Rip Off of a Day

Our first full day in Crete.... well, it hasn't turned out to be our most prized traveling day. It started out alright, but went down hill from there!

This morning, we slept in until 11:00. Crazy, I know!! I NEVER sleep in that late, especially on vacation. But, Jay wasn't moving and there wasn't anything for me to do. So I slept in with him. So, after an extremely slow morning, we finally rolled out of here at noon.

We walked along the edge of the water to see some of the town and the water front. We enjoyed looking at all the boats and walking out to a lighthouse. We spent the afternoon walking the streets, going in and out of a few shops, and just being rather lazy. We were at a slow pace and just took our time. This is not our normal style as we are usually running from place to place.

We then came back to our place and sat around for a couple hours, playing on the computer and reading our books. Then at 7:30 we decided to go eat supper. At noon today, one of the restaurant guys pegged Jay as a soldier. He talked to us for a few minutes and tried to get us to eat there. We said no as I was in the midle of eating a pop-tart. We told him we would be around for several more days, so would stop another time. We decided to go back to him for supper tonight. We didn't think much else of it and walked right on in. He told us that drinks were on the house, so we each ordered. They didn't bring us any menus after we got our drinks. Finally, the guy came over to us and asked if we wanted food. Of course we said yes. He gave us three options, lamb, fish, or chicken. Jay decided on the lamb and I ordered the chicken. We thought it was just a real personal place that they read the menu to us instead of actually handing us one. They also asked if we wanted salad, bread, and a dip for the bread. Jay said yes to the salad and we took the bread and dip. After a while, they put a bottle of water on the table along with two more glasses. We thought that was nice as we could have used more to drink.

As we were sitting there eating, I was joking about how much this meal would cost us, since we hadn't seen any prices yes. I asked Jay what he would do if they gave us a bill of 80 euro. He told me he would deal with it if it happened. So, we continued eating. When we asked for our bill, they instead brought us each a shot of vodka. Too strong for both of us, so we dumped them into my water glass so it looked like we drank them. We had to ask for our bill again, and finally we were told to go back to the desk in the back to pay. We walked back there and the guy told us 78 euro! We both nearly choked at the sound of that!!! That's $103 for those of you stateside! We were both in shock! I kind of laughed as I had just said that during our meal. Jay talked with the guy for several minutes, telling him how ridiculous the prices were. The guy then told us he would take two euro off the price of the bread. After lots of talking back and forth, the guy finally offered 60 euro and a smile. Jay said absolutely no smile if we have to pay that much. Jay counter offered him 50 euro. We settled on 55 euro just to be done with it all.

The food in this picture cost us 33 euro... and may I remind you that our drinks were "on the house"!!!

Jay walked out of there storming!! He was not a happy camper! We have never paid that much, or even half that much for that matter, for food. Jay made sure the guy knew we were never coming back and that we would tell anyone else to not come back!

The rest of the day had been pretty cheap. We both had lunch for a total of 5 euro and spent about 10 euro on souvenirs. But this just topped it all off! I guess we'll be starving the rest of the week as we don't have enough money to feed ourselves!!

We relearned a lesson we already knew.... never eat at a restaurant that doesn't have a menu with prices listed outside. We knew that!!!! Such a rookie mistake!!