The Ferry, Sfinadi and an old fashioned photography exhibit a chuch in a cave

Do you see the ferry at the port? The really huge one with semi trucks and cars driving into the hull and people streaming in to get to Athens? You can't really miss it. You don't see it? Well, neither did we.  It appears our version of "Greek time" didn't correspond with Greece's version.
It will be another 24 hours before another ferry is ready.

Here' s what we did today- which probably didn't help us make the ferry but did warm our heart and feed our souls. Besides cleaning and getting the workers situated for work done while we are gone we also visited some relatives and since we were in Chania anyway with nothing to do after the ferry incident we went to the historic park and took in a photography exhibit in Chania and came across a lovely 9th century cave church.

This is the very lush village of Sfinadi. This is Georgia's house- as beautiful as she is.

Such a beautiful and quintessentially cretan home. 

Bee boxes- you can see bee boxes dotting many areas of Crete. 

Georgia and Nico and family- The food and wine on the table was
from their land. Delicious! 

The bunnies! The kids remembered the bunnies from our last trip when they were able to hold baby bunnies and the bunnies peed all over them. The kids have that as a great memory and bee-lined it for the bunny area. The bunnies were too big to hold but they still enjoyed seeing them. These bunnies are used as meat for such delectable dishes as stifado. 

We also enjoyed visiting with Michaeli and Cleanthes. We visited while enjoying grapes and pears and good company. 

We said goodbye to Stellios the Magnificent. He owns and runs  the best souvenir shop in Crete
plus he is our friend. Many thanks to Stellios for bringing over grapes, tsikoudia, wine, tomatoes  and some great
nights out with his family.

 This is church from the 9th century-

lighting candles in a cave off the road in Kastelli

look at the beautiful marble tile

This is Mano posing in front of a painting of the entrance to the garden in Old Chania. One thing about Greece is they don't have automatic closing times. The cafe was a little bit closed but they opened it up so we could see the photography exhibit. This happened at a few places. This would never happen back home that I can think of but here, they willingly open up things for people even when they have closed it for the night.
More pics to come... have to run to catch the boat!!!

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market was a find!  Beautiful, luscious veggies, homemade cheeses, bags of dried beans, fat olives plus ...shoes, underwear, socks, purses..household goods. Something for everyone. Something that is different here than in America is...no toothpicks! At farmer's markets in America you have to pick up food with toothpicks and usually the person cutting the fruit or veggies to be consumed by the customer has to wear plastic gloves. Not here, it's a finger free for all.
   Another thing is the Greek pushiness. Somehow we ended up with an incredible bag of small dandelion like edibles. We only wanted a few, but in the end we left 5 euros lighter and saddled with a humungous bag of these greens.

Cretans love their local produce and typically eat in season. 

beautiful!

Eggs and fruit-all locally grown

beans!

cheeses- graveira etc. all locally made

Manoli olive tasting

run little one, run!

Wave Watching

The weather is changing here. Just last week we were frolicking in the ocean and I was worried about adding to my freckle collection. Today, the waves are tumultuous and the skies are overcast. 

hot chocolate

hot chocolate moustache

nice picture of Paul and I with a photobomber

Dinner at Katelli
Kastelli is a beautiful town. Venetian ruins and small streets punctuate this lovely place. We discovered a natural spring, a church and 

little house that covered the rushing spring

This date was on the little house covering the spring. 

We put our phone through a little hole and took a picture. This is an old spring. There
is trash but there was also an eel in there!

this is the original bell from the church

This looks just like Mexico doesn't it? This is a church established in mid 1800's. 

gyros- Mano loves these

The Creopolio aka the butchershop

The Creopolio

    

Greeks like to visit and this man on the right was visiting with the butcher when we walked in. Paul began talking to him and told him he was making Pork with Celery. Ahhh, this man's eye's lit up! I am not sure why Cretans love their food so much but Paul thinks it is because the food that is made is seasonal and much of it you have to go out of your way to make. 

In this dish, the celery is definitely not the same celery back in the States. This celery is greener, the stalks are longer but thinner and the flavor is more intense. Again, I am humored and also amazed at the discussions surrounding food, especially at the butcher's and among men.They discussed what kind of celery it was (thin stocks or thick stalk), differences in flavor b/t the two, the pork and where it came from. We wouldn't be surprised if he just happened to be passing through Kolymbari around messimeri. 

Mano has been trying to photobomb every picture I take!

The discussion about the dish

The butcher is also drying herbs!

The butcher and his beautiful chicken

Organically Greek: The Greek Collection: Agia Marina Donkey Rescue mu...

                                  Donkey Rescue in Crete

photo from http://praegler-mirbach.de/serie-kreta-e.htm

What a lovely article! It's only 20 minutes away from here, so we are thinking of going later today. I just had to share this link with everyone. Family, maybe on your next trip you could visit here. I have fond memories of George's donkey in Melissia.  He would load the donkey with all sorts of vegetation. I used to see more donkeys years ago. Every once in a while I could catch a glimpse of an old man walking with his donkey. I have not scene one this trip.


Mom,
Check out this site and also the Donkey Mug Rugs! Neat idea

Alana,
I thought of you when I read this article.

Click on the link below and you be taken to the Organically Greek blog, Donkey Rescue page.


Organically Greek: The Greek Collection: Agia Marina Donkey Rescue mu...: The Agia Marina Donkey Rescue is a registered Greek non-profit organisation which is run purely on donations and TLC, by the Doulyerakis f...

Boats in the Limani

The Limani and Fishing Boats

     Crete has a long tradition with the sea. Just look where it is located! With so much work on the house, we are stuck in Kolymbari but we have discovered wonderful nooks and crannies we usually wouldn't take the time explore normally. Going to the port, checking out the tools of the fishing trade and hopping on boats made for a great time for the kiddos. Plus, it's free. If you are in Kolymbari it makes for a nice evening with our without kids. If you have kids and you are visiting Crete, this is a good free outing. You can even let them hop onto the boats for a few seconds for a cheap thrill.

We saw this ship coming in to port and ran over to see if we could
see it unload its catch. Unfortunately, they unloaded somewhere
else so we only got to see the boat. In English the name of the boat is
Irene.

copious amounts of nets. How they unravel
them is mystery

This is one of our neighbor's fishing boats

This how they store their fishing hooks, there are tons of these containers
set up like this. 

the rope is so thick

more buoys

port

The brothers

This is the second boat they made out of things they found on the beach. The first one went really far out into the ocean. It was a success. This one...not so much. 

We also went to a "play area" that seems to be a big thing here for 

the tourists, actually Kolymbari has changed alot, when you come

you will see how touristy it has become. 

This is our friend Vasili, who also works on the house. He bought the kids ice cream and we sat 

outside overlooking the Mediterranean ocean. He is from Albania and has invited us to visit there. 

There is also a mostly defunct fishing museum in Kolymbari. There is also Naval Museum of Crete http://www.greeka.com/crete/chania/chania-museums/chania-naval-museum.htm that we will try to get to.