Easter

One of the motives that played into me deciding to extend my stay in Crete was the desire to experience Greek Easter. I've heard that it's quite a big deal, and I was banking on being invited to some sort of celebration, whether in a Cretan home or with other expats to a restaurant or taverna. I was fortunate enough to receive two invitations - one from my new neighbor to join her at a taverna on the beach and one from a friend in Rethymno to join him and his family. I had already accepted the invitation from my neighbor, so I told my friend in Rethymno that I hope to be able to celebrate with him and his family the next time I'm in Crete for Easter (I'm hoping that won't be too far in the future!).

We extended the invitation to my former neighbor in Drapanias, as well as the people who were living in my new neighbor's house but are now living in my old house! It seems we've got a game of Musical Houses going on here...

Anyway, we had a really nice time. Our host, Maria, is the owner of Giorgiali Apartments and Taverna. In addition to keeping us laughing with her wry sense of humor, she cooked us up some great food to include stamnagathi (horta/wild greens), skordalia (garlic dip), dolmadakia (small stuffed grape leaves), fried potatoes, kokkoretsi (organs from the lamb, cubed, seasoned, wrapped in fat and intestines and then grilled alongside the whole lamb), lamb and fish. And of course, plenty of homemade wine, and raki, fruit and coffee at the end of our meal.

We arrived at 2pm and left around 8pm, and I think the length of time that we spent should give an idea of how well we enjoyed ourselves.


The food.






After our meal we played the egg-cracking game, in which each person takes a hard-boiled egg that has been dyed red and squares off against each other person. You basically bang your eggs together, and the one with the uncracked egg in the end is the winner. And guess what...I WON!! I hardly ever win anything, so please excuse me if I gloat a bit. It's also supposed to bring lots of super-special, irrevocable good luck to the winner, which is good because just this week I both broke a mirror and had my candle go
out on my way home from Saturday night Easter-eve service, which is supposed to be bad luck.

My neighbor loves to collect wild, edible things and Maria's mother was more than happy to show her some of what can be found right in the front yard of the taverna. The man with the sheep is Maria's father.


Some photos from around the taverna, and from the three apartments, which Maria was kind enough to give me a tour of. Next time I return to Crete for the winter months, I will stay here. Each apartment faces the sea, they are well equipped and clean, and about 1/2 the price of what I've been paying in the off season. The rates are much higher in the summer months.



OK, I think that the baby is Maria's daughter. She was being handled by so many people throughout the day that I can't be sure. Hell, she might be mine for all I know. At any rate, I thought the pictures of Ricardo making goo-goo faces with her were just precious:-)