Sunday, March 17, 2013

Still Winter in Norway

In the days before we left for Greece the sun had started to gain in strenght. We had had several silvery moonlit nights of a few degrees below freezing, and days with sunshine dazzling on snow, driving the daytime temperatures well above freezing, so I had expected to come home and find spring well on it's way. Snow melted, and the shoots of bulbs beginning to show themselves.



However what we came home to was this: nighttime temperatures way below freezing at -16 C. and daytime snow flurries. Looks like we are not done with winter for awhile yet. 




Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Kritsanna and Agios Nicolaos

reading on the roof terrace


It got warm on the weekend with temps over 20 C during the day. I spent a lot of time on the roof terrace reading, while husband went running. Actually, he went running pretty much every day, so has come a lot further with exploring the surroundings than I have. We also went on walks together, in and around Kritsa. I tried to work out every day as well: mostly resistance exercises and some yoga. We had gotten internet and I skyped with the kids, showing them around, hoping they will come to love this place as much as we do already.

Husband taking off on a run

Kritsa consists of 5 neighborhoods. I think they are roughly divided by the dry washes that come down from the mountains and lead flood waters safely through the village when heavy rains occur in the mountains. Kritsanna is in the neighborhood called “Old Mill”, the ruins of which are located right beside the bridge that crosses the dry wash to the bunch of buildings of which our house is one.

Sitting on the bridge with the old mill in the background.

Our next door neighbor is a sweet little old lady named Maria, 85 years old. She has a donkey which she brought every day to loaded with vegetables from her allotment and greens for donkey food. Then she would feed and water him while unloading before going off again. Our conversations have been very basic: “hello”, “good?” “yes thankyou”. Both husband and I spent some time every day studying greek. But it is a difficult language. The more necessary the word, the more unpronouncable it seems to be: like εφχαριστω (efcharisto – the ch pronounced like the german «nicht») - thank you or ξενοδοχειο (xenothocheeo) – hotel, or διαβατηριo (thiavatirio) – passport.

Maria's donkey

We went to Agios Nicolaos twice. Once to go to the market, the second time to pick up the Titles for the house and adjoining stable from the lawyers. Agios Nicolaos is only a 15 minute bus ride away from Kritsa. Bus travel in Crete is comfortable, punctual and cheap. A local ticket costs 1,60€, a ticket from the Airport in Irakleio to Agios Nicolaos costs 7€. 

Agios Nicolaos

In Agios Nicolaos there are at least 5 municipal beaches. There are shops and restaurants and cafes. My favorite is at one of the beaches and has all kinds of fancy iced coffees and chocolates. It also has internet.

Cafe Bueno in Agios Nicolaos




Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Old City of Lato


The main gate. We went around the edge of the wall on the left and climbed over there. 
We also hiked to Lato, also a 2 hour round trip. On Wikepedia you can read the following: «Lato (Ancient GreekΛατώ) was an ancient city of Crete, the ruins of which are located approximately 3 km from the small town of Kritsa. The Dorian city-state was built in a defensible position overlooking Mirabello Bay between two peaks, both of which became acropolises to the city. Although the city probably predates the arrival of the Dorians, the ruins date mainly from the Dorian period (5th and 4th centuries BC). The city was destroyed c. 200 BC.»















The ruins are closed in the off-season but we had been told that we should just climb over the fence – no one would care. We did just that: had to climb over 2 fences in fact. Inside the ruins were peacefull, with sheep grazing and resting among the old walls. It is a beautifull site!

Climbing the second gate. 
Unfortunatly we got busted by the caretaker as we were climbing over the fence on our way out. He scolded us that it cost 4€ and demanded whether we would have done the same in our country. I told him the ruins would not have been closed in our country and offered to pay the 4€ but he wouldn't take them. It was obviously the principle of the thing that upset him. Otherwise though, we had a lovely walk and I don't regret at all having had them all to ourselves. 

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Kritsa Gorge


Kritsa has it's own gorge. It is not as long or as famous as the Samaria Gorge in south western Crete, but it is spectacular in it's own way. To get to it you just walk out of the village at it's north eastern end.

The path leading toward the gorge.

Once in the Gorge the path was marked with cairns.

A beautiful old tree

A goat and kid climbing on the rocks far above our heads. 








We had our picnic where the gorge opened out and you have a view of the high country beyond.  The path back to Kritsa took us first along the upper lip of the gorge and then through farmland down to the village, all together a 2 hour hike. 




When we got home I discovered that I had left my sweater on the rock where we ate our sandwiches. Husband ran back to get it, arriving just in time to rescue it from a flock of goats who had discovered it and started to chew on it. Just for the record it took husband less than 50 minutes to run the whole path of our hike today.

Friday, March 8, 2013

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.
















Sunday, March 3, 2013

I am the Captain of my Soul. Not.

One of my favorite poems ("Invictus" by William Henley) ends with the lines:

I am the master of my fate, 
I am the captain of my soul.

In the past few days I have seen how far I am from that ideal. How often is not my emotional life determined by things out of my control? - the weather, other peoples' approval or disapproval, my state of tiredness, hormonal surges, even the books I read, the movies I watch, or the music I listen to. 

Some of these things I can control to a certain extent. I can try to influence my schedule to allow for enough sleep. I try to avvoid books, movies and music that make me sad or frightened .However approval/disapproval, weather and hormones are harder to controll, though I have resolved to stay away from hormone therapy (a 3 month trial for menopause related problems had me on an emotional roller coaster, the like of which I had experienced neither when I was pregnant or breast-feeding). And regarding the weather I have made up my mind that I need to get away from Norway in the winter, and to this end, have just completed the purchase of a house on Crete. 

Still, it is frightening to see how little direct control I have over my emotions. All these efforts are after all manipulations of the environment, because I lack direct control. I once read a book on cognitive therapy. The premise seemed to be that half unconscious negative thoughts give rise to negative feelings, causing more negative thoughts and so on. I am not certain that that is always the case. The weather, hormones, and tiredness can affect the emotions directly it seems to me. Then come the thoughts of self loathing, and worthlessness, which feed the hopelessness, sadness, irritability and so on. 

The worst thing about this evil circle is the effect it has on the will, which becomes increasingly paralyzed as depression and brooding intensify. Interestingly this is where I find the possibility to break the circle and regain control lies. If I am able to overcome the paralysis, and break through the urge to just creep into a hole and curl up there, to carry out some task that I have set myself, for example a workout, I find my self confidence slightly increased. Enough to embark on the search toward identifying the true cause of my emotional depression. Thus by employing my will and powers of reflection, I am again able to take controll.