Day 59 Wednesday 9/10 Salida (Crete) 27 deg Sunny -

Judy here...We caught the local bus to the airport to pick up a hire car, then to the supermarket to buy fish for dinner. In the afternoon we drove to Sitia the southern end of the Island. We went to Machlos a 5,000 year old fishing village. We drove along the coast initially and passed many beautiful gumtrees (made me feel nostalgic), olive groves and then little villages and churches clinging to mountain sides. Crete is suffering severely from the austerity measures with many roads, houses, large constructions just stopped where they were at when the funds ran out. We estimate 1 in 2 businesses have shut and with the tourist season now finished it will put more pressure on the island. On the opposite end of the scale, as we went to the airport we passed over 20 retail stores selling fur coats, in 30 deg weather it is odd, however the market is the Russians who come to Crete. We also tried Mastic ice cream, a Greek plant, which the flavour is hard to define