Kritsa Revisited

For the first leg of our journey we took this tiny aircraft from Oslo to Dusseldorf.

On February 28 the long awaited email arrived to the effect of: “The money has been paid and the contracts signed. Congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a house in Kritsa!” It had been a bit of stress getting the the money sent, with several trials and phone calls before the funds went through. I was worried it would not all be ready before our arrival, but on Monday, March 4 we got on the plane bound for Crete. As in November, being the off-season we had to take 3 flights to get to Irakleio and then the bus to Agios Nicolaos where we were met by Manolis, the former owner of the house. He brought us to the house and handed over the keys. I think it might be a bit sad for him to give it over to new owners after having done the restoration and lived in it for a few years. It turned out that Manolis had done a whole lot of shopping for our breakfast: bread, coffee, fruit, honey, yogurt, olive oil, and chocolates, and he wouldn't hear of reimbursement. Such a welcome!

Husband relaxing by the fire.

We spent several days getting settled in. It was quite chilly to begin with and we were happy for the comforters and wool blanket, the heating elements and the wood stove. In the bedroom we have one of those infrared heaters that take away a good bit of the humidity while giving off a gentle heat. There are also air conditioners that can blow either hot or cold air depending. The air conditioner gives a more stable heating, yet it makes noise and uses a lot of energy and isn't nearly as pleasant as the wood stove. So it wasn't long before we had burned up all the wood that Manolis had left. Hilary helped us to purchase 3 sacks of hardwood logs from a local man.

The internet cafe which saved husband's sanity while we waited for our modem.

Fanis was still arranging for the internet when we arrived so we had to go to the local internet cafe to surf the net. This seems to be the meeting place for young and old. There are pool tables, board games and computers in the back for the young, while the “old” sit at the bar smoking and drinking coffee. It turns out that this is the place to meet people. For example Dorothy, a British lady who comes here most every day while her husband is in the UK working. Another thing this cafe has is the most delicious cakes, delivered from a bakery in Agios Nicolaos every day. There are a couple of other bakeries in Kritsa. One only carries bread. The other has both bread and cakes – we got some very nice puff pastry there – but no baklava, nor galaktoboureko, which are our absolute favorite pastries. However the internet cafe has them and we got some almost every day.

Ariadni supermarket in Kritsa

Close to the internet cafe is Sofia's hair salon where I got my hair cut for 14€. She has 3 children, the youngest who is 16 months came into the shop with her Grandmother who minds her during the morning while Sofia is working. Such a cutie! I've seen this in restaurants too: the wife bringing the children to visit the father at work. It is an example of how relaxed life is here on Crete. Other examples are people bringing their dogs into cafe's as well, cats prowling around, and a total disregard for no smoking regulations.

Farmers Market in Agios Nicolaos.

Next door is the supermarket where I did most of my shopping. At first it seemed like it wouldn't have much of what I look for in food. It's a tiny shop, and seemed to have mostly pre-prepared and tourist food! It was also a challenge that the packaging was all in Greek. So I had a hard time finding butter, among a dozen different kinds of margarine, because I didn't know the word for it. Eventually though, I discovered both brown rice, whole grain pasta and even evaporated cane sugar and real butter.

Produce from the Farmers Market: oranges for juice, cretian bananas, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach  which decided our menu for several days, hard sheep cheese, feta, organic honey and the first strawberries of the season (they weren't very good though).

The best place to shop though, was the weekly (every Wednesday from 7 am to 2 pm) farmers market in Agios Nicolaos. Here is where the local farmers bring their fresh seasonal vegetables. Here are local cheeses, olives and honey. It was fun trying to shop for the whole week on Wednesday, and then make the menu based on what was available. The Cretian Diet is supposed to be one of the healthiest on the planet, and it is one of my goals to learn to cook cretian food. But what makes up the cretian diet? From what I have learned so far: a multitude of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, a lot of pulses (dried beans, vetches and lentils), sheep and goats cheeses, yogurt and milk. Olives and olive oil. Honey. Fresh eggs - everyone has a few chickens. Fresh fish and only occasional meat.

Making orange juice.

What did we eat? We pressed fresh orange juice every morning. Juice oranges were in season. They were being sold by the bag from roadside pickup trucks. They are large, sweet, seedless and one is enough for a glass of juice. We had greek yogurt with fruit and honey for breakfast, greek salad for lunch, and Greek pastries as mentioned above for our afternoon coffee and tea every day. Okay, so daily pastries probably aren't the most healthy thing, and probably also the reason why I put on 2 kg during our stay, but hey, we were on vacation!  We didn't get any fresh fish either, though a guy drives around with a loudspeaker every day, selling from his truck. There is also a butcher in Kritsa. We didn't check him out either, but my hope is that he sells locally produced meat. We also drank goat milk which you can buy in Liter bottles in the store. It seems to me that most every family has some goats, some sheep, some chickens, a vine, some olive trees and a vegetable garden. 

Sheep in a fold near Krista.

Most of these allotments had a dog chained to a tree, with a barrel for a dog house. It seems a pretty lousy life for the dogs, and there are a lot of them that seem to spent their whole lives like this. Not to say that there aren't some people that treat their dogs like pets. They ride on their masters lap on the motorbike, or hang out of the window of the pickup truck and are without exception very well behaved. 

Farm dog guarding the allotment. 

Another great thing about Kritsa is that you can drink the water. All over the village are faucets where you can fill your water bottles with pure mountain spring water. It tastes delicious and is different from the municipal water that flows from the taps in your house.

The spring near our house, which you can glimpse through the trees.