Merry Christmas everybody

The Christmas trees in Myrtos are like this one next to the male butcher, who also sells cheeses and good raki.

In Ierapetra they have a bigger one. Last time I was there - when buying 4 stamps at the post office what took me one hour - they were preparing a small Christmas market around on the square.

Today I ate a real Cretan dish. Bread first soaked in water, for so soaking it in fresh pressed organic olive oil (which had a green colour!, not yellow like in our European shops), with tomatoes and pepper and salt on top. Very nice.----- But nine hours later the oil with the rest came out. So I am having a busy night now. So be carefull if you are offered bread soaked in olive oil. Only eat one or two bites, when you are not used to it.

In Tertsa there is only one kafenion (cafe) open during the winter, as well as the only mini market. In this kafenion everybody who like to meet people goes there for a talk and one or more Greek coffees, internet, or one or more glasses of wine. The wine is always served with some free food, like in Spain. I made some friends here. One will be going with me to the tax office to fill out all the papers for a Greek tax number on January 2 in Ierapetra. This number you need when you want to buy some land, or a house, or a car or motorcycle. As soon as you have this number you are obliged to fill out a tax form from the year after. For that you need an accountant, also when you did not buy anything or have no money in Greece.

You probably remember that I have been looking for a place under the sun, especially during winter, for a long time. I searched whole Asia, but no that is not the place where you will easily integrate. But here in Greece I feel welcome. And in Tertsa (not Myrtos) I feel welcome and helped as well. Strange was to hear that in Myrtos the Greeks do not want to help each other. It feels like they want the income from foreigners etc. only for them selves, not others. But maybe that is because they are people with little money?

Today the other friend, a Greek, showed me some lots and houses for sale here together with the first friend from Austria, who translates for me. Knowing a Greek is more knowledge then reading the newspaper here! He even new two caravans, as well as firing wood for sale. Because in case I buy some land, I would like to live on it for some time - in a caravan - for so to find out where to build a one floor house on it. Two of the lots we saw, were only separated from the beach by a small road. You can guess that now I am fantasising about going to swim in the morning after getting up... in my bathrobe. That would be good for my skin, salt water. But I never wanted to have the beach on my door step before. Maybe because that seemed impossible?

Tomorrow I will go back to one of the lots for just to walk and sit on it for several hours. To feel the atmosphere. To see possibilities. A pity is that the 3 neighbors have their houses hidden behind a high fench. Probably people of one family, but it does not look very inviting. Maybe the Austrian friend takes me to another lot tomorrow as well; close to her house, up the mountain, just outside Tertsa, with morning sun. Sun in the morning is important for me. A lot easier to become active.

On Christmas Eve there is a music festival in Sygologos - which has nothing to do with Psychologos - with Cretan music and Greek dance. It is on the square and it starts at 21.00 until the early hours. For me a bit late, but I would love to see it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Playing the bongo

On sunday every one who is interested to learn to play bongo or djembe is welcome to group lessons/sessions in Ierapetra (city on the SE coast of Crete). The sessions take 2 hours , starting at 15.00 hours, which means at Greek time 15.15 or later.

The teacher and a musical friend (Zikis?) of his are from Agios. The sessions are only during winter,  because the teacher has a restaurant in Plaka (NW of Agios) which is very busy during the summer season.

Today we played Salsa rithmes. All music is African based.

As you can see the Greeks at the course are young, we 'the immigrants' the oldies. But fun it is. But where are the musical men?

I Will upload the movies I made of us playing to my Facebook page.

OK, then here some photographes of last week.

 Watch out for falling things from the mountain.

 Sunset at Mirtos, 17.00 hours.

 Sunset at Tertsa.

 Delicious Greek coffee at the beach of Mirtos. I even got spoiled with home made cake. With a chocolate cover on the cake the coffee tasted de-li-ci-ous, like mochato or something like that.

 Tertsa.

 One of the two butchers in Mirtos makes delicious 'tataar' right in front of you.

Tertsa.

Snow!

(NORSK: husk at du kan bruke oversettknappen her oppe, trykk på TRANSLATE knappen for Norsk.)

Wow. Today I woke up with snow on the tops of the Dikti mountains. With the sun shining on it, that looked really great. So I sipped my first cup of tea in the sun on the terrace enjoying this view.

I just came back from a long walk. I thought of walking to Mithi, but I took the wrong path where I should have crossed the river once more. At first walking along the river, on the right side, was not that great, but as soon as the road bended to the right and 15-20% upward, the walk became very nice with lots of nice views. The higher I came, the greener it became.

A lot of the photos I took were of those white covered mountains. The plastic glass houses came here by a Dutch man in the seventies.

On my way back, almost in Myrtos again, I saw again lots of bees flying on Eucaliptus flowers.

I really can recommend this tour. If you want a shorter walk, you can park your car near the Turkish bridge.
--
This was 2 days ago. Now it is time for bongolessons in a group - mostly Greeks - in Ierapetra.

My studio at Villa Elena in Myrtos

My studio at Villa Elena is at the top floor, with a big terrace. To shade for summersun there is a big roof over the terrace, but luckily the sun stands lower now, so she shines from the seaside on the terrace, from about 07.30 hours until 12.00 hours. Around 13.00 the sun comes on the small balcony on the other side.

 I have a new instrument with me, a bes clarinet and a book Teach yourself the clarinet. This evening I will exercise again.

 I could have chosen another room, with separate bedroom and a small living room, with more relaxing chairs. But I like the spacious feeling here. It here also feels lighter.

 I already tried a pizza for lunch :)

 The computer is connected by a wire coming trough a small opening between the 2 windows. Otherwise the signal was not strong enough to reach the room.

 I love the terrace. It feels nobody can see you.

I already told the owner, Susanna, that I probably will stay until January 2. Then I will have some  time to visit other places on my way to the airport on the NW coast. Hope to be able to drive over the mountains to the north. But I only have summer tires, so in case of white mountains I have to take the highway around.

For now the temperature is every afternoon around 20C, this week above, last week just below 20. In the evening it cools down to 16C, sometimes lower. This for november.

12% by car to Males

Today I felt for mountaineering by car. I have to say that I did not know that the road after Mithi would be more or less for only one car in width. Had I known.... But such an impressive drive. What a view! What a landscape!

 So I drove up from sea level in Myrtos to close to 1.300 meter I guess. The highest tops there are 1.500m, not even so far from the coast. The higher you come, the more olive trees you see. Agriculture is the mean source of income, making this area of Crete the most wealthy, mostly because of export of tomatoes, olive oil etc to the European Union.

 This valley above Myrtos has its own microclimate, which is subtropical. Here they even grow those little tropical bananas.

 Walking trough Males. Almost all the cars had to be parked outside the center, because of these tiny streets.

 Males church / one of 2 churches: a Greek orthodox church. Very small.

 A woman busy with moving a green garden bicycle. Was this bicycle so plants could climb in? I will never know. Very nice and long view from her garden. Besides the small old houses, a lot of big new houses in Males.

 Many home owners grow also citrus trees. I would have loved to pick one, but I was too scared to do.

 What is better to do, when you feel you have to go to the loo, then zipping a nice cup of sweet Greek coffee, served together with a glass of water? This must be the tiniest kafenion there is. He first offered me Nestle coffee, because we Europeans are so glad in it; but finally he understood my few words of Greek. He also had a very small shop in there. The toilet though, I had to fint in the big taverne on a big lower street. That taverne was crowded today, sunday. Got the impression that people from Lerapetra drive up the mountains to eat here.

During my way up to Males I felt my hart sometimes pounding, when I saw over the edge of the road. Wow, so steep down, and no protection for falling off most of the time. If I was lucky when falling I hoped to have a soft landing in an olive tree. But even those olives trees hanging there on those 12% slopes, I wondered 'how can they ever get those olives off''. I would not be able to walk there, I am sure, far too steep.

Learning Greek wherever I can.

Winter in Greece

After having tried to find THE winter place for me in Asia, I have decided to try to find THE place in Southern Europe. My first try is to find MY place on Crete, I wonder if I maybe already found THE winterplace to be this week at the southeast coast of Crete. But first a quick overview of my first 2 weeks on Crete.

My plane landed on the northwest side of Crete, in Chania (pronounce in Dutch like Hania). This is a lovely town, the biggest one in Crete. I got my car on the airport at 21.30 hours on a dark parking place nearby. I got a very bad map, and I did not know where to go. The only thing I remembered was that it if I waslucky was pretty straight ahead. So I did a big guess in which direction and from which road to start driving. In the old center I opened my window in front of a traffic light and ask my neighbour if he knew my street. Yes he did and follow me was his answer. Such a nice start to get to know the Greek! Yes, it was pretty much straight ahead, except at the end, there the cap driver did the job.

Next day I dipped my toes in the see and decided, too cold.

On Monday I started driving my little Kia towards the east of Crete. My purpose was to stay in Limnes at the house (which when I booked nobody would be living when I would be there) of 2 bisexual ladies. Guess what. After a few days they announced almost in the middle of the night that the price would go up. When I remembered them of our agreement one of them became extremely sociopathic. I wonder, why I being a psychologist, had not seen the signs before?

 olives.

At a taveerne.

water mill.


I visited the 'big city' Agios Nikoloas and its surrounding. Here I definitely I don't want to live. Far too many touristic appartments.

Near Plaka.

The hairdresser can even do the hairs in your ears if needed.

 Agios Marina.


I visited Sitia in the northeast. A very nice relaxed town, but almost everything was closed for the winter. Palm trees along the harbour, some terraces, a fort on a hill, a narrow shopping street. Looked very charming. Here I think I could live, but it is far away from the rest of Crete.

I visited Neapoli. With a member of the local expat photoclub, I photographed for several hours with my Nikon (all the pics here are from my phone).

Well instead of 2 months I stayed 1 week in Limnes. Luckily my Greek teacher Manolis had mentioned that he thought that I would like Myrtos on the southeast coast. So I contactet some places there and now I am staying at a spaceous studio with big roof terrace at Villa Elena, from Susanna's Pension (a German lady married to a Greek). I have my own kitchen, my own bathroom with even a bath in it, a double and single bed, as well as a front balcony, for when I also want to catch sun in the afternoon.

Yesterday I did my first mountain hike right from my room. Just 4.5 km, where I took my time to enjoy the nature and far views. On my way I picked some wild timian for kitchen use.

Today I had my second Greek lesson. Manolis teaches also in Myrtos. A private lesson cost me 13 EUR. One lesson a week for the rest of the year I think it will be, because I feel very relaxed and happy here, so I can think of staying until January 2 and then driving back slowly to my plane leaving on January 10 from Chania.