Well, I've been home a while, but finally sat down and downloaded my Greece pics. There are a few more on my FB page. In any event, it was a great trip and a good opportunity to see the Polish AF on the road. I flew down in a Polish Casa cargo plane on 15 June. It was ridiculously cramped, uncomfortable and slow. The Poles are buying C-130s to replace them and I think everyone is anxious for the new acft. The F-16s arrived slightly after us and we did some hand shaking and got some local area info. Without too much delay, it was off to the hotel to hang on the beach and try to find a cold beer or two. We stayed at the Santa
Marina hotel just west of Chimania on the island of Crete. The hotel was right on the beach and it was really nice for sunrise and sunset. Food and beer was very inexpensive so hangin out was easy to do. We started flying the next day and flew tactical sorties for 7 more days. We got a chance to see the local area and do the tourist act over the weekend (long weekend as there was no flying on Friday . . .) I ended up making some friends in the Hellenic AF and they showed me around the local area. The people are very nice and happy to talk. I learned about some of the local foods and tried their different wines, which are very strong and taste more like a liquor than wine.
You have to be careful how much you drink . . . Crete is like it's own little country as it has many neighbors that have very different cultures and traditions. Even mainland Greece differs from Crete in many ways. After a couple weeks of flying and touring, it was time to go back home. I ended up leading a segment of the deployement back to Poland on 26 June and the trip was mostly uneventful . . . . The trip was a great training opportunity and it was good to see that part of the world.
Well, I've been home a while, but finally sat down and downloaded my Greece pics. There are a few more on my FB page. In any event, it was a great trip and a good opportunity to see the Polish AF on the road. I flew down in a Polish Casa cargo plane on 15 June. It was ridiculously cramped, uncomfortable and slow. The Poles are buying C-130s to replace them and I think everyone is anxious for the new acft. The F-16s arrived slightly after us and we did some hand shaking and got some local area info. Without too much delay, it was off to the hotel to hang on the beach and try to find a cold beer or two. We stayed at the Santa 
Marina hotel just west of Chimania on the island of Crete. The hotel was right on the beach and it was really nice for sunrise and sunset. Food and beer was very inexpensive so hangin out was easy to do. We started flying the next day and flew tactical sorties for 7 more days. We got a chance to see the local area and do the tourist act over the weekend (long weekend as there was no flying on Friday . . .) I ended up making some friends in the Hellenic AF and they showed me around the local area. The people are very nice and happy to talk. I learned about some of the local foods and tried their different wines, which are very strong and taste more like a liquor than wine. 
You have to be careful how much you drink . . . Crete is like it's own little country as it has many neighbors that have very different cultures and traditions. Even mainland Greece differs from Crete in many ways. After a couple weeks of flying and touring, it was time to go back home. I ended up leading a segment of the deployement back to Poland on 26 June and the trip was mostly uneventful . . . . The trip was a great training opportunity and it was good to see that part of the world.
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