thekristydave

If we go there will be trouble. But if we stay, it will be double?

Our life has suddenly turned into a Clash song. And really, this indecision is bugging me. Maybe you can help?

Kristy unexpectedly got a job offer here. The job itself is not as much a factor as is the viable opportunity it opens for us to stay in this incredible place for the long-term. Why wouldn’t we take it?

Well, there are lots of reasons actually, both for and against staying.

(more…)

First, a disclaimer: Sadly, between the rain which lasted nearly our entire trip and the diminishing quality of our abused digital camera, we managed to return from Istanbul with a lot of really bad photos. The trip was great… wet, but great. The photos we took don’t really do that magnificent city justice.

Luckily, our travel companions also took lots of photos and links to them are included below as well.

The Photos

• Kristy’s Picasa account > Constantinople…I mean, Istanbul…I mean, Constantinople
• I uploaded more Istanbul photos to my Picasa account, in addition to my really lame How To Travel To Istanbul (and back) photo set (just in case you missed that…)
• Koumbaros Christos put his Constantinople October 2008 collection up on Picasa as well.

(more…)

Round-trip Crete to Istanbul, it’s a mere 3400 kilometers (about 2100 miles) - we cover nearly 3 times that during a one-way flight from Greece to New York. Yet how you traverse the distance is just as important a factor as where you are traveling… and thus:

It’s The Journey, Not The Destination

We took nearly every type of transportation on our trip to Istanbul, and it was likely the longest trip we’ve ever taken in terms of total traveling time. If you care to try it for yourself, here are the simple directions.
(more…)

Not that there was any real danger. Despite the Midnight Express
jokes, it is relatively safe here in Istanbul… that is just as safe as Greece (for whatever that’s worth).

So, we are here, finally! Arrived very late last night / early this morning at Irini’s house (Christos’ sister) after a LOOONG trip and some fun at the border. We will soon be venturing out to explore the city, which according to all reports is one of the most beautiful in the world. We’ll take pictures!

Oh yeah, an added surprise. I thought we were only going to the western side of Istanbul which is still on the European continent. But we crossed over into the eastern half; which means in addition to Turkey, we can now say officially we’ve been to Asia. Pretty cool

The interwebs ain’t so great here (this and the last post actually had to be republished b/c the connection died while writting them) so we’ll probably not write again until we are back home… hopefully with lots of photos.

Kristy is done (finally!) with her thesis, and I’ve been working my clicking finger down to the bone on that interweb stuff I do. Since all work and no play makes thekristydave a dull pair, we’ve decided a small vacation is in order and we’re taking a long weekend (sandwiched between Friday and Tues) trip.

Our destination: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Yeah, as in TURKEY.
(more…)

Dedicated to Meg…

For those of you who don’t already know it, we have this great friend. This friend who reminds us all the time that we are all friends; sending out birthday notices and hosting parties to make it easy for us. And as far back as I can remember, she has sent each of us a birthday gift. Meg Mixes have become a phenomenon over the years, starting as mix tapes and evolving with the technology to CDs. And even overseas, without fail, each year I receive a CD packed with music to make me smile a lot, dance a little, and open my ears to something new. This year, it came a bit late…and due to no fault of Meg’s.

This morning there was a package stuck between slots in my door. When I saw the square shape and size I immediately knew it was my birthday mix. I grabbed it from its resting place thinking I would throw it in the player to accompany my morning breakfast. As I pulled the package from the door, I realized it crunched in my hands…never a good sound when it comes to anything plastic. A closer look revealed the package was covered in a layer of plastic with this message:

It is intriguing to me that the USPS immediately assumes the damage is the foreigners’ fault, but I was more surprised to read that I “can be assured that the country that [they] received this damaged mail from will be notified and will be asked to take steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” Apparently, not only is the US “liberating” the oppressed in two separate countries, but the USPS is also compelled to bring “justice” universally to the postal systems. In any case, worried more about the CD than the mission of the USPS, I ripped off the plastic hoping the contents weren’t totally destroyed. I found this:

Thankfully, the CD was intact and plays fine…especially considering included in this year’s mix was an original by Christian Vaught (Meg’s husband and another long-time friend)! While there was nothing lost, I think the message from USPS was a little deceiving…from what I can tell by the damage, I think it got stuck in a genuine USPS machine. I can just see a postal employee pulling the totally destroyed package from the machine and saying “Yes! Foreign address! I can say they did it!”

Whether or not the CD made two trans-Atlantic trips, I am very happy it survived its obviously trying journey to bring me a little piece of friendship and home.

Ahh… it’s been a while. It’s summer. We’ve been busy. Busy in Greece isn’t exactly the same thing as busy back home (or anywhere else really), but as with most things it is more a matter of perspective.

We certainly manage to keep ourselves busy in the more traditional sense: Kristy is (still!) working on her thesis, and I’ve got chunks of client web design work coming in plus some ongoing personal projects. So we’ve got enough work to, well, keep us busy.

But as they say out here, you work to live - as opposed to the “live to work” attitude that seems prevalent elsewhere. More simply, all work and no play makes TKD a boring pair - so here’s a quick update on some of our more recent avocational activities.

Kedrodasos

First, a quick mention (which does it no justice) must be made of a trip we took in May to one of the most beautiful beaches on Crete.

Kedrodasos (literally “Cedar Forest” in English) is near Elafonissi in southwestern Crete. This was the perfect way to say goodbye to our good friend Stephane, who left Crete soon afterwards. Ata and our dear koumbaros Yiorgos joined us for the camping trip. Really, this deserves more than my words can convey - some photos and a video will have to do.

The Spice of Life

Friends are the spice of life, and summer nights should always be generously seasoned with plenty of quality time with good friends. We’ve hosted several parties at our flat in Chania with many of the usual suspects, as well as enjoying the occasional night out wandering the harbor and local tavernas.

There have of course been numerous trips to the beaches in and around Chania, but time is just as well spent meandering through the empty, quiet streets of the old town while the rest of the populace is taking their mid-day nap.

One Year Anniversary

With July came our one year wedding anniversary on the 5th, celebrated in proper Greek fashion with lots of friends joining us for lots of food. The BBQ party that night included the introduction of marshmallow s’mores to our friends not familiar with this all-American treat. Nothing like cross-cultural education

August has been trucking along. We took an incredible camping trip to Balos beach on Gramvousa peninsula, celebrated Kristy’s birthday, and had an always wonderful visit by our dear Koumbaros Christos… but I believe these more recent events can be given greater attention in future posts.

Suffice it to say, summer in Crete has been another season in paradise and we don’t want it to end any time soon.

I have been avoiding writing about the food here…probably because I spend all my days thinking about it for my thesis. But now that the end is in sight, I thought it would make sense to talk a little about what I have been doing with my days.

My thesis supposes that the food system of Crete is well situated to be a model of sustainability — at least for κηπευτικά (fruits and vegetables grown in the field). The farms on Crete are small (never larger than two hectares or four acres) and diverse (usually a farm will have an area for trees - olives and citrus fruit - and fields for vegetables as well as some chickens and goats or lamb for household use). And, since it is an island, the great majority of the food consumed here is produced here. That’s not to say Greece is without problems; chemical fertilizer and pesticide use has increased significantly, especially in the last 10 years. And with the ever rising price of oil, these petrochemicals are getting more and more costly and farmers are finding it harder and harder to make a profit. With this study, I am looking into ways to keep farming profitable in this changing food system, while maintaining the positive aspects of production.

All that being said, Dave and I try to do our part to support the local farmers, who are usually somewhere between 55-70 years old. We buy all of our fruits and vegetables from the λαϊκή αγορά (literally translated it means ‘common market’ and is the equivalent of a farmers’ market). This is certainly a mutually beneficial relationship; the farmers get a good price, quality of the food far surpasses what we find in any of the supermarkets, and it is still cheap for us.

These few photos are examples of what we normally bring home…the first from March of this year, the next from June and this last one we took this morning. We usually spend between €4-7 and get enough fruits and vegetables to last the week. And, while I am a little sorry to say this since I love all my NY farmer friends, with the exception of tomatoes, these are the best tasting fruits and vegetables I have ever had. I just don’t think NY can compete with the perfect climate and fertile, volcanic soil of this island.

Since I mentioned Frappe in a previous post, I thought I would let you all in on a well known Greek secret. “Greek coffee” is not the concentrated brew with sandy grains at the bottom. That, in actuality, is Turkish coffee. It was even called Turkish coffee in Greece until a few decades ago. The real Greek coffee is Frappe: an iced coffee beverage made from instant coffee. And it is better than it sounds. In general here is the recipe, followed by some tricks to be sure you get it right.

• 1 tsp instant coffee
• 3-4 tsp water
• 4 ice cubes
• Enough water to fill the glass (a normal 9 oz. glass)
• Sugar and milk to taste

Put coffee and 3-4 tsp of water and sugar as desired into a jar with a water-tight lid. If you have a milkshake machine or a hand blender, you can do this right in the glass you want to drink from. If using a jar, tightly close the lid and shake until you can’t shake no more. If you are using a hand blender, blend until the mixture turns into pale frothy coffeeness. Pour from the jar into a glass; add ice cubes and enough water to fill the glass. If you want, add milk. Place straw in glass and drink.

Some notes about Frappe…

The coffee: Nescafe is ubiquitous. In fact, I can’t remember seeing ANY other brand of instant coffee. For a proper Frappe, I suppose it must be Nescafe. However, I have heard rumors that outside of Greece, the formula is different. Try it out and let me know.

The water: In Crete, in the summer, there is no cold water. It comes out of the tap warm, no matter how long it runs. The bottled water never sits in coolers long enough to get cold. It’s hot and dry here and so you drink warm water. And you use warm water to make Frappe.

The drinking process: To feel the true Frappe experience, sit outside house/on roof/at cafe and nurse coffee for 2-4 hours. Talk about everything you can think of.

UPDATE: In case you were wondering about the authenticity of my story, there is a whole book about the history and use of Frappe.

In the beginning of April, the entire town of Chania was getting a facelift. Stores were shut down, buildings gutted and coats of paint were being applied. Everyone was preparing for the coming tourist season. A few weeks ago we noticed one of the souvlaki shops near the παλαιό λιμάνι or old harbor had shut its doors and was being renovated. Figuring this was just another example where a shop decides it needs freshening up, we were expecting a nearly identical souvlaki shop to open in a few days. In its place was this Starbucks.

We have been blissfully absent of any major American brands (save Coca-Cola, of course) since we arrived here. I have heard there is a McDonald’s on the island, but it is only open for the tourist season and it is in the next town over. Our more “intellectual” city has shunned the presence of such American trash, until the American trash got a new more intellectual appearance.

I have been keeping an eye on the place, and it never seems as full as some of the other coffee shops in the harbor, so I am hopeful that the American invasion will fail. We, in distinct protest of the presence of this place, will continue with our happy adoption of the true Greek coffee: the Frappe.