Ah… another fine Greek summer has (un)officially started for us here in Crete. Yesterday we went to the beach for the first time this year – indeed, it was our first beach day since last October.
We took a short drive to Akrotiri, a peninsula east of Chania, with our friends Christos, Stephane, and Jose, and found our way to Stavros, a quiet little beach with a shallow, calm bay overlooked by a bare mountainside. We spent the afternoon sunbathing and swimming, the water still a bit chilly but very refreshing.
An interesting piece of trivia: the movie Zorba the Greek was filmed entirely on location on Crete, and the famous dance scene with Anthony Quinn was shot on the beach at Stavros. We were there.
Later we ate at a local taverna where the tasty food was well complemented with traditional Greek songs courtesy of a pair of musicians playing a Cretan lyre and (I believe) a lute.
But wait… it will get even better
This beach day was merely a training exercise, however, compared to what is next.
This weekend we travel to Gavdos, an island approximately 50 km south of the western side of Crete and which holds the distinction of being the southernmost point of Greece and Europe. With less than 100 permanent inhabitants on the island, and few tourists visiting this early in May, it is guaranteed to be a very relaxing time.
Come this time Sunday, we’ll be camping on the beach with a handful of friends and nothing but the sun, waves, and a few shady trees to keep us company… swimsuit optional.
While we like to think our little videos and random photos are entertaining in their own right, they really don’t do Chania justice. For a great “tour” of our town, watch this video, called “Chania (Old Town and New City).”
The camera follows the story’s protagonist, a little Greek boy riding all over town on a stolen bicycle (actually, he just borrowed it… it’s a sub-plot). As the boy takes his journey, the narrator describes the neighborhoods and important sites from the old town and harbor through to the newer city and surrounding areas.
Nearly ALL of the locations shown in the video are very familiar to us (it’s a small town). Hopefully it will give you a good feel for this incredible place we call home.
In fact, if you watch carefully, you can even see *exactly* where we live! At 6 minutes and 45 seconds into the video (nearly the end), the boy rides down an alley way (passing another bicycle parked against the wall) — that’s our street, and the house seen at the end on the left with the second-story balcony is directly across from our house (hidden behind some bushes). How’s that for a tour!
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!
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.
