Greece Adventure -- Day 3 -- I AM A PIECE OF WOOD!

Reading a book about Greece on the resort’s private beach

I used to always tell my foreigner friends to definitely visit Taiwan if they can. Taiwan is a must-see island that has the mountains, the ocean, and the metropolitan life. After seeing Crete today, I will have to admit these Greek islands may be even better from a world traveler’s perspective.

Blue Palace Resort at Elouda is by far the best hotel experience I have ever had. It is also the most pricey one, but let me tell you, it is worth every penny. I can just let the pictures do the talking. And none of these pictures really capture the breathtaking views and moments to be felt in person.

This is what I woke up to in the morning – our balcony on the second floor, overlooking the ocean as the sky wakes up.

We got upgraded to a room with an infinity edgeless private pool on the ground floor.

Visit the resort’s photo gallery for more pictures.

Albert and I woke up super early and hungry, so we took our time to feed ourselves with a quiet breakfast looking into the ocean. It was a gorgeous sunny day, so we decided to make this a “water day”. We drove along the coastal line to find a nice beach to hang out. After 2 tries, we found a nice little white sandy beach at a city whose name starts with a “V” (forgot the full name), with not too many people and very clean and calm water.

We came back to Elouda’s town center to find lunch. A good rule of thumb to follow when choosing restaurants in a foreign place is to follow other diners. Steps away from the parking lot, we saw a Greek restaurant on the deck near all the boats that was completely packed at 2:00 in the afternoon. We happily sat down and ordered with confidence, only to find out afterwards that it was crowded because 2 or 3 tour buses had just unloaded their passengers all into this place. So, the service was super slow, the bathrooms were forever occupied, and the food was just ordinary. There we learned a lesson – crowded restaurants near parking lots might just be good at securing contracts with bus tours.

The rest of the day was spent exploring the resort. The private beach, the Jacuzzi, and the biggest steam room I have ever seen. Later in the afternoon, I had one of the most magical moments of the trip --- Have you ever felt like a piece of wood?

It was the biggest swimming pool I have ever seen. (maybe 3 Olympic sized pools together) Under the blue sky with the soothing waves as background music, I jumped into the warm water and started swimming. Since this was a salt water pool, I was able to float effortlessly when I laid back completely relaxed, just like a piece of wood! I started yelling at Albert “I am a piece of wood! I am a piece of wood!” and he then discovered he can just grab my ankle and “spin this piece of wood”. We had lots of silly laughs that probably attracted some other sunbathing people to come into the initially empty pool. I continued to float, until it got dark and the water started to lose its heat.

We used our remaining energy to take showers, and then we both passed out. Maybe 5 hours later, we woke up before midnight to order room service as a super late dinner. A laid back day spent doing things I can only do when I am on vacation!