Where bad decisions come with a view, the gyros are real, and shore patrol always shows up ten minutes too late.
Souda Bay, Crete isn’t just a peaceful Greek island postcard. It’s where sailors get drunk, spend money they swore they’d save, eat gyros that make the ship’s version look like a hate crime, and wake up with new tattoos, new regrets, and maybe a new contact request on Instagram from someone they definitely don’t remember. Everything is close enough to stumble to, nobody cares how loud you are until you become their problem, and the bars don’t close, you do.
I’ve hit Souda many times throughout the years I was in. Different deployments, different lengths of liberty, same result every time: this place will chew you up, pour you a shot, and hand you back to morning muster in pieces. Sailors start drinking before breakfast and call it hydration.
The Horseshoe
The Horseshoe is just a line of bars and food spots on the water where the mission is drink, wander, repeat. You don’t plan the night, the night decides for you. You’ll talk loud, eat too late, spend too much, and somehow still end up adding strangers on social media you’ll never speak to again.
And yeah, tattoo shops everywhere. Real artists, walk-ins welcome, not shy about taking sailors money. I’ve picked up several tattoos there over the years, most of them sober, all of them permanent.
Plenty of beautiful women, too. Some flirt because you’re American, some because you’re funny, some because you’re buying drinks, and some because they charge by the hour. Sailor’s choice. No judgment until the hangover hits.
Souda also has everything else your chain of command hopes you don’t find: bars that lead to fist fights, street food that saves lives at two in the morning, past your liberty, and that one guy selling Greek cigarettes like it’s a side quest. Stick around long enough and someone will offer you nose candy too. The locals don’t care what you do, but you will when the urinalysis list comes out.
Where to Go on the Horseshoe
- King’s Pub
- Kiki Bar
- Avalon Rock Pub
- DNA Night Club
And if you want to drink like the locals, try raki, Greek moonshine. One or two shots is fine. Three to six is culture. Anything more than that, don’t expect to remember the night ahead.
One of Those Nights
One time we started drinking at eight in the morning and didn’t stop until two in the morning the next day. Shore patrol eventually chased us off the strip that night, we somehow made it back to the hotel, and the last thing I remember is hanging over a second-floor balcony of my hotel room, violently returning a chicken gyro I absolutely needed while drunk.
Woke up with a fake Rolex. No idea how I got it. Pretty sure I lost the watch and my dignity in that same port visit.
That’s Souda. Cheap tattoos, strong drinks, loud nights, bad decisions, and stories you only remember in fragments.
Last Call
Souda Bay, Greece
12/10 — Would risk NJP again.
-Paul
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