Cretantrip: September 2015

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.

Melissia

This church was made with love

One our favorite places on earth! A windy mountain road ends at this village. The sounds of goat bells, roosters and "Ella na na" fill the air. I don't know the history of the village. It is in the middle of nowhere and it is beyond me how it was found and settled centuries ago but you will have a hard time finding a more beautiful village. It is an old village and is mentioned in Cretan songs and mantanades because it is known as a legendary village that is tied to the mountains. Part of an old song or perhaps a mantanades says, May the mountains of Crete rise up but then come down again so Melissia can be seen rising above all of them.

One of the most
beautiful churches I have seen!

Melissia has a large water source so Paul and I think someone centuries ago followed the water up to the source and settled that area. If anyone knows how it was settled please let us know. Here is a picture of a spring and the area women used to do laundry. Can you just imagine wash day? I imagine all the women and young girls scrubbing their clothes which must have been dusty and dirty from so much work in the fields and with animals.

This was taken at house in the mountains. It is for water. There are many"ruins" if you walk around you can see glimpes of the old life.

Missing are pics of embroidered linens, the inside of Katina's house such as her white plaster walls with three black dresses hanging, Georgo's canes, handmade chilopita as well as bread drying in her room. The kids left the Kindle,which had tons of pictures on it,at their house so we have a good excuse to happily visit with them again soon and when I get it I will update with those pictures. I like those types of pictures because the old life is slowly dying out. It captures a place in time that will soon be lost. So thankful the kids can live it and see a different way of life.

KATINA
Katina looked as wonderful and strong as always.

In the jeep-o.

on a walk with Katina and the boys

Michelle and Katina. As you can see we ate all our delicious dinner. Here's what was on those plates, pork with a spectacular sauce that was made with wine, olive oil , tomatoes and onion ( of course all home grow/made, potatoes( from her garden) on the top. It was incredibly tasty.

a word about her potatoes.

Each time we come she has lot of potatoes

covered with a white powder in a basket in the

kitchen. Years prior there would be hundreds of

pounds of potatoes in her room, sprinkled

with the white powder.

kalitsounia- greens and homemade
cheese in dough and fried/cooked

Georgo's grave, Katina's husbands.

Filenia's grave

Filenia, Katina's mother, sadly passed away a few months ago. Her life, could we have written it down, would have been fascinating. She raised her children alone, as her husband was shot during the civil war in Greece. He was shot by locals over property argument. He was young, maybe in his 30's. I remember her has a very sweet, patient women. She lived in a very old traditional home( pics below) and made beautiful baskets out of plastic grocery bags. She also made colorful rugs out of scraps. Here's some pics of her house.

Pithari- Paul's grandma used these for olive oil, olives, dried nuts- we can assume that Fileno did this as well as these were in her house.

Their version of old time plastering was done with bamboo sticks, they plastered over them.

Laina- It was a ceramic water jug that they kept in here. It had a round bottom so it was easy to pour from. The opening was shut with an "agathi" which is something resembling a spiky tumble weed branch which prevented anything from going in the water but made for easy pouring.

I can't stress enough about the wonderful and rich time we have with them. Theo, Mano, Stavroula and Nico played all day, every minute of the day and our kids picked up so much more Greek being with their Greek speaking cousins for two whole days. I could hear Mano saying, "paíxei bála" or "pame upano"in his basic Greek or Theo translating for me when I had no idea what fouvesmenos meant. We were so thankful that Stavroula and Nico were able to spend the night- such a rich experience all around for the kids. We just loved both those kids. Stavroula is filled with life!

She is always smiling or laughing. A beautiful girl with a heart of gold. Nico is all boy and kept our kids busy with playing and laughing. Great kids! One thing I have noticed in the villages is the helpfulness of the younger girls. They set the table, offer us treats or get us water. Stavroula, although she is only 10, did all that.

Play Time with the kiddos

Theo, Mano, Nico and Georgo's grandson.

This is in Kastelli.

Back in Melissia, Uno and drawing.

Uno now, chess later

Nico and Mano, cousins

DINNER

Chicken, potatos, glystida, vleeta, tomatoes and wine was grown, made or raised in this village. The wine and vinegar comes from harvesting the grapes, crushing them and pouring the juice into barrels. Olives are tended to all year and harvested/pressed in October. Salt is schlepped from the ocean. We still have a huge bag of salt from gathering it with Georgo years ago and it is delicious.

Here's our handsome cousin Georgo at the head of the table. When the kids were young he would take them to gather eggs or see the animals. He has a heart of gold and the boys look forward to seeing him each time we visit.