by Josta Martín-Artajo, “V. Cañada Blanch”, London, 2009-2010

1. CRETE José Alberto Martín-Artajo 1 Bachillerato EFL 2009-2010

2. For the Primero of Bachillerato trip, we organized a travel to Crete (Greece). It took the week from 20th to 27th May. Until the last day, we didn’t know if we could go because of the Icelandic volcano and the strike for the economy crisis in Greece. We were all worried.

3. The plane was leaving on Thursday morning, so some of us did not sleep that night: emotion was in the air. The meeting point was at Victoria station (though not all of us) to catch the train to Gatwick airport. In Gatwick we met the rest of people in the terminal; we saw that our plane was going to leave without any problems.

4. Once in Crete, we flew over the clear water of the island. In the airport, they came to pick us up by bus in order to take us to the hotel. It took us one hour to arrive.

5. HOTEL in RETHYMNO In the Hotel, we got the room card. I was with Juan and Carlos. Climbing the stairs, when I arrived at the room, I was a bit stunned, because the room was not bad at all. We even had a kitchen!

6. First thing we did was leave our baggage in our room. (I slept in the same room with Carlos and Juan in the living room.) We went with everyone to the beach. We were disappointed when we saw the beach, full of stones and opaque water.

7. During the week, we made several trips. The second day, we went to Knossos in the morning, so we visited the city and we ate something traditional for the first time on the island, I personally ate fried feta cheese. In the afternoon, we rested and in the evening, we ate outdoors.

8. Saturday was the day of Samaria. Nobody warned us that it could be cold and even rain, so everyone was in t-shirt when it got terribly cold and rainy. Later, the weather changed a little but it was still cold. The walk was 16 miles long (5 hours or so of descent). At the end, we boarded a boat. That night, we recovered strength and we went out.

9. SAMARIA!

11. On Sunday we went to Rethymno for the day and in the evening, we went to a pub. On Monday we went to Spinalonga. It was a beautiful place with a fantastic beach but we couldn’t swim because of the sea urchins. Tuesday was the worst day. We went to a museum with a guide. Wednesday was free!

12. Sea urchinsEverywhere! And magnificent inaccessible beaches...