Lifecruiser

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Did I ever tell you about our PARADISE ISLAND?

Yes, I did, but I’ll keep repeating it: Fårö, the small island above Gotland outside Swedens east coast, where we recently spent 4 weeks. As we do every year. Now we have to live on the memories for a while when we look at our photos (link in the end of the post).

If we don’t get tempted to run away there again…. *lol*

The island is separated from the island Gotland by the Fårö-strait, but connected by cable ferries, operated by the Swedish National Road Administration. It has an area of 111,35 square kilometers, whereof 9,7 area water areas – bogs – or islets.

It takes us about 6 hours to get from our home in Stockholm to our place we rent at Fårö. First by car to the ferry to Gotland, then driving up to the north-east of Gotland where we take the ferry to Fårö and then by car again. It’s a beautiful trip though, so we don’t mind.

The place we rent is on the property of a local, retired and truly wonderful farmer, which is the best way to really get to know the place - to live among the locals. There is only one (small!) bedroom and a small kitchen, no indoors water or bathroom, we have to share that with the other guests on the farm. Which is fine, that’s all we need in the summertime. We’re out most of the time.

If you’re one of our regular readers, you know by now that we sleep in a 90 cm (about 35 inches) bed at home, but incredible enough, when we’re on Fårö, we sleep in a 80 cm (about 30 inches) bed!!! Don’t ask me how we do it, but we sleep well. There is two 80 cm beds, so we don’t have to, but we like to be close. I guessed it’s called real love :-)

Though there are situations (no, I’m not going to tell you which situations ;-) who can be a little bit tricky and may end up in totally hysterical giggle attacks and even with some kind of injury when falling off the bed. [insert your own imagination here]

The renowned Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman lives on Fårö, he has an own part of the island which he keep very private. He has also bought a couple of farm propertys there for his children. The island provided settings for his Fårö-trilogy of Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna and Skammen. Andrey Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice was also filmed on Fårö.

There are and have been many Swedish politicians on the island too. To mention some of them: the former Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated 1986 in Stockholm, his family still show up sometimes here. Even the current Minister for Justice Thomas Bodström, which we recently saw having fun singing Karaoke at the beach restaurant.

Well, let’s just say that it’s a lot of celebrities of all kind coming there too, I’m not going to mention them all here.

So, I guess we’re not alone thinking that Fårö is an paradise island….

On the islands north-eastern point the Fårö fyr lighthouse is situated. It is 30 meters high and was constructed in 1846-47, one of Gotlands oldest lighthouses. Why is there something so special about lighthouses? Most people seems to like them very much and so do we!

The Langhammar peninsula and the Langhammar nature reserve on north-western Fårö feature rocky beaches with rauks (sea stacks), many meter high rocks sculpted by nature. The Digerhuvud nature reserve features sea stacks and the Helgumannen fishing village. It’s an absolutely MUST to visit every year, to see at least one sunset there.

The long Sudersand beach on north-eastern Fårö is among the best beaches I’ve ever seen. The sand is almost like flour and soooo smoth. Even the beach at Norsta Aura is really good, our engagement beach. Very romantic. *smiling silly*

This island is quite unique, it differs even from the island next to it, Gotland, which most people find very beautiful - Fårö is even more special than that. It’s very difficult though to describe it in a way that can do it justice.

Except from all the sand & beaches, there is a lot of sheep-grazing areas with Juniper bushes, sheep huts, orchids, fields with Poppy (Papaver), low pines tortured by the rough sea winds during the winter time and wonderful old houses with sedge roof’s (with Gotlandic Rye) and an absolutely paradise for birdwatchers, especially in the spring or beginning of the summer.

I could go on and on and on, because there are so much to see at Fårö, even though it’s a small island. No wonder that people like us tend to come back there every year!

Read more in Lifecruisers earlier post about Fårö.

Our photos will remind us about what we saw this summer: very fun and special old shoe art, old cars, a country auction, stunning sunsets, lots and lots of beautiful butterflies, spiders, and birds.

Lifecruisers photos from Fårö Summer 2006

Or from earlier year:
Lifecruisers Fårö summer 2005
Lifecruisers Fårö summer 2004

Sources:
Wikipedia about Fårö
gotland.net/faro

NOTE: Every comment is equally welcome, even if you’re not participating in this Monday Memories-thing, we love all comments :-)

We’re home again after 4 wonderful sunny weeks at our favourite place on earth, the island Fårö. It was so wonderful that we didn’t feel like checking our mail or blog - or take so many photos (we’ll upload them later) - and that say it all, doesn’t it?!

It was almost too hot, really good summer weather (yes, we’re tanned now!), we we’re glad that we were at the the sea with the seabreeze cooling us off. This is one of the places where my bad weather curse doesn’t seem to hit me… Wooohoooo!

This was real relaxation, except from some of the late evenings out… There is several places to go in the evenings, often some special arrangements on special weekdays. As Karaoke on Tuesdays and Fridays at the restaurant at the most popular beach Sudersand or bar evenings in the old barn with a DJ so you can dance at Lauters nearby the rauk (sea-stack) area. Or Kutens bensin with old rock bands which we’ve been writing about earlier.

Not to mention having a BBQ or just sit and chat all night with all the friends which also stays around this farm we are staying at - sometimes we can be quite a lot of people - the same friends are coming back year after year. The more the merrier! One evening - or I may say morning - we went to bed at 5.30. It was so nice outside that no one wanted to go in!

We’ve been thinking of how it would be to live there during the whole summer, let’s say May to September. Or maybe even move to the island Gotland all year around - then we’re real close to Fårö and can go there when ever we want. Gotland is a little bigger island than Fårö and have more “facilities”. The town Visby is a real party town during the summer, so we may escape the “most lively” period to Fårö in that case. *daydreaming*

I went to Visby one day to enjoy myself (shopping, eating and drinking) when Mr Lifecruiser went to Slite Golf club to play in the Golf event Fårö Masters - a competition he started for 15 years ago. And yes you can congratulate him - he won his own trophy this year plus the long drive competition too - despite the fact that this was the first time this year that he went out on the golf course! The man is still still going strong with other words! Wooohooo!

The great town wall of 3 400 meters is still standing in Visby, as well as about 200 buildings, monasteries, church ruins and a cathedral from Visby’s grandest period. Visby is placed on Unesco’s prestige-filled World Heritage List.

You never get tired of the scenery at Fårö, it’s very special - as you can see at the top pics on this blog. Every sunset is unique from the other, so beautiful, romantic and giving you such happy feelings. On top of that the sea and the sound of the waves gives you the ultimate inner peace. Ahhh….

This year was the year of butterflies, insects, spiders and bugs for some reason, must be the warmth and dry weather - it didn’t rain there for over 2 months which is very unusual, so the farmers is not that happy. It reduces the harvest and they will be short on food for the animals during the winter.

It’s always so difficult to leave the island with the extra ordinary nature and atmosphere among the people there. As a matter of the fact, Mr Lifecruisers daughter who had planned to stay for maybe 3 weeks and then come back in August again, decided to stay so she’s still there. It’s that hard to leave.

But no matter how fun it is to be away, it’s always soooo nice to sleep in your own bed again and have all your own things around you. Your own kitchen and bathroom, what a luxury.

We have a lot of things to take care of now, not only 4 weeks laundry ;-)

I’ll try to catch up with you all as soon as possible.

Maybe I’ll need 4 weeks to do that…?

I had in mind to write this absolutely fabulous post about our trip to Ireland, but the problems with my computer made me loose two whole days, so now you have to be satiesfied with a post written in a hurry.

We started with a seightseeing tour in Dublin - Irelands capital, with a local guide. She told us a lot of local things that we wouldn’t have known otherwise. Some personal views of things too, which always is nice.

Dublins castle built in the georgian time era were quite interesting with historical portraits and absolutely fantastic furniture. Then we thought we were going to Guinness museum to learn about and taste the famous dark brew, but hah where we cheated on that one… They’ve taken that out of the schedule for some reason. Bummer. But we were compensated in the evening, which we spent with the other travellers with a dinner and a fabulous Irish cabaré. The Irish dance is truly amazing. How on earth do they do it, their legs is working fast in some kind of mix of ballet, folk dance and stepping. There also performed a very fun wellknown Irish comedian, which name we’ve forgot. He use to travel to the U.S. too with his act. He gave us a lot of laughs. He defenitely had that extra twinkle in his eyes, having fun himself.

Next day we left Dublin to get out in the countryside. We made a stop close to Cashel to taste homebaked scones and drinking tea at a farm, where the owner demonstrated driving the heard of sheep with his sheep dogs. Just outside Cork we visited Blarney Castle where we got the oppertunity to achieve the gift of eloquent by kissing the well known stone in the area but we didn’t kissed it. We thought that we’re already have that gift. Maybe. *lol*. After dinner we visited one of Killarneys well known pubs that is characterized of music and singing. We love how happy the irish folks are when they’re singing.

The third day we first took a ride in horse carts early in the morning. The coachman were a real irish man who looked like he were going to fell asleep all the time. Most likely he came directly from the nightly singing in the pub, because he looked as blurry as the weather…. Then we took a guided tour in the 19th century Muckross House along the beach of Muckross Lake. Then on to one of Irelands most spectacular areas - The Ring of Kerry - with Irelands highest mountain, Macgillycuddy´s Reeks. But we wouldn’t really know, because guess what??! YES, you guessed right! My bad weather curse strucked again… The weather conditions were the worst thinkable, rainy, windy and with such a thick fog that we couldn’t even see that we were high up on the mountain!!! The path was passing through Glenbeigh with palmtrees and beutiful beaches - so they said, we didn’t see anything… Driving towards the offside Waterville and the colorful village Sneem.

The fourth day we were travelling towards Tarbert to take the ferry over the river Shannon. Continued along the coast line of Clare to Cliffs of Mother - the rocks with the height of 700 feet over the atlantic ocean -and the weather were still bad at first. But our experienced and very serviceminded driver took us to our lunch first instead so that hopefully the weather cleared up - and it did, so we could actually see the cliffs! Wooohooo! This evening dinner was the medevial banquet with memorable entertainment in Bunratty Castle.

Comment: We did wear our Medevial outfits at the banquet in the evening! Every one complimented us for our very suitable outfit. It was so fun that we wanted it to last longer, but the time schedule striked again…

The fifth day we continued from Shannon region to Dublin area again. We almost missed out one of the main reason for why we chosen this tour: The National Stud in Kildare - the famous stud with Irish horses in Kildare. They have taken away that from the schedule too! But our so serviceminded driver arranged a visit there anyway and also managed to make the entrance fee lower for us. Now, do you think that the weather were with us there? Nope. Rainy and very cold. Not many horses to see either, which surprised us a lot. Nothing much to take photos of, because the stallions in the paddocks were to far away and The Japanese garden - well, it was rainy and cold and made our hands stiff…

The last evening we spent on our own in Dublin at a pub that showed the soccer game between Sweden and England. Surprisingly enough, the irish folks were cheering every time Sweden did good! Together with us. I saw a whole game from beginning to the end for the very first time in my life! And I have to say that I think Sweden only played good soccer the last 5 minutes or so. They played too defensive, just dragging out the time.

Summarizing our experience of the trip:

- Never go on a bus tour like that if you don’t like to go up real early in the morning, at 05.30… It was such a stressing schedule. We were spending the whole tour trying to stay awake on the bus. We often failed and slept on the bus. Probably snoring too :-)

- Ireland is a beautiful country, but not as green and hilly as we expected it to be. Maybe we were on the wrong places, but this was a tour in the southern Ireland. If it is any Irish men here: Sorry to say it, but Scotland beat Ireland thousands times around.

- The Irish people is very nice fellows, they seems to be more cheerful than the Scottish people, so I guess it’s scored 1-1 between Ireland - Scotland on if you count that fact :-) But they are both very friendly.

- Despite the fact that we were on a bus with a rather high middle age, we must.. uhum… admit that even the 90 year old man with his 88 year old wife were more lively than we were. They were FANTASTIC. I do wish that we will be like that in that age! (Which I doubt).

- The Irish Guiness. Ahhhh. What can we say: it’s truly divine. The Guiness served here in Sweden is not even close to that one. Even the English men said that it were better there than in England. So we drank a lot of Guiness during the tour.

Cheers to the Irish Guiness :-)

NOTE: Have a look at our photos from Ireland, but be aware of the fact that we had difficulties like sitting on the bus all the time and… uhum…the weather conditions… which stopped us from photographing many times during the trip.

Lifecruiser on Ireland 2006

1. Fårö is our favorite island outside Swedens east coast above the island Gotland in the Baltic Sea, where we go every summer in July. At least. Last year we were there 6 weeks.

2. If you translate the word Fårö it means Sheep island. Though the permanent living folks there don’t call the sheep får, they call them lamm (lamb) even if it is an adult sheep. I have no idea why. But there is a lot of sheep there. I mean lambs… And the lambs have very cute little lambs.

3. Fårö’s beaches is on our top beaches list, even when we compare it to beaches abroad. It’s the sand that does it. Fårö’s sand is outstanding, very very fine with a lot of sand dunes. And it’s just enough shallow when you’re going for a dip in the sea. I dip the whole of me, but Mr Lifecruiser mostly dip his toes….

4. You can always find the best weather and water temperature conditions on one of the beaches, since you have beaches in three different cardinal points. The island is shaped like a bumerang. The beaches are Sudersand, Ekeviken and Norsta Aura - which is several kilometers long and happens to be our engagement beach.

5. Fårö has awesome areas with big rocks (sea stacks I think it’s called in english) that is called raukar, that truly rocks :-). Digerhuvud, a nature reserve, is the biggest of them 3,5 km long and it’s Swedens biggest. Langhammars have some cool formations. some of them are 8 metres high. The sunsets are unbelievable in these areas. Very romantic!

6. Amazingly idyllic fishing hamlets can be found all over the island, since the local people have been living of what the sea could offer. They’re still doing some fishing.

7. It has a remarkable drifting sand area called Ulla Hau, that nearly buried the island in sand if they hadn’t planted trees and other plants in the early 1900.

8. Fårö took it’s shape around the Iron age, but the islanders of Fårö were first registrered in written documents in the 16th century.

9. Norsholmen is another area which is fauna protected and a real heaven for birdwatchers at the breeding season. No vehicles is allowed here and you have to keep at the few paths at the peninsula. At the end of it there is remains of a limestone industry. Limestones is very common on both Fårö and Gotland. There is also a Medevial cemetery and graves from the Iron Age. And a rosty ship wreck.

10. There is several places to go in the evenings to have fun too. One of the most famous, but most modest places are Kutens bensin, fuel for the soul. The best gas station and rock’n roll club in the world ;-). There you can meet bikers, rockers, tourists and local farmers listening to a genuine 78 rpm SUN RECORDS Single that was once touched by Mr Elvis Presley himself! The owner is a real collector of things from this period and there is a lot of stuff laying around that truly are fascinating to see. You just have to admire this man’s commitment.

11. Fårö only is about 114 square km, so it’s a small island. They have a very nice church, several lighthouses, one grocery store open in the winter, two in the summer - with very long lines because of all the tourists. It’s very popular among tourists.

12. It’s a very popular resort for famous people too and hm, some swedish politicians…. *making some funny faces*. The most famous person is of course our film maker Ingmar Bergman. He hide out on an own part of Fårö.

13. We rent our own little heaven at a local farmer, which Mr Lifecruiser has done for about 21 years now. He is a real pearl, so we love him. No Fårö without Per. He is a hard worker, but he goes to the Philippines during a couple of months in the winter nowadays when he don’t have so many animals any longer and that’s very good for his old aching body. It’s a tough life out on the island year round.

♥ WE’LL LIVE, ENJOY… LOVE… FÅRÖ LIFE 3-31 JULY!

Photos Fårö summer 2005
Photos Fårö summer 2004
Photos engagement on Fårö Feb 2004
Tourist site about Gotland

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

This Friday sure is a fun day! We’re taking off to Ireland! Wooohooo, our first trip again since december.

We don’t know if we get the time or opportunity to post during the trip.

We will try to post, but we’ve also prepared a couple of posts in advance, so be sure to come back and read them anyway.

We’re looking forward to read and answer your comments later and I promise we’ll think of you when we’re drinking our Guiness in Dublin….

Read our earlier post about our Ireland trip

1. Mr Lifecruiser. He has to be with me or it’s simply torture, longing for him and thinking of him all the time. Missing him in my bed, needing his warmth, missing to share all the experiences with him. Missing him to take care of me when I get ill - and to carry the luggage ;-).

2. 1 suitcase or big bag compact packed and 1 smaller as handluggage with some necessaritys for the flight like an extra sweater, some candy, Coke, newspapers to read, playing cards, cameras, painkillers, the most important like tickets and hotel vouchers.

3. I prefer a seat by the window and near the emergency exits on the flight if I’m allowed to choose. Not too far in the back, it’s noisier there. And with some extra space for my loooong legs. I will try to avoid flying with Malaysian Airlines again because their seats are made for a much shorter person than I am, so the seat was totally wrong for me. My back started to hurt at once I seated in their airplane when we went to the U.S, there were no support in the back at all.

4. The Destination has to have something more to offer than just a beach. We love to be on the beach, but not all the time. We are explorers. We love to rent a car and go off by our selves, but sometimes it’s also very good to go on regular sightseeings or excursions to get more information or extra help if it’s dangerous surroundings.

5. There MUST be a lot of nice restaurants and grocery stores, so we can keep the hungry monster (me) fed, calm and alive. One of the hardest thing for me to be without is olives. I love olives. So naturally, I’m a big fan of Spain, Greece and even Italy where we have found wonderful olives… Among other tasty dishes. *starting to drool heavily*

6. There is a need of going dancing. We love to dance, but we do have problems to find the places when we’re out travelling. It seems like it’s most teenagers or very young people that are out dancing nowadays. Where are all the adults? Very often we just find a place that plays music, but no one is dancing - until we arrive there. When we’re going out, we’re determent to have fun - no meaning with going out otherwise hah? So we start to dance and try to get up more people dancing. Usually we succeed, but it’s very hard work sometimes and we end up totally like wrecks *lol*.

7. The hotel don’t need to be that fancy, we appreciate a friendly and serviceminded staff more. Not that we don’t enjoy luxury, it’s just that our money will last for more trips if we spend the money right! The bed usually is to hard, it’s the same on almost all hotels we have been at. Sometimes we have had to put extra blankets to make it softer. And yes, the beds are too big for us who is used to our 35 inches bed ;-)

8. We love to travel to warmer countries. It’s always nicer when the weather is good, it keeps us in a better mood. It’s recreation for our aching bodies. If only my bad weather curse could stop cursing me, it would be perfect…

9. The survival kit has to go with us with all the medicines to cure me when I get ill, which I do too often as you already know. And with band-aids, plasters for the chafed foot from all the walking.

10. Maps over the area is essential. Very often we have done some research in advance to know what we’re interested of, but sometimes we just go out there and see what we found. Especially if we rent a car. We often end up having some kind of small adventure because we’re taking off on some smaller roads which sometimes end up in no where *lol*.

11. If possible, we always end up somewhere near the sea. We love the salty sea air and the exciting waves that’s rolling in. It’s something very special with the sea that makes us very happy and harmonic. The sea also has the most beautiful romantic sunsets were we can sit looking out on the sea, hug each other and kiss until we’re breathless…

12. Coming home…. Home sweet home is a valid saying after all. No matter how nice it is to be away, it’s always nice to have your own bed, kitchen, bathroom and things.

13. ♥ LIVE, ENJOY… LOVE… TRAVEL LIFE!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

Did I ever tell you about our HONEYMOON?

We did go to Crete - Greece’s biggest island - and stayed at the very small village Almirida, between Hania and Rethimno, which at that time only had about 75 permanent inhabitants. Perfect for a honeymoon hide out, we thought. With a hotel just at the beach and a perfect room with a wonderful seaview, we planned to just move between our bed to the beach and back again - at least for the first week.

We should have known that it wasn’t that easy when we’re involved. To begin with the weather turned (yes, remember that weather curse I have?) very windy so there were that red flag at the beach all the time, so we didn’t dare to go swimming. One man were actually almost drowned there one morning, because he defied the red flag. However, it was still wonderful sunny weather and nice to just be outside dipping our toes in the water. We were on our honeymoon, so we were so happy!

We are explorers, both of us, so of course we couldn’t be still for long. We had planned to rent a car and drive around seightseeing, now we did that a little bit earlier than planned - and for a longer time. We choosed an open Jeep, to be just a little cool for once in our lifes…. *lol* Oh, boy was that a wonderful experience to drive around with the hair blowing in the wind and still not be cold at all… Ahhh… We drove around like scalded troll’s (a swedish expression) over the whole island. At least it felt like that and we loved it, to be able to see so much more than just the beaches. Meet the genuine people out in the countryside.

Crete is an island full of breathtaking high mountains with some fantastic gorges (Samaria 18 km), the highest mountain is 2.456 m above sea level. So it was like a roller coaster all the time, up up up and around and then down down down and around…. Everywhere we went it took a little bit longer time to drive there than we had counted on, because of the mountains slowing down the pace.

As I’ve wrote once before: The only problem was that both of us are afraid of heights, so I always arrived to the goal covered in sweat after the horrifying but beutiful drive and Mr Lifecruiser got nightmares about heights every night. He was shaking and kicking his legs and saying things like: “No, don’t go there, don’t go forward to the edge.. and then started kicking… Obviously falling over the edge or at least close to doing it. (Or was it me that he was kicking over the edge? Hm…)

One time when we were on about 1400 m height and turned around a mountain - the very strong wind took a grip in our Jeep’s top - a tarpaulin of some sort - and we seriously thought that it would take us “Jeepdiving” down in the valley… He had to step on it real hard to get more speed to avoid it… Pheeeew! The Crete people themselves have a more aggressive driving style, they have no fear of the heights, full gas and just honk before every turn and I guess that will work as long as there isn’t a tourist on the other side that don’t know of this code!

Come to think of the Crete people’s driving… They were very calm and peaceful people when you met them, but as soon as they entered their cars the devil seemed to appear - full gas and quite reckless driving, scaring the shit out of us many times! No wonder they had put out small memory stands everywhere beside the roads to remember their lost ones that had accidents there. And there were full of them. No surprise, because on top of that there could suddenly step out or lay cri-cri goats in the middle of the roads…

After a while you kind of adjusted to their way of driving, because you had to follow the stream a little to not be in the way all the time. One way (which didn’t have any traffic) to another very nice village Georgioupoli that took us 35 minute to drive in the beginning on curve roads, took bearly 20 minutes in the end. That’s when I called Mr Lifecruiser for “Rally Harry”…

We really loved Georgioupoli, if we ever go back, we may end up staying there. They had a little more to offer when it come to pleasures. The beaches were slightly better too, we actually could go swimming there. More restaurants and bars, but not too crowded. We had one crazy dancing maniac evening there. No one was dancing before we came. We kind of set the grounds there and the staff were very happy to see the upbeat of the place, so they even gave us free drinks. Not that we had time to drink so much, we were high on Love and dancing…

One of the days we were on the south side of Crete, we found another beatiful beach with no tourists and the sun were about to set, so we couldn’t resist the temptation to stay until sunset. The sunset were so much larger than back home in Sweden so we had quite a romantic moment there…. The sunset went much faster than we expected and we had forgotten how dark it gets at once, in Sweden in the summer it never really gets dark. So we had to drive home in total darkness on unknown (not the same way we came) narrow high mountain roads… We didn’t go fast I tell you, because there were no lights at the roads and no houses either!!!! Quite an adventure, we thought that we would be stuck up in the mountains and never see some civilization again. I begun to think: what about if the Jeep broke down up there? I had only a mini skirt and top, with flip-flops - how practical and nice wouldn’t that be up in the mountain in the night…? No flashlight in the car either, but then I remembered the cellphone - we could have used it as light and phoned the traveller agent. When driving by the first house we spotted, we were attacked by very angry dogs…. One were almost up in the jeep. Pheeew.

The Cretan diet is something I’m holding very dearly to my heart, of course since I’m the hungry monster. I can be very picky sometimes, but I loved the Greek food and the olives - say no more! Souvlaki, Moussaka, Saganaki and Tzatziki especially - I’m really starting to drool here - and their way of giving us the bill. They did bring us their speciality greek youghurt with honey (tasted very good) and Raki (their local alcohol, more like gas :-) on the house every time we should pay. And you had to taste the Raki and toast with the host, otherwise you were unpolite. It was quite a balance to keep there, because if you drank it all and looked too happy, they were quickly there with another one!

There was one day when Mr Lifecruiser did have to go without my kisses for very long because his lips were no honeymoon lips exactly! (Eating Kalamaria)

That was the day we drove to Crete’s most beautiful beach on the southeast side, Elafonisi beach, even called the Maldives of of Crete or the pink beach because of the pink color in the sand from the coral reef. Greece have wonderful clear water in the sea and at this beach it was amazingly cristal clear! There was the small islet creating a lagoon with turquoise water. I think it’s probably the most georgoius I’ve ever seen. Like a tropical island I imagine. Fine, white sand and perfectly shallow, not to much, not to little. Just perfect. No waves at all that day either. There are another beautiful beach, but on the northeast, Falassarna, with the same clear calm water and it was there a little lively (hungry!) fish took a tiny bit of my heel… I had a wound there from the shoes and I guess he liked the blood taste, because he kept attacking me. I must be very delicious… *lol*

Of course we also visited The famous Palace of Knossos - you can’t go to Crete and not visit Knossos - it would be like going to Paris without visiting The Eiffeltower! The numerous finds from the palace are all of exceptionally high quality art, pottery, vessels, figurines and wall-paintings which are all housed in Herakleion Museum. It’s connected with thrilling legends like the myth of the Labyrinth with the Minotaur and the story of Daidalos and Ikaros. But be prepared to have a lot of time to walk around, because it’s a lot to take in. (Virtual tour of Knossos)

Even the hotel staff were wonderful to us. The cleaning ladys were every day doing figures with the bed cover or the new towels, a flower, fish etc. They were so concerned over the fact that we only slept in one half of the bed - until they heard that we were on a honeymoon and wanted to lay that close to each other. As a matter of fact, we still does… We left them a nice message with some greek words we found in the dictionary and some good tip. They shouted and waved to us from the balcony the last day. They were so sweet.

To summarize all this: Crete is an amazing island with unbelievable scenery, amusements and interesting things to explore. I can totally understand why so many keep coming back. We will some day too - on a second honeymoon!

Click to see Lifecruisers photos from Crete. (And then click on the text “View as slideshow” up in the right corner of that window, to get the best viewing)

Did I ever tell you about OUR FIRST TRIP TOGETHER?

When Mr Lifecruiser and I met each other, I had’nt been out travel much. It had been my highest dream for a very long time in my life. Actually from I was a teenager. For several reasons I never had much chance to do it. So 2003 I decided that I should start to travel - before I met Mr Lifecruiser - luckily enough he turned out to be very fond of travelling too :-)

The very first trip we did together was a 48 hours cruise to Helsinki in Finland in February. I had been there as a child, but it was many years ago and it’s sure different being a grown up. There was a lot of nice things on that cruise ship going on. Several bars, restaurants and dance floors with different kind of music and entertainments. We started with an a la carte dinner that was absolutely delicious. A bit of a gourmet adventure.

I was a little bit nervous though, because they had said on the weather report that the weather should be pretty bad, but I had taken seasickness pills in advance. This is big ships and they don’t roll so easily in the waves, so I was not that worried, but to be sure I didn’t drank so much of the wine to the dinner.

After that we entered the dance floors and danced a lot, as much as we had energy too. It’s so fun to dance and Mr Lifecruiser is a very good dancer, so this sure was heaven. Sure, the dance floor moved a bit since the ship started to roll a bit in the waves, but there was no problem other than that.

There were also a amazing dance show in the middle of the night with different dance styles numbers and fantastic outfits. Really something to enjoy. The dancers were so skilled, they did manage to fend off the ships rolling, which had increased a little by now. After the dance show finished, we danced again, but this time the floor were really moving under our feet. It was like being drunk despite the fact that we hadn’t been drinking. We had to stop dancing, it was impossible and it was late too, so we headed for the cabin.

It had been the most wonderful and romantic evening, so already on the way there we started to kiss and ….. oooops ….*censorship* *lol*

Afterwards we noticed that we both got a little bit nauseous and we looked out the cabin window and saw the rough weather outside, it wasn’t just our cabin that was rocking ;-) It was snowing horisontally and it was VERY hard winds. Even this big ship was now rolling quite heavy in the sea. It turned into a very bad snow storm. I said something about how typical it was, as soon as I go some where…

We tried to ignore that we were nauseous and Mr Lifecruiser even succeeded to fall in sleep. Not I… Oh, my, so sick I felt… And that little cabin bathroom… Not a dream when it comes to being seasick in I can tell you! My god, so seasick have I never been in my whole life! There were I, on our romantic evening, vomiting my guts out and in… Cleaning up between and there were stuff coming out from both ends and it never ended! I didn’t know that you actually can have so much stuff in you!

Normally, women don’t like when men go to sleep right afterwards (and he usually doesn’t :-), but this time I was really really truly grateful that he did. I didn’t want him to be seasick too, how would it be possible to manage with this little bathroom? I didn’t want him to see me in this condition either - after all, we had only known each other for about two months then and this was suppose to be a romantic trip…

When the morning came and we arrived to Helsinki and we were ready to go out seightseeing in the town, I was a wreck. I hadn’t slept anything at all and my legs was shaking, but I had gone there to see Helsinki so I was determent to see it even if I would die on the mission… That’s how stubborn I am. *lol*

And to be honest, I might as well have died there, because every where we went, the streets were blocked with big signs that said: “Danger! Be aware of falling ice from the roofs!” And it was almost impossible to avoid going under roofs with long hanging icicles…

Do I need to tell you, that before we went home with the ship, the staff had to give me some strong seasickness medicin to take? And where? With a voice that practically drip of irony: Yes, it was very romantic to put on the plastic gloves and shuffle up the medicin through the backdoor. There, happy now when you know all the details? *lol*

Did I regret this trip? No, we did have a fantastic romantic and gourmet dinner, a lot of fun dancing etc. I just didn’t get to keep the dinner ;-)