My Painting

The 3 Legs of Our Voyage/Adventure QM2 'round the Horn 2006

Blog/Diary Events 15 to 26 Jan 06 - New York to Rio de Janeiro
The pages recording the "Shenanigans" and controversy of the first leg of our voyage.

Blog/Diary Events 27 Jan to 7 Feb - Rio to Valparaiso
Happier times, great pictures, finally 'round the Horn, some funny stories along the way.

Blog/Diary Events 8 to 22 Feb - Valparaiso to Los Angeles
A sad tale of sickness and quarantine with some memorable tours and a "cunning plan"...

Latest Updates - JackonLand a NEW Adventure in Crete!!

This Blog/Diary is laid out in chronological order (1st to last). Some of the day's events are left on the home page, while others have separate pages. If you get lost while browsing the site, just click anywhere inside the top banner image and you'll be returned to the home page.

20 June 06 - Arrived in Crete OK. The Hotel's not good and had to watch England v Sweden on Greek TV in the company of four Scots... not the best combination.

21 June 06 - Sideways Toilet gets a bashing. Found a bar that ALL football supporters are welcome.

22 June 06 - Bust the Sideways Toilet, Fortezza of Rethymno Tour and then had an early night.

23 June 06 - Decided that the hotel is no longer a joke, room is crap and the food is worse. I've decided to visit UJ for a few days, which I should have done in the first place.

24 June to 2 July 06 - Almyrida, football, my Uncle John, crazy offers for my shirt and a "wild ride" back to the hotel!!

3 July 06 - Freedom and Death, Crete and a 2 week package holiday that went wrong!! Summary: NO regrets, bad business, bad hotel but GREAT company.

4 July 06 - Second worse return home journey

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5 Apr - Added a guestbook/comments program to the JackatSea blog. This will allow visitors to post feedback or share their voyage or travel experiences. Why not give a go??

JackonLand!! the NEW BLOG - Yep, I'm traveling again, only this time it's a "land" (working) holiday. Two weeks in Crete, June 20th to July 4th. Once again, I plan to keep my family and friends updated using jackatsea.com. So watch out for changes to the main site layout and my latest research on Crete.

20 April - Really made a mess of the holiday dates!! Part of the reason for taking a "loner" holiday was to get some peace and quiet to watch the World Cup football. However, I've just checked the match dates and found that I'll be at HOME for most of the group stage. 

England are due to play Sweden on the 20th June, which is the day I fly into Crete. Now, my flight arrives 18:15 EEST (Eastern European Summer Time) which is TWO hours ahead of BST (British Summer Time). The match kicks off at 20:00 BST, so the Crete local time should be 22:00 giving me plenty of time to get from the airport to the hotel (75k). Strewth, then all I'll have to do is find a bar that's showing the match on TV... shouldn't be that difficult, as I've heard that Cretans are football mad! 

With a bit of luck, England will already be through to the knockout stage, but having supported England all my life, I've become used to the "roller-coaster" ride when they take part in competitions. There's every chance we'll have to win against Sweden to scrape a group runner-up place (comments welcome on the feedback board) or get our glorious third win to lead the group.

24/06/2006
Saturday 12:00 - Winners group A v England if runners up group stage 

25/06/2006
Sunday 11:00 - England if winners group stage x Runners up group A 

Group A teams are:

• Germany
  Costa Rica
  Poland
  Ecuador

So, it could be the most eagerly awaited rematch England v Germany depending on group stage results. Hair raising stuff!!

Destiny, 40 years is a long time.

21 April - Research for Visiting Crete

Driving home today I listened to BBC Radio 4 (yes, I'm over 50) when a report came on about an investigation into how ethical and useful Internet "holiday review" web sites really are. Essentially, the sharp eyed reporter had spotted that a small guesthouse in Wales had possibly "spammed" their own review by posting very complimentary comments over a short period of time. So, in the interest of journalistic reporting, the reporter took himself off for a weekend stay in the said guesthouse. It turns out that the lady owner had started asking guests to post complimentary comments to this particular review web site to combat an adverse comment posted sometime ago. This seemed to be regarded as unethical.

I couldn't remember the URL of the review, but after a bit of research I've found at least one review site that seems to work OK and I even had a reply to a question posted to the Crete Visitor Forum (direct link to my post).

These links come from TripAdvisor.com and focus solely on Crete:

• Tourism
• Reviews
• Airfares
• Attractions

There's quite a good web site called greekislands.com that lists some interesting excursions around Crete. I've emailed then asking for availability, but no reply as yet.

Oh, just heard the England official song for the World Cup... it's crap!

More later...

JackonLand

This diary will be updated regularly (20th June to 4th July 2006) and primarily it is intended to keep my family and friends informed about my progress during my working holiday in Crete. Hopefully, I'll be able to publish some memorable pictures and descriptions from each excursion and visits to historical places of interest.

Other Internet users are welcome to read the pages and download pictures for their personal use. I would also encourage visitors to send recommendations of places to visit or tour companies to use in Rethymnon, based on their own experience or research.

1st & 2nd Legs of Our Voyage/Adventure 'round the Horn

Blog/Diary Events 15 to 26 Jan 06 - New York to Rio de Janeiro
The pages recording the "Shenanigans" and controversy of the first leg of our voyage.

Blog/Diary Events 27 Jan to 7 Feb - Rio to Valparaiso
Happier times, great pictures, finally 'round the Horn, some funny stories along the way.

Blog/Diary Events 8 to 22 Feb - Valparaiso to Los Angeles
A sad tale of sickness and quarantine with some memorable tours and a "cunning plan"...

32 Corners Info Finance & Business: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8   9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14   Try Vicky's Articles: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 eCons Info Database: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 Food: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Pets: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Internet: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Politics: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Parents: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 Sport: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6

Disclaimer
Jack at Sea is a personal diary/blog and has absolutely NO business affiliation or official connection with Cunard other than being written by a passenger booked on the QM2 Around Americas Cruise 2006. All information is presented as-is with no warranties or guarantees of accuracy from links to other web sites.