, we decided on our plan for the day. One of the things we’d read about was the CretAquarium. This sounded like fun. Since we knew nothing, though, I went to the front desk (and really, this place needed a concierge so I wouldn’t have to keep interrupting the front desk) and asked about it. The woman there said “which one? The big one or the small one?”

Interesting question since I didn’t know there were two. Turns out the CretAquarium was about 20km away, halfway to Heraklion and she had no idea what a cab would cost. The smaller one was in town, just at the other end of the main street, and would be about €8-10. Also, the bigger one only had fish and tanks while the smaller one had reptiles. 

For all of those reasons, we decided to go to the smaller place, called Aquaworld, which bills itself as an “Aquarium and Reptile Rescue Centre.” All right then…let’s see what you got, huh?

We called a cab from the hotel lobby (so we didn’t have to walk down the hill) and arrived at the place in no time. There was a line outside, so we figured it was a small place. Might have been the kind of place where folks needed to leave before more folks could get in. It was hot, but we waited. There was no sidewalk to speak of, so we were standing on the rather narrow street. The street where large trucks and small cars all negotiated for space and, had we wanted to, we could have high-fived with the drivers or passengers of any of these vehicle without ever leaving our spot in line. There were two old guys across the street, sitting at a makeshift table, selling homemade olive oil and grappa.

We took a step towards the door. 

Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but it was hot, and we waited for about 20 minutes before we were able to make it to the counter inside to pay our entrance fees. 

Was it worth it?

You bet your sweet bippy it was! The tanks were few but lively. There were two octopuses (in different tanks) who were quite active and a really cute axolotl (I don’t know if it was cute to another axolotl, but we thought it looked just fine). A couple of eels were poking about and a small grouper, too. There was even a blind green turtle named Stephania who was just enjoying her day, swimming around and listening to the folks walking by. 

Then we turned a corner and went out onto the back patio. There were reptiles everywhere. Monki almost tripped over an iguana who was basking in the sun, just waiting for scritches. She obliged. Then there was the guy holding on to the python. Well, really he was passing it along for us to hold. Monki was cool with it all, but Rasa was a little nervous. In the end, though, she did just fine. Not enough to get one for home, but she didn’t freak out. 

Then one of the workers grabbed a dead mouse with a claw-grabber thingy and used it to first coax out hiding and then feed a huge Gila monster. There was also a large tortoise wandering around, and another iguana came out, and there were turtles in a small pool just on the other side of a retaining wall. 

And all of these interactions were included in the initial price! It was an amazing time. Monki got a t-shirt and necklace as souvenirs, and we took lots of pictures. Even though this was only day 3/7, we all knew it was going to be a highlight of the trip. 

By the time we left there, Rasa, Monki, and Pa were a bit tired, but Bubby wanted to go shopping for souvenirs herself. I offered to accompany her (remember I didn’t get a chance to get my gifts the day before) and we put their others in a cab back to the hotel. 

Since we were at the other end of town, Bubby and I walked back the entire length of the little village, stopping at little gift shops along the way. In the end, I bought a Hersonissos picture frame and some playing cards adorned with sexually explicit illustrations from ancient pottery and Bubby got some jewelry and magnets. It was a coupe of kilometers walk, in the midday heat, but it was fun. 

Once back at the resort, I had another gyro for lunch, since we’d missed the buffet (again) and then Monki and I hit the pool. By this time, she was doing really well with her swimming efforts so I was just there for moral support. After a while, lips started turning blue and Rasa decided it was time for a pool break. Of course, if you have to get out of the water, the best thing to compensate is ice cream. 

We headed over to our alternate lunch spot and grabbed a couple of scoops of some cold goodness. Our seats were right in front of the spa, though, so we were subjected to a sales pitch while we ate. 

“Have you ever had a massage?” The nice woman asked. 

“No,” explained Rasa.

At this point, the nice woman motioned to her assistant who got behind Rasa and started giving her a nice shoulder rub for a minute or two. 

We booked a 30-minute massage for Rasa for the next day. 

To be fair, Rasa had been dying to try a professional massage for a while and we’d even talked about it, prior to the trip, so it wasn’t like we were caught completely unawares, but still, it would be a nice treat for her, one which was richly deserved. 

After dinner, we went to the show area early to make sure we got good seats. Tonight, Monki said she was going to go up for the Mini Disco and she certainly did. She was having a great time and ran around dancing and singing and shouting the whole disco. By the time it was over, she was hot and sweaty and smiling from ear to ear. 

The show that night was the Queen jukebox musical We Will Rock You. This time the hosts distributed a plot outline so we could all follow along, but in the end, it really didn’t matter what the story was. We were all there to see these kids lip-syncing their hearts out, trying to pretend to be Freddie Mercury. It was glorious. 

July 17

Wednesday morning Monki was supposed to cut Pa’s hair. 

Here’s what was going on: For the past couple of years, Pa has been growing his hair out and into a ponytail. Over the last couple of months, ever since they knew they were going to come and visit, Pa kept asking Monki if she’d like to cut the ponytail off? Naturally she said yes, Who wouldn’t? Rasa didn’t want to do it at the house so we decided we’d do it in Greece. 

How fun! 

Pa had gone to the salon in the hotel and explained the situation so after breakfast, we were supposed to go there and Monki could take a sharp instrument to the back of Pa’s head. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication, or something got lost in translation because the stylists in the salon had thought they would be the ones doing the cutting, not an 8-year-old girl. Not all was lost, however, as we were able to book Monki an appointment to get colorful extensions braided into her hair (we’d been seeing them all over the resort and they looked like fun). 

That didn’t solve our haircut problem, though. 

Turns out, it wasn’t really a problem. I borrowed a pair of scissors from the front desk and we went out on our patio and the deed was done. I gotta say, Monki didn’t do a bad job and the hair actually looked pretty good. 

We finished Pa’s hair around 10:00 and since our appointment for the hair extensions wasn’t until 11:00 and Rasa’s massage was at 1:00, we had the morning to kill. Monki wanted to try her hand at air hockey with Pa, so they and Rasa went to do that while Bubby and I went to return a bottle of suntan lotion which had exploded in her purse. 

On the way back, there was a dart tournament going on, hosted by one of the kids from the entertainment crew. I joined in. It was a lot of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve thrown darts, so I didn’t do very well, especially against the folks who obviously knew the drill and brought their own. 

Monki played a pretty good game against Pa but soon it was time for the hair extensions. We’d done this kind of thing a few times before, most recently at Mega during a free promotion, but this was something completely new and different. For one, the synthetic hair was a much thicker strand and for another, they really wove it in tight. 

The upshot of all this was that for Monki, it was extremely painful. She’s a sensitive child to begin with, and these beauticians were absolutely not going on easy on her. There were a lot of tears, but she soldiered on and in the end, her hair looked great. 

The Monki and I had lunch while Rasa had her massage, just chilling and enjoying the afternoon. When Rasa was finished, Monki wanted to try her hand at pool (I guess today was a day for bar games) so we racked ‘em up. Monki definitely tried her best, but she just wasn’t understanding the concept of less is more when it comes to arm movement and ended up swinging wildly, hitting herself in the mouth. I think that’s a rite of passage. 

By this point, it was close to 2:30, so Pa decided to hang out in the room and the rest of us took the shuttle down the hill to Star Beach. This is another little resort area with a small beach opening directly to the ocean. We rented a couple of chairs and an umbrella and got in the water. 

The other thing about Star Beach is this was where the various water-based adventures launched from. While the boat tours left from the harbor/port, Star Beach had a couple of different inflatable pulls as well as a parasailing outfit. Monki was intrigued by this last one. We’d seen them soaring through the air from our patio and now she was seeing it up close. She watched it and decided she wanted to do it. I asked about age limits and were told that at 8, she was fine. But she didn’t want to do it alone. Rasa was an absolute no go since she’s afraid of heights. I’d been parasailing once, about 30 years ago, so I was game to go up with her. It wasn’t cheap, but hey, we were on vacation. Then Bubby stepped in and said she would cover it as a birthday present for the both of us. She even covered her and Rasa’s passage so they could be on the boat with us as we went up. 

On the boat, they put us in life jackets and safety harnesses and all was good until they headed out into open water and called for us to get clipped into the rig. Monki looked at me and said “I don’t want to do this. Why did I decide to do this?”

But then the wind caught the canopy and we were heading up. To start with, she liked it. She was a little scared but then settled in and enjoyed the ride. As we started to come down, she got a bit nervous once again, closing her eyes but asking me to tell her when they were about to “dip” us in the water, which I did. Back on the boat, she was a bit out of breath but said she enjoyed herself. 

The group that had gone out before us had one set of flyers who did their thing and then came back in. Our group had four set of flyers, of which we were the first. This meant that after we came back on the boat, we got to wait around while three other groups went up and came down. 

Remember yesterday, when we looked at the boats bobbing in the water and decided that taking a boat ride probably wasn’t the best idea? Here’s why. During the two groups which followed us, Monki (and Rasa) were a bit nauseous but keeping it contained. By the time the last group went up, Monki was leaning over the side of the boat, “feeding the fish.” I felt bad for her. I’d been there myself often enough to know how she felt and it wasn’t pleasant. But she’s a trooper and after a few minutes on stable land, she was ready to go back in the water and try swimming in the ocean without her floaties. 

It was a really good afternoon, and by the time we had to pack it up to grab the shuttle back to the hotel, we were good and tired and ready for dinner and disco. 

At some point towards the end of the meal, Monki started not feeling well. Both she and I had been dealing with health issues (lingering coughs, slight fevers, etc.) for a few days/weeks so “not feeling well” wasn’t that big a deal. Rasa decided to take her back to the room. We’d meet up with her later. 

A few minutes passed and Rasa was back, telling me I needed to come with her right away. They never made it out of the restaurant. Instead, Monki started complaining of huge pain in her chest. She couldn’t walk, so I grabbed her up and carried her to the front desk, asking where the doctor was. 

There’s a medical office in the hotel, but a note on the door said they were gone for the day. We called the posted emergency number and explained the situation. The voice on the other end said they’d have someone there as soon as possible. 

A medical person (was she a doctor? I don’t know.) showed up a few minutes later and asked questions, which we answered. Turns out that since Monki is a minor, they actually couldn’t do anything on the premises. Instead, they had to transport her, via ambulance, to the hospital. They also explained how this was not covered in the all-inclusive. We explained we had insurance and just do whatever was needed. 

They loaded her up in the back, gave her oxygen and other monitoring devices and Rasa rode in the back with her and the doctor while I rode up front. The hospital we were heading to was in Heraklion. When I asked how far, the driver said “normally, about 20 minutes, we’ll make it in 13.”

I’ve never ridden in the front of an ambulance before. It was amazing how everyone moved out of the way, even on crowded streets. And the driver was great about putting me at ease. I kept looking back to see Rasa, who was doing her best to keep it all together while at the same time, reassuring Monki that it was all okay. 

At the hospital, they took her immediately into a room in the pediatric emergency area and began examining her. While Rasa was in with her, I needed to go and get the paperwork filled out so the doctors could actually do what they needed to do. Where did I have to go? The basement/emergency room. They tried to explain how to get there through the building but then decided it would be better to just send me around the outside. 

Off I went, rounding the building and eventually finding where I needed to be. I went up to the window, explained what was happening and they were very kind and patient with me. Especially when I tried to pay for the papers¹ and couldn’t remember my PIN code. I finally got it on the third try, but that was just adding pressure to the already overwhelming situation. 

I got the paper I needed and rushed back to the pediatric emergency room and handed off the documentation…only to be told they needed more papers…from the same place I’d just been. Back I went, to get the new set of papers (but at least this time, I knew where I was going and it didn’t take quite as long and I remembered my pin number first time out!).

By the time I got back this time, Rasa and Monki were out in the waiting room. EKG was clean, lungs sounded okay, and now we just had to wait on blood tests. Monki was a bit thirsty, so now I had to go get some water. By this point, my feet were starting to hurt. Not from walking, I’m good with that, but because I was wearing my pool sandals, which were really not designed for long hikes. 

Anyway, I tried to find a machine for water in the building but there wasn’t one, so I went off in search of a store. There was a kiosk just outside the hospital proper but they didn’t take plastic. So I wandered further afield but nowhere nearby took anything other than cash. So back I went to Rasa to get some folding money before heading out once again to get drinks and crackers for the sick girl. By this point, it was dark and I was walking barefoot because the sandals were cutting into my toes. 

Eventually, I made it back, victorious. This was good. I needed a victory, however small, because having your kid in the ER is not a fun way to do anything. Both Rasa and I were wrecks, but in the end, it seems the diagnosis was muscle fatigue. Monki had just been working new sets of muscles with all the swimming and the parasailing and when you add in the coughs, it just overwhelmed her little body. 

After a couple of hours, when the blood came back clean, she was released. Now we needed to figure out how to get home. 

I asked the releasing doctor if she could call a cab for us, but she couldn’t. “It’s still early,” she explained at 10pm. “There should be a line of cabs waiting in front of the hospital.”

There was not. 

I asked the security guard if he could call a cab. He didn’t understand me. 

Eventually, a cab pulled up and we took the 30-minute, €45 ride back to our resort. Monki alternated between sleep and nausea on the ride back but soon enough we were all back in our own room, ready for real sleep. 

1. Monki’s EU card had expired, so even though she was fully covered, we didn’t have the card to prove it.  ↩︎