Kirstyn in Kriti: Τσικουδια, Anyone?

This morning was spent in a relatively productive way...cleaning litter boxes, exercising, general housekeeping. My intent was to get out for a short walk to the beach and back while the sun was still shining, and then to continue in my productive mode by taking care of such things as fixing the toilet seat that I broke while standing on it to reach the light bulb that had burned out, searching for a new emergency medical insurance policy for my remaining six months here, and maybe downloading some new songs to my Ipod and organizing an exercise shuffle.

On my way to the beach I saw one of the local residents, Yiannis, and another fellow working out in Yiannis' yard. He gave me a "Yia sou, Christina" (everyone here calls me Christina) and told me to stop in for some tsikoudia on my way back, which I did. I had only two shots - one from a bottle and one directly from the still (he had me wait until he could set flame to some of the latter that he spilled out on to the table before it was ready to drink), but they were enough to make me think that now was a good time to thank him for his hospitality and make my way home. My already bad greek was getting progressively worse, and when I found I couldn't remember how to say "I don't speak Greek very well", which is something I say ALL the time, I knew that it was time to go. He told me that in the evenings, a number of people gather there in his shed to drink and talk, and he told me I should stop by anytime. I told him that I will, but that I hoped there would be some other women present when I did so. I feel like I'm asking for trouble if I start hanging out and drinking with the local men.

It was great fun to be able to observe the actual production process, to ask him questions about it and just chat in general. He speaks some English, which is very helpful.

The interesting thing that I've found about tsikoudia is that while it brings on a pretty intense buzz during consumption, it dissipates quickly and seems to leave very little after-effect. I arrived home 20 minutes ago feeling quite inebriated, but am feeling just about back to normal now, although a little sleepy. I'm thinking that this afternoon's planned activities may have to wait for another day. Yiannis was nice enough to allow me to take some photos...here they are, along with a few from my walk:

I've watched this vine grow and change since I arrive here in May. The colors now are beautiful (if you look closely, you can see the blue on the berries, which I'm afraid doesn't convey very well in my picture).