Nuutajärvi - Hulluus ja hurmio

 I went still back to Nuutajärvi with my friend and enjoyed some days more in there. Got a good guided tour in the Glass expo - Hulluus ja hurmio (Madness and ecstasy) by a girl called Jasmi, thank you for this tour Jasmi! Each artist made a co-operation work with a writer, poet or with a musician, either that the text has inspired the artist´s work or the text was chosen after to fit with the art work. I liked the presentation and the feeling of this expo, especially when there were all these stories behind of each work present. Im not sharing all these stories, please go and have a look and hear the stories yourself :)

Nuutajärvi - Glass Village

My friend is a glass designer and I had a chance to spend few nice sunny days in Nuutajärvi, where they glass-blow her work too. Was interesting to see glass-blowers working and also to have a look in the history of Nuutajärvi (Thank you Janne for the museum tour) and see exhibitions. Little bit culture in my life, how welcome that was ...

Old Porvoo

Porvoo is famed for its old town, old wooden houses, the spirit of medieval time. Every summer it is a must for me to go there and now since last few years I always camp there some nights beside the river "Porvoonjoki" right front of the old town.

Up to north Italy-Austria-Germany-Finland

highway in Italy

The heat in Italy was unbearable, four days on the row +37, no wind, so I was happy to start driving more north and getting to Austria where I met the fresh air again, even snow!

Goodbye Greece - Ciao Italy, Patras - Ancona

Ferry which brought us to Italy. It was Superfast XI but I bought the tickets via Anek Lines, who is also operating their tickets. Very handy thing that you can do "camping on board", so dont need a cabine, you can stay comfortably in your camper. Much nicer for me and MUCH nicer when you travel with a pet! Tickets costed about 270 euro - one way, including camper and one person...

The impressive Corinth Canal

I was camping several days beside the Corinth canal and enjoying looking ships passing by. The canal was built between 1881-1893, but nowdays it is too narrow for the modern ships, since its only 21.4 meters wide! The lenght is impressive 6.4 km and it was fascinating to look bridges getting up and down by looking the next beauty or the best getting in to the canal.

Paralia Astros and last beach stop

Paralia Astros was the last beach stop before driving to Corinth, so doggy´s and my last swim was here! Very quiet beach and also the village was oddly calm. So many cozy bars with nice looking terraces, but basicly nobody to see around (???). On the top of the village is an old castle, nobody around there either...

Ariana Beach and picturesque Gerakas

Few days camping on this tiny Ariana beach wich is located 6 km from the picturesque village of Gerakas. Gerakas is like in a little "fjord" and yachts like to make there also their overnight stayes. No wonder!

Ariana Beach

Back to Monemvasia

I was in Monemvasia already earlier in September 2013 and it was a nice place to come back. Still I made so many photos in here, this "rock of Gibraltar" is showing every time its beautiful sides!

Ferry from Kissamos to Gytheion

Anchor is pulled up and ferry ready to go! See you again Crete!

Was a sad feeling to leave from Crete, such a nice island it is, but I can always get myself back there!

The ferry leaves from Kissamos Crete every wednesday 7:30 am and had two stops (Kissamos-Antikythira-Kythira-Gytheion) before arriving to Gytheion Peloponnes at 15:30. Price for my van was 138 e + 23 e a person, so total costs 161 e one way. Earlier on the phone they told me that it would costs 21 e a meter and 33 e per person, so it was not totally correct information. In the ferry there was plenty of place in half May, so no need to book tickets in advance. You can buy the tickets one hour before the ferry leaves from the harbour or you can but them in Kissamos in two offices who sells ferry trips. More information you can ask in Lane Sea Lines office Kissamos tel 2822 02350. Pets are not allowed to take inside the ferry, so we stayed all 8 hours on the deck. Lucky there was no rain, but in the end I was really ready to leave the ferry behind!!!

Summary of Crete

After spending more than seven months and 5000 km driving in Crete from October 2013 until May 2014 “the list” of positive sides must be obviously longer than the negative sides. For me this was my 10th visit to Greece and second time with a camper, but first visit with camper in Crete and I think now that it was a very good choice to drive in this beautiful island.

For weather vise Crete is better than Spain or Portugal, or I was just lucky this year. Few bigger stormy days, some rainy days, but often the rain came during the night, so I could keep dry feet and the doggy dry fur. Maybe the wind is keeping the rainy clouds often away, but sometimes the wind was really disturbing and you could just wish that the wind gives you a break next day...

Last days in Crete

End side of Falasarna Beach

 As the days were ending in Crete we enjoyed still some beautiful days before leaving the island behind in Falasarna, west side of Crete. Big beach and very peaceful place. Good spot to stay if you take the ferry from Kissamos directly to Peloponnes (Gytheion). We did long walks with doggy and she had plenty of running on the beach...

One night stop at Kalives

Kalives or Kalyves is a pretty seaside village 20 km east of Chania. Queit and good stop if you need to catch a ferry next day from Chania. I noticed that most tourists were from UK, but also heard some Scandinavian languages. I think its ideal village for those who seeks a peaceful holiday out of noise, there is beautiful beach and many tavernas to choose from. Hotels looked more fine than Im used to it with swimmingpools and well taken care gardens.

River passing in Kalives

BabaYaga - animal friendly rock bar

View to the beach from BabaYaga, on the left the famous Matala rocks

As I have written about Matala already few times before, I never mentioned this nice bar, where I have spent good moments - Babayaga rockstation bar in Matala beach. It´s runned by an Italian chap, Roberto and his Greek girlfriend Sophia is his second hand in there. BabaYaga is truly an animal friendly bar, one time I was counting that there were more dogs than people - well, one reason for this was that they did BBQ and loads of bones left for all doggies.As it´s name tells, it is a rock bar, good music and also live music time to time, since Roberto himself playes guitar too. The bar is open all year around, in winter every thursday-sunday. Rock on!

Touring with mom

This village name works only for the Finns, means Village for perverts in Finnish

My mom was visiting Crete in April and we were touring together for a week. We had sun, rain, wind and loads of laugh :). After the Spinalonga Island, we started to drive to south-east in Kato Zakros and walked through the Dead´s Gorge (my fourth time already this winter, but always such a nice experience to walk there, see PHOTOS IN HERE), spent good moments again in Taverna Glaros. We had a stop in Ierapetra, one easy going day in Tsoutsouros beach in full peace and then we went to Matala for two nights, meeting the hippies :P. Last night a stop in Zorbas Island next to Heraklion and so was the week over!

Spinalonga Island

Finally I managed to get myself to the Spinalonga leper island, I have been around the island during this winter several times and always "pushed" my visit further or there were no boats going. So now I had this chance when my mom was coming touring in Crete for one week in April. My earliers bloggings from Spinalonga you can read HERE and HERE . Someone told me that Spinalonga is the third visited place in Greece, first is Akropolis, second Knossos and Spinalonga would be third. I dont know if its true, but this I was told... To Nisi television serie (in Finnish - Saari) has sure made this Island more visited!

Hiking in Havga Gorge

This would be the big view if you arrive this point of the hiking!

Unfortunaly I did not, since I felt blocked just behind this beauty. I was walking this gorge alone and was not sure which way to try to get up. I got some tips from my Austrian friends (Thank you Harald and Renate) and they told me that the last cascade is little bit tricky to get up, but still I didnt manage. The places I did already see on this rather unkown gorge, was beautiful so was anyway all worth it! Its unkown gorge and even more unknown after this big ball. You need to swim there and you would need some climbing tools with you to manage to get over it, so most people would end their walk anyway in here (well I ended just before the ball already). Was pleasant walk and sometimes you needed to balance over the rocks. Crisscrossing the gorge to one side to another and looking the best place to walk. I did enjoy, but I have now saved the pleasure to "meet up with this ball" another time, something to wait :).

Where is Kuksa today?

365 days of Kuksa 28.4.2014 - 27.4.2015

These coming photos will be for my "Kuksa", (what is a Kuksa? Read more in  HERE wikipedia) this special wooden cup which has followed me since 2009. I will shoot every day one photo "where is Kuksa today" and you can follow its journey in my blog. In the photos the codes you will see are GPS-coordinates which are telling Kuksa´s exact location. I will continue my regular updates about my travel too...

The cave of Zeus

Psychro Cave - Diktatean Cave - according to the myth, Zeus was born in here. Cave is located in Lassithi, Psychro and it is 1025 meters above sea level. The cave is impressive to visit, rich of stalagmites and stalactites. Its the most famous cave of the 3000 caves in Crete! Since of its myth of Zeus, this is why the Dikteon Cave was already famous in antiquity, dedicated to the worship of the greatest of the gods, as the many offerings found there indicate...

BBQ at Zorbas Island

BBQ chef Eric

 Passed many good moments at Zorbas and every Saturday evening they make barbeque, how nice! For me it was almost like beeing in some pub in Holland and after not using Dutch since last summer was so nice to speak it again (zo gezellig avondje :P)!