A follow-up to our earlier post on Easter Sunday here in Chania. Wish you could have been here in person, but perhaps you can join us vicariously… here’s how it went down.
Dinner was a success, despite on-and-off rain all day that nearly put the kibosh on our barbecue plans. We finally caught a break by mid-afternoon, as the rain stopped long enough to allow for a fire to be lit. From there, the triumvirate of BBQ masters (Ata, Stephane, and myself) went to work, while Kristy wrapped up her cooking in the kitchen (which had started hours earlier in the morning).
On the menu this evening:
Something like ratatouille (but not exactly) consisting of fava beans, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and misc. spices
Barbecued chicken, marinated in red wine, lemon juice, oregano, and salt
Barbecued lamb/pork or maybe it was pork/lamb… we actually asked the local butcher for lamb (“αρνί” στα ελληνικά) but upon inspection it may have been pork. We settled on pamb… or lork.
Homemade bread (Kristy’s been baking A LOT)
τυρόπιτα – “tyropita” or little cheese pies… yummy
Dakos – dry bread husks, topped with lots of olive oil, tomatoes, and feta cheese
Eggplant wrapped around graviera cheese
and of course… plenty of wine and beer!
For dessert, we had coffee and fattened up on a box of sweets that Stephane and Ata brought – “super sweets” is more appropriate, I think; only the Greeks would take baklava (a pastry made with chopped walnuts and almonds, cinnamon, cloves, and phyllo dough, drenched in light syrup and/or honey) and cover that in chocolate!!!
A (surrogate) Family Tradition
As I’ve said many times, the best part about living out here is the quality hang-time (usually spent drinking and BS’ing – “boro boro” as the Greeks say) with friends who literally come from all over the world.
Tonight, we had some fun discussing language and cultural idioms, and Ata taught us the Arabic names for several common vegetables (there will be an exam later).
And we explored weighty linguistic questions such as idiosyncrasies in how different languages represent the sounds animals make — just what noise does a cow make in French? In Arabic? Not “moo,” as it seems there is no international standard for “Old McDonald Had a Farm” – a topic that most certainly needs to be explored further.
We ended the night with a tradition we will try to repeat many times over our remaining time here in Crete – an official “family portrait.” Goofy exaggerated smiles (Stephane!), ugly sweaters, and embarrassing holiday hats are optional.
After 40 days of fasting and abstinence (if you are a truly devout Orthodox Christian), the Greeks celebrate the biggest and most important holiday of the year today – Easter Sunday.
The official start of Easter was at 12 midnight, marked by an ornate mass at the local churches. The ceremony is capped off and highlighted by a candle-lighting ceremony, complete with fireworks and gunshots vying for your attention during the “pappas” (priest’s) singing sermon.
We took some video (click the video to watch a bigger version on youtube…), though I was trying to be discreet so angles are a bit bad. It’s more about the audio – listen for the “pop pop pop pop” of gunfire and small cherry bombs exploding all around us!
Through all commotion, the pappas kept singing, as did the nice little old lady (surely, somebody’s yaya) who kindly shared her candle’s flame with Kristy and I.
It looks looks like I get popped at the end of the video, but I was just klutzy and dropped the camera – nobody was harmed (that I know of!).
Time to EAT!
After last night’s noisy kickoff, the party continues for the rest of today: a big, fat, Greek day of eating, drinking, eating, eating, and more eating.
We’ll be barbecuing lamb, chicken, eggplant, and other veggies, and enjoying the company of Stephane and Ata, two of our fellow “out-of-towners” coming over for dinner. I’m sure we’ll have some photos to post later… maybe we’ll even do a “family portrait” – they had also joined us for Christmas dinner, so it’s becoming our own little tradition.
καλο πασχα! “Kalo Paska” = Happy Easter, from Chania, Crete!
Nearby our flat is the orthodox church of “Αγιοσ Νικολαοσ” – Agios Nikolaos or “St. Nicholas.” It was originally an early 14th century monastery but has undergone many changes over the centuries, including being converted to a mosque during the Turkish occupation (lasting from 1645 to 1898) which added a minaret that still stands beside the present-day church.
OK – enough with the history lesson. The church also has a clock tower, complete with a carillon featuring large bells that are audible for quite a distance and most definitely heard quite clearly from our home.
The bells serve as our neighborhood’s timekeepers, ringing to signify the time. They ring every hour, on the hour, every day. At ten o’clock (morning or night), the bells are rung TEN times; at five o’clock (afternoon or early morning), the bells are rung FIVE times. You get used to it…
The bells are also rung for special events. Today is Good Friday, and the monks served up a special holiday rendition of the ringing bells this morning starting at 7:45am and lasting for 15 minutes.
So here now, for your enjoyment, is a short video shot this morning from our rooftop, featuring a sweeping 360-degree view of our local domain here in Chania, Crete, accompanied by those (frequently) ringing bells.
Video Link:watch on my Picasa page for now. We are uploading a copy to youtube which will show above shortly (and will thereafter remove the Picasa video).
Update: The auditory experience has been repeated two more times since this morning, at 10:45am and again at 12:45pm. Lots of church faithful going to mass today!
We went to Rethymno (3rd largest city on the island, approx. 60km west of Chania) for Carnival.
This is one of the top three festivals held in Greece each year, and Greeks from all over pour into the city for the parade and subsequent debauchery (as only Greeks can do!).
Kristy and I went with our good friends Stephane (from France) and Ismael (from Morocco).
We always get a good laugh at the contrasts between living in Crete and living in NYC. The example on this day was the fact that in this “major city” in the middle of the biggest annual event in Crete, we managed to randomly bump into SEVERAL people we knew but didn’t pre-arrange to meet up. That just doesn’t happen at the St. Patty’s parade in NYC
Since we have had many visitors to our little island house, I thought I would write a tribute to them… but for now I will focus on the non-humans.
Last night our guest was a prehistoric creature that gave me pause about my tendency to walk around barefoot. Ordinarily not being one to kill, this time I was insistent that our visitor meet its maker. Dave had a different interpretation of the line between a creature’s right to live and a human’s right to safety and he tried to free this visitor from the confines of our house. This process left our Scorpiones friend seemingly close to death, offering little resistance to being prodded and pushed into a cup. Dave brought our uninvited guest’s limp body outside and left the cup tipped so he could walk out, if he was still alive. This morning, there was no body…
This past summer, we had a visitor who stayed for a few days and we spent at least one afternoon watching his antics on our rooftop. He was happy to pose for us and even went in for a close up. He or more likely she seemed happy to have us disturbing her rest for a day.
As a natural counter to the company of spiders and flies and (unfortunately) cockroaches, we welcomed the appearance of our very own cold-blooded insurance salesman. If in North America he has become a more civilized breed, driving a red convertible and cultivating his native Australian accent, here his is still living in his natural state of savage predator, happily (and thankfully) snacking on the insect plague of the order Blattodea.
Tonight, we had some fun discussing language and cultural idioms, and Ata taught us the Arabic names for several common vegetables (there will be an exam later).
Nearby our flat is the orthodox church of “Αγιοσ Νικολαοσ” – Agios Nikolaos or “St. Nicholas.” It was originally an early 14th century monastery but has undergone many changes over the centuries, including being converted to a mosque during the Turkish occupation (lasting from 1645 to 1898) which added a minaret that still stands beside the present-day church.
