Friday, January 29, 2010

What is it about this place?


I had dinner with a new friend at a taverna in the hills near Chania the other night, and one of the topics of discussion was the allure that Crete holds for each of us.

She is an American expat who has been living here for many years, and who married into a Cretan family, so her knowledge of the island and its people is far deeper than mine.

Crete has many well-known virtues:

Its physical beauty is formidable and diverse; one can find beautiful beaches, majestic mountains, farm land, olive groves, orchards, vineyards, caves, gorges and forests. It is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean, and feels more like its own country than an island.

Crete's history is ancient, massive and intense. There are an extraordinary number of historical sites. The ancient Minoan culture originated here, and the island has been seized and occupied by Arabs, Turks, Romans, Venetians and Nazis (not necessarily in that order). The number of ruins dotting the island is staggering.

The hospitality of the Cretan people is legendary, and I have found them to be honest, open, curious and unassuming. They seem to be laid back and passionate at the same time, fiercely independent and not too concerned with rules and regulations. This last bit can cause frustration for those who are accustomed to the rigid efficiency of many western cultures, but it suits me just fine.

It is a land of contradictions, where one can find numerous modern conveniences and entertainment in the cities and then drive just a short way into the mountains to be transported back in time in its myriad villages. There is a wonderful, well-built modern highway spanning the length of the island in the north, many other decent roads to take you into and over the mountains, and then innumerable smaller gravel, dirt and tractor paths leading...well, you never know until you take them!

The Cretan diet is renowned for its healthy properties, and while there is a definite lack of diversity when it comes to restaurants featuring cuisine from other cultures, most of what you will find here is fresh, locally grown, satisfying and created with much care by traditional methods.

So, these are some of the things that come to mind when I'm compelled to explain why this is such a great place.

However, there is something more to it for me, and it's really difficult for me to describe. Since I've been here, I have experienced on many occasions a sense that I have been here before, like I'm living a memory. It's not that quick, peculiar feeling that one gets from deja-vu. Instead I feel like I'm looking at things as I used to when I was a child, when life held unlimited potential, adventure and mystery. Colors seem more alive, the air feels fresher, the sunlight warmer and gentler, and everything just has more of a "3D" feel to it than anything I can recall from recent years.

What prompts these strong feelings? Who knows. At first I was tempted to chalk it up to my own quirky nature, or simply the fact that I'm free from wage-slavery for the first time in 22 years. However, I've talked to others who have come here and fallen in love with the island, and they describe a very similar phenomenon.

As my dinner companion and I agreed the other night...you either get it or you don't. I've got it. And I'm having a hard time imagining giving it up.

Monday, January 25, 2010

This Morning in the Shower...

I was musing upon the things that I miss about my life in the United States, and those things that I don't. Why in the shower? Because for some reason I tend to contemplate a lot in the shower, I don't know why. Anyway, here's what I was thinking:

I Miss (in no particular order):
  • Central heating
  • Family and friends
  • Clothes driers
  • My car
  • A diversity of cuisines when dining out
  • A diversity of wines for purchase
  • A diversity of cultures/people
  • The metro
What I don't miss:
  • The hustle and bustle
  • Work
  • Waking up to an alarm
  • Pretentiousness
  • Political polarization
  • Rules & Regulations
  • Strip malls
  • Not being near the sea
  • Self-righteous non-smokers
  • Housing developments

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Mid-winter Splurge


Did you know that Carnival originated in Greece? Or that's what I've read, anyway...

Apparently the town of Rethymno has a pretty impressive celebration, so I've decided to break out of my winter doldrums and spend two days there over the weekend of the 13th of February. I'll stay Saturday and Sunday night so I can catch the parade in full on Sunday, then head back on the bus Monday morning. Hope to get lots of good pictures, in the meantime I'm very excited about my accommodations at Civitas Hotel (pictured here). Having lived with only shower facilities for the last several years, I'm looking forward to a leisurely soak in the whirlpool tub at some point...

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The Lady is a Tramp

I happened upon this dumpster-diving kitty on my way back from my walk today. She quickly climbed out of the dumpster as I approached (they all do that for some reason, maybe they've had one too many bags of trash thrown on top of them) and watched me as I walked by.

Her thick, long fur was probably once beautiful, but is now matted and gray with dirt.

I think if she was human she would be about 45 years old, a former beauty queen who married the wrong guy at a very young age, and who eventually found herself out on the streets. Hardened by her fate, but still proud.

(Of course, I have no idea if this is even a female, but I'm going to pretend that she is for the sake of the story).

Φραουλες!


Strawberries. This may not seem particularly exciting to anyone else, but these are the first berries I've had since I've been in Crete! I was very happy to see them at the corner store.

Not sure if they're locally grown or not. Doesn't seem like strawberry season, so I'm guessing probably not.

Me and a Bee

I spent a good 10 minutes the other day watching this bee clean itself. It had chosen the screen on my kitchen window as its perch, and I guess I'm easily amused these days because I was totally captivated. At times it almost looked like a cat does when it cleans itself, its front legs moving back and forth over its face, its hind legs reaching up to scratch behind its head, etc. Then when it was done, it shook its little "bee-hind" and peed! At least I think that's what it was - once clear drop of liquid dropped onto the screen below it. I've never seen a bee pee before!

Oh, I really am spending far too much time alone lately...

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Pure Torture


I met up with a new acquaintance in Hania last week for coffee. We originally met a month or so ago at this shoe store and decided to make it our rendez-vous point last week.

All the stores are running sales, and this one had 50% off of what were already some pretty reasonable prices.

But I don't need any more shoes. I'm already planning to leave several pair here when I head back to the States in May, because they won't all fit in my luggage. I really, really wanted to buy some shoes. To make matters worse, my friend was running late so I had at least 45 minutes to spend browsing all the great deals that I couldn't partake in.


Dina hamming it up for the camera at the waterfront in Hania.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Some recent dinners


"Stuffed" eggplant (aubergines) with ground pork and cumin, topped with a yogurt dill sauce.







Baked pork chops in a honey/mustard/tarragon sauce.







I've had a hard time finding a vegetable steamer here so I finally just created one myself by poking holes in an aluminum pie tin. Worked perfectly!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Walk to Polyrinia

The kennel where my cats have stayed before, Kissamos Cats, is located in Polyrinia so I've been there by car on a couple of occasions. This time I wanted to try walking it, and to check out the Cemetery of Ancient Polyrinia while I was up there. I set out at 1pm, allowing myself four hours round trip, figuring that a drive that usually took about 20 minutes should take about 2 hours to walk. Not sure exactly how I arrived at that calculation, but it turned out to be damn near spot on. Unfortunately I never found the cemetery, despite the signs pointing me in that direction. Maybe there was another sign that I missed somewhere once I turned onto the dirt path, I don't know. I do know that I was happy that the dirt path eventually led me back onto the main road I had come in on, about 1/4 mile back along my return route, so I didn't have to back-track. I was even further pleased (extremely so, actually) to see the sign just a bit further down the main road revealing a footpath back towards town, which I must have missed when I passed it on the way up. I vastly prefer loop hikes, and not only did this one provide me with more serene surroundings for the walk home, but it shaved almost an hour off of the return trip.

I'm going to have to try go back at some point, because having just consulted my guide-book to make sure I had the correct spelling of Polyrinia, it seems that I missed a whole lot of cool ancient stuff just a bit further on past the main village. As for the spelling, I've found several different versions depending on where I look, which is so typical here. I suppose the one I've used will suffice.


































Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Epiphany in Kissamos

The Epiphany celebration commemorates the anniversary of the baptism of Jesus, and wraps up the "12 Days of Christmas". It's when many people take down their Christmas trees, and here in Greece it is celebrated with the "Blessing of the Waters", during which a priest blesses a cross, throws it into the sea, and any brave (crazy) young greek guy who wants to can dive in after it. The first man to recover the cross is said to have good luck for the coming year (you'd think they'd throw in an Ipod or gift certificate to the local souvlaki joint or something...the water is COLD this time of year!). I had read about this custom long before ever coming to Crete, and was happy to learn that my town performs the ceremony so I didn't need to take the bus into Chania to watch theirs.

I walked down to the waterfront around 10:30am in order to get a good spot...someone told me it fills up fast, and the ceremony was to start at 11am. There was one ambitious lad already warming up for the competition, although I seriously doubt there was anything warm about it.




Apparently I didn't need to be down there quite so early...






but it was a pretty nice morning to be outside anyway, so I grabbed a double Elliniko and a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast at a waterfront cafe. This was the biggest double coffee I've had here...really seemed more like a quadruple.




Good to know the coast guard would be on hand, although I'm not really sure why. I think they were just there to show off their uniforms and try to pick up chicks.






Church must have let out, because everyone showed up at once. I was able to squeeze in front of a few people and grab a seat on the wall where I had a decent view. Mostly it was little kids sitting on the wall, but I figure since I'm about the size of a little kid, I qualified.








Plotting their strategies.






People on small craft gathering to watch from a different angle, and maybe to jump in and break up any fights in the event that two guys grab the cross at the same time.






I may not be religious, but I DO like their costumes.






I think we've got all the contestants here now!







The pre-dive chanting begins (by the priest, not the swimmers).







I kept trying to get a decent frontal shot of this guy, who was super-cute (aside from the little dippy-thing he's done with his hair), but he was not cooperating.

Focus, Kyrstyn - focus. We're here to watch the Blessing of the Waters, not drool over guys are young enough to be your offspring.



OK, cool - we're reading from the big silver book now. I remember seeing the big silver book at the Christmas Eve service, too. Hmmm, could it be a ...bible? We never had bibles that pretty in Roman Catholic Mass.




And away they go!!














We have a winner, and he's letting everyone kiss his crucifix. I bet he feels like a pretty big deal right now.







He reverently gives the crucifix back to the priest...






Who then throws it in again so someone else can try for it.

Huh?













When it was all done, the priest threw the cross 3 times, and it was retrieved by three different guys (I think, it was kind of hard to tell exactly what was going on at this point). This must be one of those new, modern-minded touchy-feelly priests who thinks that everyone should feel like a winner! Although I guess technically, there were still three losers. Oh well.



And the boats head back from whence they came.






As did most of the other observers, including the marching band.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

KIK for Summer 2010 Campaign

It was during a walk along the shore today that I came up with what I think is a rather catchy acronym for a campaign to keep "Kyrstyn in Kriti for Summer 2010". As I dipped my toes in the icy water, I realized that as things stand I'll be leaving Crete at the end of May, just as the water is starting to warm up for the season. Seems a shame to miss a whole summer's worth of swimming, and DC is so godawful humid during that time of year anyway.

So, if anyone would like to make a donation towards the effort to extend my stay here through the end of August, please enter the amount you'd like to pledge and your contact info in the comment field for this blog posting, and I'll get back to you with an address where you can send your check or wire transfer (sorry, no credit cards or Paypal).

We need to raise $7000 in order to make this happen. That may seem like a lot for just three months, but the exchange rate sucks. If 280 people will pledge just $25 each, we can make it a reality. This blog only has a readership of 7, and my Facebook friend count is only at 81, so everyone should definitely try to talk their friends, families and co-workers into donating, too. If we exceed the $7000 then the extra will go towards a good cause, like a side trip to Santorini.

If pure generosity and altruism isn't motivation enough for people to donate towards this worthy cause, I'd be willing to do something ridiculous like swim naked in the sea in February during a storm and have someone record it, and then post it to the blog (although I'd prefer just to walk for 10 miles or something like that, honestly). Suggestions and ideas welcome.

Together we can do this!!





















































































This last photo was not taken on my walk today, I just liked the colors and was thrilled to see that they had avocados at the supermarket yesterday! I also noticed that my bread looks like it has a perturbed look on its, er...face? Is this what goes on when you hear about Jesus's image showing up on a piece of french toast?

Friday, January 1, 2010

Happy New Year, Everyone

Mine was pretty subdued. I was originally supposed to attend a New Years Eve party in Rethymnon put on by the Cretan International Community, but I began to feel a bit under the weather on Wednesday and canceled my RSVP, thinking that I was not going to be up for the two hour bus ride and then an evening of socializing with people I didn't know, followed by a night in a hotel room and another two hour bus ride home the following day.

I had just finished cleaning up after my lonely little New Years Eve dinner when my friend Mike called (he's in town visiting family for the holidays) and asked if I felt like some company to ring in the new year. It was perfect. We sat on my patio drinking some 2005 Xατζημιχαλι Ερυθρο, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather under an almost full moon while Mike differentiated the sound of fireworks from gunshots for me. Midnight came and went, woop-de-do, and then we watched Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. He headed home around 3am, and I must say that I'm proud to have stayed up that late (I'm an early to bed, late to rise kind of woman these days).

2009 has been an amazing and exciting year for me, but I know that there are a lot of folks out there who have seen some pretty rough times lately. For 2010 I wish everyone the strength to deal effectively and gracefully with the difficulties, and the ability to recognize and appreciate the good stuff.

Χρονια Πολλα!

The Stark Family


My greek tutor recently gave me an assignment to write a profile on a family I know. I chose my Aunt Katie's family, and she was kind enough to give me a rundown on what life in the Stark household is like. I told her I'd give her a copy when I was done, so I'm typing it up here for her. Unfortunately I have been unable to get my keyboard to add accent marks above the letters which are emphasized, so this is technically incorrect (the picture is the actual completed, handwritten assignment, with corrections by my teacher) but I thought it would be helpful to me to practice my typing in Greek anyway. Below the Greek version is the English translation, in which I may have deviated from time to time from exactly what Katie told me, but which was the best I could do given my very limited vocabulary/grammar. Αpologies for any embellishments or non-truths!! Thanks for your help with this, Katie.

Η Κατερινα ειναι η θεια μου. Ειναι παντρεμενι με τον Μαρτιν, και εχουν δυο κορες, η Τζακελιν και ν Ασχλη. Εχουν δυο σκυλους, επισnς.

Η Κατερινα ειναι σαραντα εφτα χρονων και ο Μαρτιν ειναι σαραντα τεσσαρων. Η Κατερινα δουλευει στην κλινικη και ο Μαρτιν ειναι δικηγορος. Η Τζακελιν ειναι εντεκα χρονων και η Ασχλη ειναι εννια. Ειναι μαθητριες, και η Τζακελιν παιζει με την ορχηστρα του σχολειου, και η Ασχλη τραγουδει με τον χορο.


Η Κατερινα ξυπναει στισ πεντε και μιση και ο Μαρτιν στισ εξι και μιση. Δουλευουν απ' τις οχτω το πρωι ως τις πεντε το απογευμα.


Το σαββατοκυριακο, η Κατερινα γυμναζεται, ο Μαρτιν παιζει γκολφ, και τα κορτισια ψηνουν. Την Κυριακη η οικογενεια πηγαινει στην εκκλησια μαζι.


Ζουνε στον Πορτ Τζαρλετ, στν Φλοριδα. Το σπιτι τους ειναι διπλα σ'ενα ποταμι.


English translation:

Katie is my aunt. She is married to Martin, and they have two daughters, Jacqueline and Ashley. They also have two dogs.

Katie is 47 and Martin is 44. Katie works in a health clinic and Martin is a lawyer. Jacqueline is 11 and Ashley is 9. They are students, and Jacqueline plays with the school orchestra, and Ashley sings in the chorus.

Katie wakes up at 5:30am and Martin at 6:30am. They work from 8:00am until 5:00pm.

On weekends, Katie exercises, Martin plays golf and the girls bake. On Sundays they all go to church together.

They live in Port Charlotte, Florida. Their house is next to a river.

(Note: I have no idea if Martin really plays golf on the weekends, I made it up!)