Day 17: hello again Chania

Trip

Greece+Cyprus 2025

Location

Crete 🇬🇷

Date

September 29, 2025

We’re not hiking today. There are many down sides including the lack of exercise and absence of wonderful views; there was one benefit: no need to get up at zero dark stupid. We got to laze in bed before going back to 📍Barons Brunch Coffee Bar and getting a very similar breakfast as yesterday.

After breakfast we broke the news to our host about us departing early and had the awkward conversation where she explained in details why she could not reimburse us for the night we weren’t staying before we had a chance to explain that we didn’t expect any of that and just wanted her to avoid making our room just to have to undo all to clean for the next guests tomorrow.

We jumped in the car and drove to Chania’s airport. The road offered a couple of beautiful views but limited places to stop for pictures. Returning the car was straight forward with an attendant that truly didn’t give two-cents about any car issues. The next people renting the car will be in for a surprise I guess. We tried…

Grabbing the bus from the airport to downtown is simple enough if not for the attendant that didn’t care for the service portion of her job. Contrary to Heraklion the bus stop kiosk is easy to find. There’s a helpful little note telling you the bus stop is behind you when facing the kiosk. When we purchased our tickets we went and waited to where we understood the stop to be. If one of the travellers didn’t essentially yell at us that the bus was there we would have missed it. The bus was further back than we originally assumed. At the door of the bus we found the same lady who sold us tickets selling tickets to people boarding the bus at the last minute. She could have volunteered the information of where the bus was when we bought our tickets or grabbed us on her way to the bus but no. She wasn’t going for employee of the month for sure.

Turns out the bus station is right next our favourite bakery (📍Red Jane). We stopped there to grab a light snack and headed to our hotel for the night the📍Veneri Boutique Hotel. The hotel itself is a little hard to find. Even with the address and the GPS coordinates there’s no signage and the door is in a little alley off the street. The only indication was spotted by eagle eyed Karine; a tiny little paper taped to a window naming the hotel and giving a phone number to call if nobody was at the reception desk (which was the case).

By then it was a little past 16:00 and our breakfast long spent. We devoured the pastry from Red Jane then went out for a glass of wine at 📍The Botanist. It’s where we’re planning breakfast tomorrow, at the end of the street of our hotel. It gave us the opportunity to recon their brunch menu.

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the balcony of our room. Going to the museum didn’t appeal to us so we listened to our audiobooks and chilled.

Dinner was at 📍Glossitses. Recommended for their fish and seafood, it was the first place we’ve been that had FRESH (meaning not frozen meaninG fished locally) octopus and squid on the menu. They are also recognized for their squid so we were doubly thrilled and order both. Of course we had a couple of cheese courses to warm-up for the mains.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Cyprus. It’ll be a full day of travel; first we’re flying to Athens then to Larnaca (Cyprus). We’re spending two hours in Athens airport giving us ample time to get our exit stamp. While part of the Euro Zone, Cyprus is not yet part of the Schengen zone; they are planning to be by end of next year.