It's mid afternoon, Manny and Cassie are sleeping while I've been lying by the pool. Another lazy day in Hellenic paradise. Yesterday morning we left early for Kritsa, the village of Manny's grandfather (Ayious Nicholas is the larger port city while Krista is the village). It was a cloudy drive through the mountains. The village is beautiful, bigger than I imagined, but so charming with its steep cobble stoned winding roads, small shops selling hand made linen, at least four churches that we counted, and a traditional way of life - old women carrying goods by donkey, old men carrying produce on their backs. We stayed only a short while, but have booked a room in a white-washed pensione overlooking the valley thick with olive trees for tomorrow and Sunday nights. I can't wait to return and go exploring. We are also planning on going to church on Sunday morning - but to which church?!
Yanni and Maria are meeting us in Kritsa on Sunday morning around 11am to take us to the next village for lunch. They know of a very good taverna offering nothing but traditional Cretan food so we will try it. It's so wonderful to have family here who love to take us to these out of the way places we would never find otherwise. Of course we also want to sample Papadoulis Taverna just before Kritsa! Manny has a photo of the sign with one of the villagers standing in front - which he will upload.
After we returned to Koutouloufari (the village of our hotel) we slept and then went down to the port of Hersonnisis for an early dinner. The highlight of this meal was saganaki (fried cheese), but the calamari and dolmades (stuffed vine leaves) were also excellent, not to mention Cassie's favourite Tzatsiki. This morning we returned to the waterfront for coffee and this afternoon we plan to explore another nearby village which is home to Aris, Yanni's son in law. I'm becoming adept at driving the narrow roads built pre car when donkeys carrying hay bales were the widest thing to use them. Yesterday a Greek woman drove into our path and then waited for us to reverse out of her way, only we couldn't because there was someone else behind us. She ranted, beeped her horn and waved her hands about, finally crossing herself in exasperation, which we did back to her! It was looking like we'd be settling in for a long stubborn haul until the man behind us gave in and we all backed out. Too funny.
There will be no internet in Kritsa so we may be offline for a few days.
Until then
Yasso
sue
1 comment:
Great photos. With Manny and Cassie photo - was that something on the ground?
It was a great shot of Susan with the donkey.
Food! Glorious food! We get hungry every time we go to your blog.
We have just watched the Grand Final. Hawthorn won by 26 points,
18-7 to 11-23. At least 6 of Geelong's points were walked through by Hawthorn and a few others were rushed.
Hodge won the Norm Smith medal. It was believed that he played with broken ribs from last week but didn't have them checked because he didn't want to know the result. Last week he was spitting up blood during the game. Geelong tried to work him over today so we were supporting Hawthorn.
All the best for the next few days.
Love to all.
Mum and Dad XX for Cassie
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