This whole trip to Greece was actually all about the Greek Isles.

Athens was just the stopover.

And now I can see why.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s a lot to see and do in Athens. It is, after all, the cradle of the Western civilization, where Greek gods roamed and played, where myths were forged. It has the Acropolis and super cheap gyros. It’s worth seeing.

But there’s no point in going to Greece without a jaunt to its islands.

The view of Crete from the airplane.

Greece has nearly 6,000 islands, about 200 of which are inhabited. Crete is the largest of them all, spanning 3,219 square miles with about 750,000 people living there. It’s the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.

And we were going there, specially to Chania, the second largest city in Crete with about 53,000 inhabitants.

I was excited to see another part of Greece, particularly the side that people talk about the most. (And, I won’t lie, I was jonesing for the beach.)

And once I landed in Crete, smelled the seawater and walked around charming Old Town near the harbor, I can completely see why.

Here’s what my first day in Crete looked like:

Yay! We made it! We dropped off our luggage and wandered around Old Town.

This may be a tourist spot, but it’s quaint and beautiful — and people actually live here!

This is the crumbling Venetian harbor, now lined with shops and restaurants. This area was heavily bombed in World War II.

As in Athens, there were a lot of stray dogs lounging around. They always look well fed, though.

We stopped at a restaurant for drinks and snacks. Here’s the freshly squeezed orange juice. And yes, it’s really that color.

We shared a waffles topped with chocolate syrup and scoops of strawberry and banana ice creams. The ice cream was a bit disappointing as the flavors weren’t fresh but artificial instead.

This is the Orthodox Cathedral in the Eleftherios Venizelos Square.

This whole stretch is lined with shops and eateries — and this fish spa. It was Grace’s first time getting her feet cleaned by these little fish — popular in Asia. I didn’t realize this service was in Europe, too!

We hit up a grocery store nearby to get some breakfast essentials — like butter. The butter here is ridiculously good. It’s like eating cheese.

The cereal aisle at the grocery store.

On our way back we passed this fish market. Crete is known for its seafood.

Dinner was pre-planned. One of the girls had found this place online and it was a must-try. Luckily for us, it was literally steps from our apartment.

This was the Tamam salad, prepared like cole slaw but with a vinaigrette dressing. It had fresh tomatoes, fennel and dill.

Lan and her meatballs! And these meatballs were good with lots of flavor like mint.

The special was a sweet pumpkin soup that was so good, I would have been happy with just this. (Instead, we ordered nine other plates.)

We tried these fried beans in garlic.

Lan said this was the best calamari she’s ever eaten — and after seeing her eating skills, I’d take her word for it!

I loved this: potatoes with staka, goat milk butter, poured over it. This was OMG good.

After dinner we walked around Old Town, which is littered with cute shops and boutiques. I’m not a shopper, but I could resist walking into the small stores and seeing what these merchants had.

We wandered into this shop, which sold handmade scarves, jewelry and hats.

We ate a second dinner at a restaurant across the street from Tamam, where we shared this chicken and okra dish.

we also ate this vegetarian pizza that tasted a lot like DiGiorno with fresh veggies. In a good way

Old Town is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been so far in Greece. Too bad I’m not heading to Santorini with the rest of the girls. I hear it only gets better.

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Follow my #CatTravels adventures in Greece and Crete on Instagram @catherinetoth and on Twitter @thedailydish.