Days 48-50 - The Olive Oil Journey

Feels great to finally write a blog on US soil. I'm still a bit doozy from the 11 hour plane ride but have somehow mustered the energy to get these out. And yes I'm sending this out at 5:54am as my body thinks it's 12:54pm...

Day 48

I knew when waking up this would be my last day of the trip exploring the countryside. Region name is Sitia, and there's a monastery that kept coming up on store shelves. Without scheduling in advance, I make the 2.5 hour drive to Toplou monastery - company was kept by 2 hours of Mr. Beast on the Full Send Podcast (I'm usually a 1.2-1.5x guy but kept this at 1x to...and highly recommend).

Unfortunately I arrive to realize that everything in the area was closed. Ghosttown. I was able to get some nice pictures but honestly was disappointed. Way later in the afternoon around sunset I was able to get a [2 minute] mill visit and spoke with a random farmer on the road who gave me a fresh orange of his tree. Besides that, the day was pretty dull.

One little bothersome thing: at lunch, I pointed to the chicken and rice, got lamb meatballs instead. I couldn't even complain at that point - just kept my mouth shut besides when taking in the food. When the server asked if my meal was good, I gave the nod that a witty guy would have been able to sniff out at BS...whatever.

Another little story is I got to a town named Krista (where I saw mill and farmer) and went into a store that had oils, spices, etc. The lady working the front was the mom of the store operator and knew very little English. All I wanted to know was the factory (mill) location of one of the brands, but she couldn't understand and called her daughter for an answer.

She said her daughter could arrive in an hour, so I say I cannot stay (which is true) for that long and must go (didn't want to drive in dark). But after another call her daughter showed up 5 minutes later, visibly miserable, asking what I wanted.

I asked for the factory location - then she went on the tirade of "you woke me up for this!" I just played good guy and profusely apologized 1000 times. Not worth the aggravation.

Ok so after getting no answer I go back to Heraklion where I decided I wanted to "ball out" for dinner as a celebration to the end of the journey. I went to a steakhouse but didn't even order steak as the few bone-in steaks were way overpriced and boneless cuts were underwhelming.

Went for some Beef Carpaccio, an Eggplant saucy dish, Gnocchi, and a dessert on the house (not sure why - I actually thought the bartender was very disinterested in me).

Computer time to end the night as alluded to in the previous entry.

Day 49

To be frank I was looking forward to getting back to New York at this point.

I wake up, finish out The Playlist (Spotify miniseries on Netflix) and for some reason felt supermotivated after that episode. I got ready and went straight to the computer lab for 3 hours and did a brain dump onto Google Slides. Some may call it a business plan, others may call it a mess, I personally don't assign a name but definitely know it somewhat checks both of those boxes.

I actually ran out of cell service in between that and home and strolled around town for about an hour before getting back to the hotel Wi-Fi to top off my eSIM plan with another GB.

I napped from 1:30pm - 4:30pm. It was one of those where I wake up in the middle and just say "fck it I just want to sleep." Starting to feel human again...

Grabbed a quick falafel dinner, packed the room, returned the car rental, flew from Heraklion to Athens, arrived at my stay close to the airport by shuttle, walked to my final Souvlaki dinner (ran through the dark sketchy area ofc), snagged a pastry, and did some FaceTiming until about 1am.

Day 50

I tried fetching the sunset which ended up being blocked by clouds and mountains (it's Greece, remember...). Instead I enjoyed a peaceful walk back the 1.5 miles up the hill on the main road that smelled like car gas (go figure). When I looked at the Lemon & Olive Trees on the right, I got a weird feeling in my stomach - as in we should not be eating fruits off trees under this type chemical exposure. I could barely breathe (embedded Olive Oil Takeaway). My own advice to myself all trip when seeing ripe orange trees in cities - never eat those fruits.

Given the 11 hour flight, my strategy going into the night before was to undersleep and save some sleep for the plane. I successfully underslept, yet only got 1.5 hours on the plane even with a generous pour of red wine. I watched Godfather & Part II for the first time since college. And Sopranos unsurprisingly popped up on many screens around me. Guy next to me got up 8 times. The 2 meals were gnocchi and a spring roll. 11 hours later I touch base in New York.

My mom picked me up and was totally shocked by the beard - pictures didn't do it justice I guess. I think I'm finally past the itchy phase.

Thank you all for reading up to this point. Honestly, I still find it crazy that some people actually enjoy my writing.

I will release 1 more entry to round out "The Olive Oil Journey." This will probably come by next week. I need to sit and reflect on the trip, my progress, and my next steps.

This is only the beginning.

Have a nice day.

-Jack

Thank you for reading and welcome to the blog! I travelled through Europe for 50 days (actually 52) on a quest to find great Olive Oil.