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. 

Boats, Beach, and Village Goodies

beautiful cut of beef from France

     Somedays we are very busy visiting friends/family or working on the house. Today we have a break from working on the house and it is raining out. The kids were excited by the Cretan rain storm. For the kids, everything is new. The storms are different.The appliances even make different sounds than ours. The washing machine has longer settings than ours. ( 1 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours for a wash load). The food tastes better. Exponentially better. So much better I would contemplate living here just for the real flavors of the food. The people that live here are the true foodies. Good food, grown locally and made at home is an integral part of their day.  Honey recently harvested, grapes cut and eaten during the season, pomegranates waiting to be harvested, Cretan fruits and vegetable awaited for and then eaten in season are just a few examples. At the butcher's today, it was unlike any experience I had. The butcher spent time telling us how he would cook certain pieces and where his meat came from and who his suppliers were. He told us to cook this cut of meat as a stew with onion and let the meat flavor the sauce. (But, we are feeding Theo so we fried it instead as a steak.) One could tell the butcher loved to cook and cook well.

a friend brought us pounds and pounds of grapes, harvested that day

honey, wine, sikoudia, tomatoes, rakomalo- all local, grown harvest or made by friend/family  and dropped off our house by each day!

grapes= Our lovely friend Alexis dropped this off on his way back from harvesting grapes

     I also  love Greece's laid back attitude and love of children. My two are kissed and patted on the head by many people. They tolerate this knowing it is a custom and it brings the old people happiness. When our kids' heads smell like cigarettes, we know someone has patted their head during the day somewhere. Here's a link for Greek fish  http://www.greecefoods.com/seafood/

Here you will see the boats in the old limani in Kolimbari. Paul  took Mano to the limani while Theo was studying and Mano hopped from boat to boat, as Paul did as a child. They ran into our neighbor Chiriako there.  Chiriako was prepping his boat for a 3 am fishing outing.  He told Mano fascinating stories of his time as a sailor in the Carribbean.
There is  new part of the limani( port). ( I'll insert a pic here when I take it) was  built next to the old one. This  is a sore subject for many.  Typical Greek inefficiency, corruption and mismanagement of funds and lack of foresight is evident.  The new port was built as a port for cruise ships. The cruise ships never came. Instead, the creation of the new port resulted in altering the natural break of waves and resulted in the devastation of the main public beach in town. Now, the strip that houses restaurants  is threatened with massive waves in the winter.  It has also forced the town to place massive boulders along the once beautiful beach to prevent further erosion.  ( I'll upload a picture here).

The Beach- a few days the waves have been rough and the kids have stayed in the surf. Finally, today they were calm and wonderful. Great place for kids! There are also tide pools near the monastery. Right by the beach  there are plenty of great places to eat or get ice cream.

Theo, Vasili, Paul

naptime in rocks

Mano swimming in the Med. 

We also had dinner with Nectarios....this trip is punctuated by gyros. Each trip is something different but this one for some reason...gyros.

Gyros- meat, french fries, tomatoes, yogurt wrapped in a pita. 

This was our dessert. The antithesis to american desserts. This was itty bitty
and free at the end of the meal. Jello on top of custard on top of crushed graham
crackers. Not really Greek but still good.

Kolymbari used to/kinda still is called Ribyiana. Ribyiana is more so up above Kolymbari and will bring you back to a bygone era. The small streets that create a maze, houses from Venetian and Turkish times, old fruit trees and more... Here is an enticing pic for tomorrow's post.

old,handmade cistern outside of old house

if you look closely you can see the old way of supporting a roof with
calamia or bamboo supports

The back is cemented!

zacharoplastikí̱s

This is our favorite place to get sweets in Greece. Every item is homemade, delicious and economical. Each order is tied up in a nice box. It is usual to arrive as someone's house with a box of baklava, cookies, galaktoboureko or another sweet.
The boys ordered their own treats. Theo ordered a lemon cookie with lemon filling, mano ordered a couple puffs and we were sent home with kouloudi, little cookies perfect with coffee. We were treated to homemade Galaktoboureko upon arriving and sat and caught up with everyone. Thanassi, his wife Christina and their 2 1/2 year old as well as Christina's mom and dad.  Unfortunately, we were too busy to remember to take a picture!

We LOVE this place! It is the pastry shop in Kolymbari

Mano was nice enough to pay for everything tonight. Since Paul has a Greek bank account he can only take out a certain amount of money every week. Between paying the workers, buying food, etc- we ran out of cash pretty quickly. Mano gave us each an "allowance" out of his money! 

Unlike anything we have in America

Everything is made in the store by a husband and wife team and their daughter. 

homemade

Katsamatado wedding

Vasili's Wedding- Another Cretan Wedding- I am still uploading more pix and videos.

Reception line- lasted at least an hour! This is where people who did not go to the church wedding will give best wishes and drop off the gift of cash in a white envelope. They will also receive a round roll of bread ( have to find the name out from paul) , xerotigiana, maybe a shot of sikoudia as was done in Melissa but not in Katsmatado, and salted peanuts again done in Melissa but not Katsamatado. It was a trip to see our 88 year old cousin Theodoros at the discoteck where Paul use to go dancing. The wedding an awesome combo of Old tradition and New . 

This one started days ago with Progammos ( Prewedding) which is a traditional style smaller wedding. During this time, friends/family   drop off butchered animals ready for cooking for the wedding and the groom has dinner for them. Plenty of food, wine to go around.

We visited the village before the wedding and had plenty of village wine, goat and boiled chicken. (We also stopped and visited Petro and Evangelici and I'll upload the pix when I find them)

homemade wine, boiled goat, xerotigana on the table before the wedding. 

To learn more a Cretan wedding see here: This site does a fabulous job at describing it and it was exactly like this- same food etc. Click here to read more about Crete weddings:  Organically Greek: Wedding (Γάμος)

The ceremony. 

The church

The beautiful bride!

 Sweets greeted us as we walked into the reception- these were white chocolate with dried fruit. 

Jordan Almond or Cofreta. 

Mano's favorite food....boiled goat meat!

appetizers. The traditional appetizer on the plate is Kalitsounia. Greens ( horta) and cheese wrapped in filo. The other ones were not traditional but still really good. 

Wine and tsikoudia

 Anticipation! See the cheese- that is gravieda, a local cheese, most likely made by the family, and honey is on the table to serve over the cheese. 

       Thankfully we brought the kindle, it was  a great ice breaker for all the boys since they spoke different languages but all knew the language o minecraft!

See all the men? One thing that I haven't uploaded was an amazing song that the Cretan men sing. The men of the wedding party, mostly the 30-50 sector dressed in Cretan black, arms linked around each other sing a song- Rizitika- a wedding song. Stay tuned for the upload. Here's a link for more info about Rizitika http://www.kretakultur.dk/english/folklore/music/rizitika.htm

Here's Hadiklia with her father  Adoni in front and her hubby in back.

the never ending line- this is a photo of the line in which everyone who didn't attend the ceremony now says, "Zisete" to the bride and groom and family, drop off the gift of money in a white envelope and are given bread called Kouloura and xeratigano. 

Special Lady- Georgia  with Paul . Cretan wine is in his hand. 

xerotigani - this is a delicious friend dough with syrup. This was the first thing on the table and most ladies ate this first. We also took some home.

at the village- awesome to see decorations in all types of trees.