Livadia

What a day. The drive here was kind of nerve wracking, twisty mountain roads at points narrowing to one lane, but with traffic in both directions. Beautiful, but scary. We went through a tunnel, for instance, which was pretty much exactly the width of a car, and had a traffic light at either side to let the traffic move through.
We’re staying in a town called Livadia, and I’m not sure you could even call it a town. There are two restaurants, one which specializes in breakfasts, and we’ll probably try that tomorrow, and the place where we ate today, which seemed like it was in somebody’s back garden, and probably was. I’m pretty sure that the family sitting at the long table were the owner’s family. They were there when we got there, there when we left, and seemed at home. The only other people there were two old Greek gents, who seemed to be just having drinks, and knew everybody. There are seven or eight places similar to the one we’re in, “Sunset Apartments,”scattered up and down the hillside, and maybe the same number of private residences, which look a lot more run down.
We have a pool, a spectacular view of the ocean, which we are close enough to hear, and we’re very, very happy with our accommodations. We watched the sun setting into the ocean from our balcony, and it was spectacular.
But…one of the reasons we chose this place was it’s proximity to the Pink Sand Beach at Elafonisi, which we thought was a must see. It’s basically a lie. Sure, there’s something a little bit pinkish to the sand right along the water’s edge (it’s ground up shellfish), in the right light, with a bit of imagination and preconceived notions, but as soon as it washes up onto the beach and the water runs out again, it’s the same color as sand everywhere. It wasn’t a bad beach, quite sandy, very shallow water, nice for little kids, but horribly commercialized with so many deck chairs it was hard to find a place to put down a towel, and it’s the first time in Crete I’ve seen a pay toilet anywhere.
So, if you’re going to Elafonisi, and expecting to see an actual beach made up of pink sand, forget about it. It’s a lie.