Where Next?

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to extend my stay here in Crete until the end of May, 2010, if I can find an appropriate new place to move into when my contract with my current landlord expires at the end of November.

The house I'm living in now has already been rented to others, so staying here is not an option. Even if it wasn't slated for new occupants, I don't think that it would have been an option for me because I'm going to have to drastically reduce expenses in order to stay longer, and the rent on this place is about 350 euros more per month than I can afford going forward. Also, I'll be ditching the rental car, which runs me about 550 euros a month now. Having no car requires that I find a location that is more central to things like a supermarket, public transport, etc. So I'm looking at either moving into the town of Kastelli, or to central Chania.

My Greek tutor, Elenie, is going to sit down with me and help me go through the apartment classified's in the Χανιωτικα Νεα, Chania's weekly newspaper. Once I have a basic translation for everything (utilities, furnished, no pets, etc.) then I can start looking for something on my own.

To be honest, the whole prospect has me a bit anxious. Although I'm paying too much for where I live right now, I have the convenience of everything being included, and a western, English-speaking landlord with whom it is very simple to communicate. If I am going to find someplace within my price range, there are several things that I may to need to give up (in addition to the car) that make me a bit queasy. The first and most important being an internet connection. Sure...I can always take my laptop to a hotspot, but it's just not the same. If I want to Skype with someone back home, I don't want to do so in the middle of some cafe. If I want to post on my blog, or a wine forum, I'd like to be able to do it when the urge strikes me without having to get dressed and walk to someplace with wireless. Aside from the internet, I'm also concerned about potential miscommunications with a Greek landlord. God knows I've had enough trouble making myself understood in various shops around here...I can only imagine what might ensue when trying to discuss rental terms.

In addition to anxiety over finding a new place, the dissolution of my already tiny social network here has me feeling frustrated. Back to the drawing board I guess (I am SO not good at meeting new people).

Not Nearly as Cute as Fred

I found this guy sitting in the laundry bin as I was preparing to throw some wet towels and sheets into it.

I think I will name him Omega, in the hopes that he is the last of his kind that I'll see, at least in my house!

Φρεντ

I almost stepped on this guy while I was sweeping the back patio. I just had to take a picture 'cause I love his camouflage. Also reminds me of my brother's toy when he was little, Glow Worm. The title of the post is the word "Fred", which is the name I gave him:-)

Ee i ee i oh

Mike took me for a quick ride this afternoon to see the plot of land where his family keeps all the critters who will eventually end up on their dinner table.






These guys look like they've still got a while before they need to start worrying.







Rudy, one of their two dogs. Not sure why I didn't get a picture of the other one. They are both very cute and friendly, although the other one (can't recall his name now...starts with a Z) seemed a little frightened of me. When Mike told me that he's only ever bitten two people, I think I decided to just stick by Rudy.




I initially mistook these for ducks, but they are geese. I guess I'm used to seeing the big Canadian geese in the States.







These are ducks.


























The view on the way back down.

Added a New "At Home" Exercise

Pull-ups on the branch of the orange tree on my back patio. Fun, fun, fun!!!

If I Take Nothing Else Away from this Sabbatical...

...I will have learned that experimenting in the kitchen can be fun AND rewarding!

Chicken and carrots in a curry/ginger cream sauce:

Shaved up some carrots and fresh ginger, and sauteed them with some minced garlic in vegetable oil.

Added sliced chicken breast, cooked until done.

Added about a cup of heavy cream, dried basil, a very liberal sprinkling of powdered madras curry, salt, pepper and a little additional powdered garlic. Brought to a slow boil, then simmered for about 15 mintues.

Served over jasmine rice, and with a 2006 Vins de Crete Thrapsathiri (a full bodied white with lots of fruit, richness and minimal acidity...I usually like my whites with more acidity but this went perfectly with the cream sauce and the rich flavors in the meal).

Another Analogy (or is it a metaphor? I'm not sure...)

I recently posted some tasting notes regarding the wine pictured here to a wine discussion group that I visit from time to time.

My notes regarding the bouquet read: Intense aromas of strawberries, cola, plum and spice (cloves). After sitting a bit, distinct notes of cocoa emerged.

Another member came along later and mentioned that when he tasted this, he recalls "Very pleasant black cherry and herbal aromas and flavors."

So I revisited the open bottle tonight, and found that his description was so much more accurate than mine was. I totally got what he was talking about.

Which led me to begin thinking that perhaps the reason I often make such lousy choices in men that I date is because my perceptions are just all screwy!!

I'm sensing "complicated, challenging, and bitter-sweet" whereas someone else with more finely-honed senses and a more intelligent emotional repetoire would report "disconjuncted, abrasive and contradictory". Or maybe just "jerk, moron, loser".

Anyway...just my "too-deep" thought for the evening. This is what happens when you're all alone on an island, thousands of miles from home! Oh, who am I kidding...I think this way all the time:-)

PNEVMATIKI WINERY

I've found myself languishing in the summer doldrums for a good part of the month of August, content to do not much more than keep up the house, foray into town for groceries when absolutely needed, and make the 15 minute walk to lounge about on the beach most afternoons. Blame it on the heat, or the impending change of season, or missing Yannis, or sadness that Mike is moving to Athens in about a week. Whatever it is, I'm determined to shake it and start getting out and doing more once September rolls around. In the meantime, today's wind conditions prompted me to skip the beach this afternoon and take a "mini-excursion" up the road to a winery. I took a slight detour through some streets in my village that I only just discovered last week, when my neighbor Helene took me to dinner.


This is the church in my village. It boggles my mind that I lived here for almost three months before even realizing it was here. Each Sunday morning, when I heard the bells and the priest's singing as though it was in my backyard, I thought for some reason that it was further away in a nearby village and was being amplified. I had simply never wandered the streets on the northeastern side of the village; had I done so then I would have realized that the church IS almost literally in my back yard.

A ripe cluster of grapes hanging from someone's rooftop pergola. Harvest time has begun, I believe, for a majority of the grapes grown on the island.

Opposite the church is a HUGE fig tree. The low hanging fruit has been picked, these are some over-ripe fruits that have burst.
When Helene and I walked by after dinner last week, we grabbed a couple of perfectly ripe ones and I spread them along with butter and honey on my bread the next morning.

The local elementary school.

The fruit that grows on these cacti is edible too, but I've been told that it requires a lot of work to get it ready to eat. Had I zoomed in, you would see the pricklies on the fruit, which need to be shaved off.

As far as I can tell, this is strictly a wine producing facility (meaning that they don't grow any of their own grapes). I've passed it on numerous occasions as it's just about a kilometer from my house, and finally decided to take them up on the "free visit" that they advertise on their sign.

There was only one employee there when I arrived, and I have no idea what his job title is since he spoke no English. He did give me a tour, and although I could only pick up a few words, he seemed to know what he was talking about as he showed me the various tanks, filtration containers, ageing barrels, etc.

These wall ornaments outside of the barrell room remind me of how seriously the Cretans take their right to own and bear arms. I have read that Crete has the highest gun ownership rate in the EU, and although the majority of them are illegally owned, the police turn a blind eye out of a respect for the long-standing Cretan custom, and a fear of what would happen if they were to ever attempt to crack down on it. It's one of the things that I admire about Crete...the government is afraid of its people.

Not sure who these characters are, maybe the founders and/or past employees?

The view looking out from the entrance of the building

I purchased two bottles of wine (one red, one white) and some honey raki, and the total came to 12 euros. Will have to wait until I drink them to see whether I got a bargain or not since there was no tasting offered, but so far it's the least that I've paid for wine since I've been here.

Random Stuff from 25 August (Happy Birthday, Matthew!)

Sister #3, Elf, showed up to feed this morning, which is rare. She's the one that wouldn't allow me to capture her to have her spayed, which sucked because she was obviously pregnant. In this picture she is the furthest away, and she was always the smaller one of the three, but it is interesting to note how much bigger and healthier the two who were subjected to "late term abortions" seem to be. It's also clear that her two healthier litter-mates have claimed my back porch as their territory, as she sat passively by waiting to eat until I came out and moved things around a bit to distract the other two.


Dinner tonight was simple but good...village sausages, green beans, carrots and potatoes, stuck in the oven on high (after briefly blanching the veggies) and coated w/ olive oil, oregano, garlic powder, salt & pepper. Accompanied by a very nice red from Macedonia by Yianni Boutari, their 2004 Paranga, a blend of Xinomavro and Agiortiko.




I have always been an "horizon gazer". Whenever I've looked out at that thin blue line that separates sky from sea or land, it has always instilled in me a sense of adventure, curiousity and excitement. This has led me to travel to some interesting places, to include South Africa, Madagascar, Argentina, Burma, Egypt, and more.

I recently noticed that when I look at the horizon here, I no longer experience that. The question that used to inspire me to ask, "What is OUT there?" has been answered.

Just FYI

My blog tends to run towards my experiences here, some pretty mundane, some amusing, but I realize that thus far I haven't included many uniquely "Cretan" experiences or information. Just wanted to let everyone who might be interested in some really good material pertaining to news and sites on Crete that there is a link on the right side of my blog titled "Crete.wordpress" that contains a lot of good stuff.

Lazy Me

After several half-hearted attempts to scrub the patio tiles, I've given up. The muscle required and the subsequent back-ache, along with the fact that it's very difficult to rinse (the cracks between the tiles are unsealed and I just wash up more dirt each time I try to hose them down) have convinced me that sweeping is just going to have to be good enough.

Everything Happens for a Reason?

Prompted by a Facebook post by one of my younger cousins, I'm copying and pasting the thread because this frequent assertion is something that really bothers me and her post just allowed me to articulate my feelings on the subject:

My cousin's initial post: i will pay someone ample amounts of money to prove the "everything happens for a reason" bullshit.

One of her friend's replies: interesting... the fact that you even say that boggles the mind. (I can't tell from this reply which side of the argument this person falls on, but tend to think, based on the vague, somewhat ridiculing tone that he hasn't really given it much thought).

My reply: Actually, Steph - I think it's an excellent question. Things happen *for a reason* due to simple cause and effect, i.e. the reason I got a ticket is because I ran a red light. The fact that my driving may improve after is simply a possible result of the initial incident, NOT the reason for it happening. It's annoying to me that our species is so intelligent in so many ways, but that a large percentage have allowed themselves to believe in this backwards thinking, and I mean backwards literally (cause = effect, not the other way around, which is what that whole "everything happens for a reason" bullshit implies.) Or, put more simply...everything happens *because* of a reason, not *for* a reason. Why we insist on ascribing mystical qualities to something that is as beautifully simple and reasonable as cause and effect is beyond me. So Steph, I don't anticipate that you'll be owing anyone a ton of money anytime soon;-)

A typical Greek breakfast consists of several cups of coffee accompanied by as many or more cigarettes, and maybe a roll of some sort if one is feeling extravagent.

I don't do Greek breakfast:










Also pondering this morning whether an elaborate, complicated language structure indicates that the creators of said language were highly advanced or just had too much time on their hands.

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

I almost gave up on it before even reading it. I had pulled it off the shelf of books that lived here before I arrived, wanting to hold off on the other books I have waiting that I really want to read (delayed gratification and all that). However, three pages into it I was incredibly annoyed by the antiquated language and bizarre text (it seemed that every other word was capitalized, and I spent some time trying to figure out if there was any method to this style but couldn't discern one).

Anyway, I thrust it back on the bookshelf last night with irritation, and was just about to ask here on my blog why on earth a book would be written in such a way (I'm not exactly what you would call erudite, so perhaps it was just my ignorance) and when I opened the book mid-way to take a picture of the text, I realized that it was just the first chapter that was written in that annoying manner.

So...I shall attempt to read this book which was first published in 1985 and was apparently the No. 1 best seller for a while, and maybe when I'm done I'll even do a book report.

Props for KTEL

Coming back from Chania this evening (I had gone there to pick up some cosmetics that I had ordered, and to look for some things I've been unable to find locally), I was reminded that I am pretty impressed with the bus service here.

I don't really have occasion to ride it all that often, but each time I have it has been ridiculously punctual (Christine would appreciate THAT!), and very user-friendly.

I often avoid taking public transporation when I travel because I find that it can be somewhat intimidating and confusing, but the schedules and prices are clearly posted, there's a person that comes around and takes your money and makes change once you've boarded, and that same person even checks with people as to where they plan to disembark and then let's the driver know to stop there (they have little call buttons, but I guess a lot of tourists don't necessarily know when their stop is coming up).

Granted, it takes about twice the time to get anywhere as it would driving, but when you don't want to deal with parking and the other hassles that can accompany driving, it's a very nice alternative.

I will say that this evening's ride home was rather unpleasant because the guy sitting in front of me was emitting strong odors that fluctuated between BO and the smell my cat emits when he expresses his anal glands, as well as coughing up a storm. Hopefully it wasn't swine flu.

What I Didn't Do Last Night

There's an annual wedding re-enactment that takes place here in Kastelli, where people are in period costumes and there's a bride and a groom and horses, and they shut down the main road going through town so everyone can gather and watch as the bride and groom and other "actors" do whatever it is that they do.

Mike told me about it and suggested I might want to go.

I had already settled into my "lounge-wear", eaten dinner and had my two glasses of wine, and I really couldn't be bothered.

Now I wish I had. Probably would have made good blog material.

The Corners

Many of us who clean our own homes are guilty of it: ignoring the corners. We regularly sweep the floors, dust the furniture, scrub down the tubs, showers and sinks, and vacuum the carpets, but we intentionally neglect the places we don’t have to see, or that are hard to reach. The floor underneath the couch, where we know that dust bunnies are multiplying just as their name would imply; the upper corners where the wall and ceiling meet, where minute spiders spin webs to catch even more minute gnats, and then abandon them eventually, leaving a tiny bug cemetery suspended in mid-air; the mildew that accumulates over time in the cracks of the caulking in the shower. We know that these “messes” exist, but we willfully ignore them, until one day, when we finally have some extra time and energy to tackle them, or when we’re just plain sick of ignoring them, we buckle down, move the furniture, grab a step ladder, and have at it. And we feel good when it’s done, because now our house really IS clean.

Today, as I swept the floor and dispatched a stray dust bunny who ventured out from his lair underneath one of the nightstands in my bedroom, I thought about how this same principal often applies to our personal lives.

We go about our day, dealing with the things that are in our face and must be dealt with today: our jobs, paying bills, feeding the family, getting the kids to school, going to the gym. And we ignore the stuff in the shadows: feelings of inadequacy, stifled memories of abuse and neglect, addictions and compulsions, fear of the future or the past.

Maybe we find it easy to ignore these things (like their household, physical counterparts) because no one else can typically see them. When we have guests into our home, we will vacuum the living room carpet, but chances are they’re not going to look under the couch. We’ll clean the toilet, but draw the curtain on the shower. However, on rare occasions a guest might actually notice one of these things and mention it to you.

“Hey there, couldn’t help but notice that you have a mildew problem in your shower. I use Mildew Be Gone for that, you should give it a try, it works great!”

Or…

“Hey, I noticed that you have been missing a lot of work lately, you look like hell, and one of the other employees thought they smelled alcohol on you the other day. If you feel like you need to talk to someone, please let me know”. (I use the alcohol analogy because it's the most familiar to me, running heavily on one side of my family, but you could insert any number of "issues" here...a weight problem, crappy relationships, etc.).

Our response to either of the above situations is likely to be one of three:

• Indignation that someone would dare intrude so blatantly, and subsequent willful denial and refusal to even consider cleaning said area.
• Embarrassment and shame, followed by guilty agreement that something needs to be done, and subsequent half-hearted attempts to clean said area, but not really.
• Honest, shameless and guiltless acceptance that now might be a good opportunity to finally buckle down and clean up this area, not because someone else suggested it but because you’ve known it that it’s needed doing for a long time, and the recommendation by your guest is simply the impetus that you needed to get rolling. Likely followed by real action.

But maybe we ignore these things because we have to. If we spent the time required on a daily basis performing maintenance so that these messes don’t accumulate, well…we’d spend our time doing very little else, wouldn’t we? What enjoyment is there in life if all one does is clean?

So perhaps it’s best to allow the corners to get messy, but to never deny that we know they’re getting that way. To fearlessly and frequently lift up the couch skirt, look at those dust bunnies and say, “Hello, dust bunnies. I’m going to leave you be for now, but don’t get to comfortable because I know you’re there and I will be along to vacuum you suckers up one day soon”.

And eventually…we will.

Bed Bugs...Really???

Yes, Kyrstyn. Bed bugs.

I let Mike have the bed the other night when he crashed here after our tequilla-fest, and he awoke the next morning complaining of being all itchy. I, of course, have been itchy since I've been here so it never really crossed my mind. At any rate, I did some reading, looked at some pictures, and after having washed the "mattress cover" (which was basically just a thin, nasty, worn piece of material that didn't really even fit over the whole bed) I have determined that bed bugs are indeed present in my mattress.

For starters, while I was stripping the bed of all its coverings, two little things that sorta looked like silverfish but not really climbed out onto the bed frame.

OK, we're being calm now...there are lots of bugs here and it's no big deal that a couple of them may have been lurking around my bed, right?

But then, when I pulled that crappy piece of fabric that was covering the mattress out of the washing machine and went to hang it on the line outside, I saw what amounted to a graveyard full of fully and half-formed insectile creatures, clinging on in death to the fabric that housed either lots of lint, or the remains of god knows what.

I am thourougly disgusted right now, and trying to figure out where I'm going to sleep tonight. The air mattress is a BITCH to inflate, but I really don't know that I'll get anything resembling sleep if I try to stay in my usual bed. I have, of course, thrown the mattress cover away, and I've double-sheeted the bed and put a blanket on top. Maybe I can do it if I just sleep on top of everything, with a sheet over me. I mean...I've been doing it for this long, right? Or I could always sleep outside on one of the loungers, but that would entail cleaning all the spidey webs off of them.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

Any Excuse for a Party

August 15 is Assumption day in Greece, as well as Name Day for anyone named Theotokos, Maria, Despina, Thespina, or Marios (there may be some that I'm missing, I just found these on the internet.) Certain days are designated for each saint, and there is a celebration for those who are named after these saints, which apparently is celebrated in lieu of birthdays (or at least in addition to them...it's a big deal). There are several festivities going on in the area over the course of the next few days...Mike and I skipped the church functions and headed down to the waterfront on Friday night instead, where various vendors set up kiosks selling their wares, and there is music and revelry and all that good stuff. We walked the length of the stalls, bought some very expensive peanuts coated with honey and sesame seeds, then hit the crowded cafes for some good old fashioned drinking. I enjoyed the novelty of tequilla shots accompanied by orange slices and cinnamon versus the old lemon and salt. Well, I enjoyed them until the next morning, at any rate.


Didn't buy any honey because I already have a big jar at home, but it was really tempting (everything was, but I restrained myself).








We did get some of these, which are like doughnut holes on steroids. In a good way. Yum, but the sugar followed by alcohol probably went a long way towards my sluggish recovery on Saturday.

I really wanted to buy some of these but figured they'd get crushed before the evening was over.

The waterfront bars and cafes were pretty packed, although I ceased to notice much after the third (and last!) tequilla shot. And yes...that is red wine on the table, too. What WAS I thinking???

Mike stopped by on his afternoon break and took me for a ride on his scooter. We drove up into the hills behind Kastelli, and I was familiar with the first part of the road we took, since it's on the way to Kissamos Cats, which is where I boarded Rikki and Cleo when Merit and I went to Santorini. After passing through Polyrinia however, the roads and villages were new to me.


Starting out.

Lonely little building on the ridge.

Olive groves and churches here are like strip malls in Florida...you can't go very far without seeing one. Actually, you can't turn around here without seeing an olive tree. They pretty much cover the entire landscape. Reminds me that I need to start exploring some of the local, home-made olive oils instead of continuing to buy the grocery store brand, per a reader's suggestion.

I just liked the way this building looked, with the flowering vine climbing up the side. Unfortunately the sun was shining right into the display screen, so I couldn't tell that I wasn't getting the interesting wood and stone work that I was trying to capture on the second level behind the balcony.

THIS is a very special church.

OK, maybe it isn't...I just felt like I should write something instead of just posting yet another church picture.

I'm sure it's probably special to someone.

The house itself isn't particularly interesting, but what a view the owners have!

The port of Kastelli.

The eastern-most part of the town of Kastelli. I wish I'd have zoomed in further, although there really isn't anything of interest here other than some neighborhood streets.. If I decide to stay an extra six months, I'll be moving into an apartment in town in order to be more centrally located since I'll be giving up the rental car after November.

Me on the back of the bike, my left arm looking disturbingly Pop Eye-ish at this angle. Must be all the horta (boiled greens usually served with lemon juice and olive oil).