Thanksgiving

This year we celebrated thanksgiving with Mother, as well as Audun and Annina. We did it on Monday, as Mother's flight back to the US was on the actual day, and Audun and Annina came on the weekend before. I had arranged to have a whole week off so that I could give my visitors my undevided attention. We had a great time! 

Thanksgiving Dinner was organic turkey, cranberry relish, waldorf salad, bakes sweet potatoes and corn on the cob. The turkey was actually breast and thigh filets that I had gotten at 50% off a couple of weeks before, not realizing that there would be organic whole turkeys in the store only a week later. Still, since organic turkey costs a fortune, I don't regret getting them on sale. The only problem was the stuffing, which is a must in this house, especially for Audun. What I did, was make stuffing ann put it in a casserole dish. Then covered it with the turkey, marinade and corn on the cob - which incidentally was from Thailand - and baked it in the oven. It came out tasting delicious, though a somewhat looser consistency than when it has been packed inside a turkey's belly. For desert we had pumpkin chiffon pie. 

During this visit we also introduced Mother to Carcasonne. I had aquired some new extentions that Audun and Annina didn't know, while the whole game was new to Mother. After Audun and Annina had gone back to Trondheim, Mother and I played twice more, and she became quite enthusiastic about the game. 

Kritsánna

Okay, I will put you all out of your misery. Here are pictures of the house in Kritsa. It is called "Kritsanna" combining the Kritsa, the name of the village, with Anna, the name of the old lady who owned it before it's restoration:

Manolis at the front door.

Houses in Crete are all built into each other. What we see here is 3 maybe 4 houses, all sharing walls.

Living room

If you come in the front door and turn around you have this view. On the right a fire place containing a wood burning stove. This is where old Anna used to cook on an open hearth. To the left is a niche, where fresh water traditionally was kept cool in terracotta jugs.

another view of the living room.

Kitchen

If you look straight ahead as you enter the living room, you can see straight through to back door with the kitchen area on the right, and the dining area on the left. 

Dining area

There is an alley out back with grape covered pergolas.

Manolis in the back alley.

Imediatly to the left is the stablel The window is boarded up. There is a low door. Inside, the back wall is rounded. and there are beams across most of the room holding a hay loft. A door connects to the house next door (with the blue door). This is the stable which will be restored and incorporated into my house as a second bedroom. 

The stable

Standing in the middle of the house, with the kitchen/dining area in front and the living room behind , you have steps going up to the second level on your left. I had forgotten to take a picture, so this one was taken off the online prospectus for the house. 

Steps to the upper level.

 Under the steps is an office space and the bathroom next to it. The door to the second bedroom will be where the picture is now. 

Study and Bathroom

Upstairs is a bedroom and from the bedroom a door onto the roof terrace. 

Bedroom

Door to roof terrace from bedroom

Roof terrace with pergola.

Up here there is room for potted plants, an outdoor cooking area, and clothes drying rack. Manolis has promised to plant a vine with purple grapes next to the back door this winter, which will climb over the pergola. 

View from roof onto the back alley.

We climbed onto the roof, where there is a solar panel that heats the hot water, as well as a satelite dish and I took some pictures of the immediate surroundings. 

Olive and orange trees behind the house.

There is a lovely view of the surrounding mountains and even the sea from the roof terrace, but unfortunatly the day was too hazy to get a good picture. 

Ágios Nikólaos

Agios Nicolaos (pronounced Agios Nicolos) is quite a new city. There is no venetian harbor, no  "old town". Two hundred years ago it was just a small scattering of fishermans houses. 60% of the current population, so I was told, originally come from Kritsa, the large village that nestles against the cliffs a 10 minute drive from Agios Nicolaos. 



Walking along the seafront you pass several small beaches, one of which is the original minoan harbor. Statues have been erected where the land juts out into the sea. 

The statue below is at the Ferry port and could be seen from my hotel window.

Statue of Europa

The town is mostly situated on higher ground, well above sea level, and steps lead upward from the sea front. Below are a couple of examples:

Continuing along the seafront past the ferryport, you come to a lagoon which is connected to the sea by a narrow channel, spanned by a bridge. One can walk partway around it. The western side though is edged by steep cliffs. 

Entering the walkway around the lagoon, you can see the chapel in the distance. 

the walkway with steps leading upwards at the furthest end of the lagoon.

chapel built into the cliff face at the end of the lagoon.

the west wall is sheer, only houses for ducks and gees are set at waterlevel. 

Continuing along the seafront you eventually come to a peninsula on which stands the basilica of Agios Nicolaus, which has given the town it's name.

Seafront walk

6th or 7th century byzantine church

Past the church a path leads to a lookout point, built as a shelter into the cliff face

A path brings you around the back to the entrance. 

...and a wonderful view!

Doing business in Crete

The arrow points to my balcony  in the Pergola Hotel, from which the tiny beach in the foreground can be seen. 

My first impression of the Pergola Hotel is mixed: the room is tiny, but pretty, with a balcony looking out over the sea (and the sun panels and water tanks on the roofs in between). The reading lamps over the bed and desk don't work, but the bed is comfy with plenty of warm blankets. The shower is a bare trickle - no water pressure to speak of.  For breakfast I was first served instant coffee, white toast with plastic cheese, plastic  jam, and a hard boiled egg. But just as I was composing a less than complimentary report for Trip Advisor in my head,  old Yiannis brought fresh pressed orange juice, a couple of greek pastries and a bowl of yogurt with honey.  So all in all, a perfectly satisfactory breakfast, during which I studied a map of the town, discovering that the center was in the opposite direction from where I had wandered in the dark yesterday evening. So after breakfast I made my way down the stone steps and along the waters edge, listening to the waves breaking on the sea wall, past several beaches to the Marina, to the offices of Crete-Homes.

Crete Homes in Agios Nicolaos.

This morning then, I have had a taste of Cretian business life. The people are informal, friendly, yet efficient and proffessional. I was given cookies and coffee at the realtors, tea at the attorney's, and a cretian pastry with juice at the notary's. It was the notary's nameday (which I am told is more important than the birthday even),  and people kept dropping by with flowers and congratulations, and she would offer  pastry and  brandy. I also had a longish conversation with Manolis, architect, partner at Crete-Homes, and current owner of the house I'm  buying. We looked through a book of traditional cretian architecture, and talked about how he had included such details in the restoration of "Kritsanna" and also his ideas for the adjoining stable, which happens to be for sale as well. Minolis is a treasure: not only is he an architect, with special training in restoration, he has an artists eye. The office is filled with his artwork: paintings, furniture, sculpture. It is fantastic!  So now I have a Greek bank account, and a lawyer with power of attorney , to act on my behalf regarding the purchase.

Return to Crete

Poinsetta (julestjerne) tree!

I'm back in Crete to buy a house!

Back in October, when we had our vacation here, we looked at some houses that were for sale in eastern Crete, and found one that we definitly liked in the village of Kritsá. So here I am again to get the buying process started.  What during the tourist season (April through October) is a 3-4 hour flight from Oslo, becomes a major expedition during the off-season. I left home at 4 am in the dark of night, for the hour and a quarter drive to the airport.

 After a getting a cup of coffee from Norway's only Starbucks, I got out my boarding pass and discovered that my passport was missing. Panikk!! I called husband, rousing him from his slumber, thinking that I must have forgotten to pack it, and left it lying on my desk. It was just past 5:30, enough time for him to bring it to me. However though he ransacked the house, the passport was not to be found. I took the shuttle back to the car park in case it had slid out of my bag and was lying on the floor of the passenger seat of the car. It was dark after all, and the passport is dark blue, but no such luck. I got back to the airport at 6:30 am, an hour and 10 minutes to departure, and went straight to the police to ask whether anything could be done. Had I had a Norwegian passport, I could have got a temporary one, but nothing could be done about travelling documents with just a permanent visa. However just as I was leaving, the guy said: "Where did you lose it?" I said I had no idea, that I'd had it when I was packing, and that my husband had looked everywhere for it at home. "Could this be it?" he asked, holding up an american passport, which I immediatly recognised as mine. An airport employee had handed it in not 5 minutes before!

 It was still mostly dark when we took off at 7:40am, and I watched the sun rise when we got above the clouds. I was a little worried about the short layover in Munich, only 50 minutes, but between disembarking the plane and arriving at the gate for my flight to Athens only 5 minutes went by. You gotta love German efficiency!  The airport in Athens is very clean and elegant, with fashion shops, fancy cafés and free internet. By contrast, the airport in Heraklion, where we arrived as dusk was falling, was run down and practically deserted. I easily found the bus stop - it's right across the road from the arrivals hall. I sat on my suitcase, smelling the sea, as dusk deepened, watching the numerous dogs of questionable heritage that were hanging about. They all looked friendly, well fed and healthy, and yet there was no indication that anyone owned them. The bus arrived 45 minutes later, and once on it I called Yiannis from the hotel to say that I was on the bus. I had planned to say it in Greek, but chickened out in the end. He told me to look for a yellow Fiat, but there were no yellow cars in sight when I arrived. In the dark, with no map, I didn't feel confident of finding my way, so I sat on a bench and waited. After about 15 minutes I called again, and 5 minutes after that a bright yellow car came barrelling around the corner, stopping in front of me. And thus I arrived at the Pergola Hotel in Agios Nicolaos, Crete.