A Brit, a Belgian and an American walk into a bar...

Sorry...there's no joke to follow (couldn't find one online) but I thought it would make a good blog title.

I've just had the most enjoyable visit with my friends Chantal and Clive, who took the time to travel all the way out west to spend a couple of days with me. I visited Chantal in her home earlier this year, but it was the first time I've had the pleasure of meeting "Clivios" as the locals in his village call him. What can I say? They are two of the most gracious, interesting and fun people I'm privileged to know!

Below are some pictures from their visit.

We took a walk into the center of Kastelli to have a few beers, after visiting Falarsana on the west coast for what turned out to be a non-existent sunset (well, I'm sure the sun set, we just couldn't see it through the cloud cover). Along the way we passed this board with a gazillion pins, where death notices are posted for several days when someone in the town/village passes away. Kind of like our obituaries. I've passed these boards before but never knew what they were for. I suppose I assumed they were classified ads or something like that. Thankfully, my very knowledgeable guests informed me of their purpose...I learned a lot from these two over the next few days.


Chantal making friends with the locals. What's funny is that she isn't even particularly fond of cats, but this one certainly took a liking to her.





And then came the dogs, who must have been wondering why anyone would make a fuss over a cat.






Back at the house we had lamb in red sauce for dinner. Chantal insisted on helping with the cleanup afterward, despite my protests. Clive...well, he offered amusing commentary for the process:-)




The following morning we drove into Hania. Clive has visited the town before but this was Chantal's first time. We finally found parking near the old harbor (or is it harbour?) and stopped into a building with a Christmas exhibit so that Chantal and I could use the loo.



In addition to Christmas themes, they had several fairy tale displays set up, to include this rather surreal room housing the Sleeping Beauty. Normally this would automatically make me want to take a nap, but I'd had plenty of coffee and was able to resist its call.























Back outside, we wound our way west along the waterfront.







We experienced a scant drop or two of rain at this point, but fortunately it didn't last for long.















We then visited the indoor market with the intent to browse a bit and then eat lunch at one of the small, traditional establishments set up inside. We stopped into a stall where an extremely ebullient woman named Antionette was selling various spices, candies and liqueurs. Clive and Chantal chatted her up and found out that she is originally from Australia. Before we left I ended up with some candied ginger, and several packets of different spices that Chantal purchased for me.





There were several interesting old photographs hung above one of the shops, unfortunately this was the only one I took that didn't turn out blurry.





I now have a lovely bunch of oregano hanging in my kitchen thanks to Clive's purchase from this shop.







OK, I'm not exactly sure what these are, besides dead. I think they might be goat's heads. At first I thought they were rabbit heads, but who eats rabbit heads? Nah...pretty sure they're goats. Anyway, we didn't buy any since we had plans to eat at a restaurant that evening...


Just some shots of the old buildings as we walked around the Old Town.



















There appears to be a death notice next to this graffiti. Can't be sure though, will have to look at it more closely when I have time.








We ended up having lunch at Tamam instead of at the market, I don't really remember why we changed plans except that the fare at the market looked extremely filling and we thought we might just have some small plates (errr...excuse me...MEZA) at Tamam instead. Lunch was good, but our waiter was a μαλακας.


Anyway, after lunch we walked through to the west end of the Naval Museum and took some more pictures. You can see how the weather had cleared up at this point, and this seems illustrative of how the winter weather is here (at least in the west). Very fickle.

























I probably should have posted this at the beginning, since it was upon their arrival that I received these wonderful gifts from Clive and Chantal. We managed to make a decent dent into this beautiful cake, and I'm planning on working towards polishing it off over the next few days. Delicious!!!!



And although we've only known each other for a short period otime, it seems that they know me well;-) I'm looking very forward to trying these wines from Sitia, a region in the east that has a very good reputation among Cretan wines.



This was taken just a bit before Clive and Chantal headed back home. We took a stroll down to the waterfront and stopped into one of the few tavernas that is still open in that part of town. We ordered three Greek coffees, and were brought free baklava to go along with them! This was my first time stopping into this particular establishment, but I will definitely be visiting them again.

I'll just wrap up here by saying thanks to Clive and Chantal for an incredibly enjoyable visit. I'm really hoping to catch up with you both again in March. Stay warm and happy in the meantime, and Χρονια Πολλα!