Cretan Diary - Chapter 5 | |||
The Arrival (Mike)September 16th 2009 The plane landed at Xaniá airport, only a few minutes late. The baggage collection area was heaving with people and we waited about half an hour before our suitcases appeared. Thankfully, they hadn't been sent to Tenerife - unlike a previous occasion! There was some confusion about the hire car but we phoned Eleni and she sorted it out so we ended up driving a Toyota RAV4 1.6 automatic to her house, where we had a cup of tea, and grapes. We drove to our house and off-loaded the suitcases then went immediately to the local restaurant where we ate dinner - very quickly because I had to drive back to Eleni's house to collect her husband, Christos, so he could direct me to the main car hire office so I could pay for the car. We tried to haggle but the owner insisted that automatics were very expensive and he had to charge 554 Euros for a fortnight. "I would not geev even my own father thees much discount" he informed me. We'll have to look for a used car. I can't afford rental prices! I dropped Christos off and returned "home", very tired. It's going to take a while before I think of it as truly "home". Jenny had unpacked a few things. Eleni had warned us that she couldn't get any hot water out of the taps, from the solar heating system on the roof. However, when I turned the kitchen tap on, there was a blast of air, accompanied by horrendous gurgling, then several jets of hot water! We had been told that the previous owner would take "a few things" but he had taken the kitchen table, chairs and TV and left his books and underpants. I tried to get an Internet connection with my Apple Mac iBook but it demanded a WEP password. I tried to read the documentation for the router (in Greek of course) but it wasn't much help. However, I did manage to figure out how to access the router setup menu and set the WEP requirement to OFF. I don't think any passing goats are going to use our wireless broadband. Great, so finally I am on-line. But - wait a minute - I'm getting download speeds of nearly 4 Mb/s and upload of 750kb/s. Wow! That's twice as fast as my UK speeds! It was after midnight when I finally dragged myself off to bed and I awoke at 4:30am. My body clock is well and truly screwed up. I crept downstairs in total darkness to get my bottle of water from the 'fridge. Outside, the sky was completely black and spangled with stars! The moon was a thin crescent and I recognised the constellations of Orion, Taurus and The Great Bear. Amazing! I didn't sleep again and lay in bed watching the sky gradually lighten before dressing and taking my iBook out onto the balcony to type this. But now (8:30 am) it's too hot and bright so I'll have to go indoors. He has checked the obvious connections but can't find the fault cause. Jeez, I might even miss "The X Factor" on Saturday! I tried to access my computer at home but I've forgotten to reset the router port forwarding after swapping computers there. Hopefully, Carl can do this for me. Then at least I can set "EyeTV" to record programmes there IF there's a signal. At 9am we walked up the hill to the supermarket. The lady owner speaks excellent English. We returned with fresh bread, cheese and ham, and made sandwiches. 4pm Just awoke after a long siesta. Jenny had me humping garden furniture around, to make room for all my "stuff" when the van arrives, and I was exhausted. It's hot in the sun but it's pleasant in the house with doors and windows open (and fly screens up!) Just received a text message to say that Terry and Matt are already on the ferry from Athens to Crete! We need to buy provisions so we'll drive to Georgioupolis and eat first. | |||
