Life in Crete in February.....including the weather, missing curry, and watching football in Greek. Week beginning Monday, 9th February We've been reading about the really bad weather people are experiencing in the UK and Europe and North America. It's been very mild here, even for Crete, but we are expecting a bit of a cold snap coming on Sunday. Two years ago it snowed here around the 13th Feb. From our balcony we have a great view of the White Mountains, which are covered in snow at this time of the year. They look like the Alps. Click here to have a look. The pictures on that page were taken near where we live. Although going through a cold snap at the moment, we do really feel that spring has arrived here in Crete. The spring flowers are popping up all over, and we are planning a trip up to Aptera soon to see the anemones which carpet the sloping hills near the old Turkish Fort at this time of year. On a recent walk, Alison was lucky to spot a clump of Narcissus. These lovely elegant white and yellow flowers are picked by the ladies of the village, and we often see the women wandering through the olive groves and along verges looking for these plants. (Click the picture for a bigger image.)
This is also Horta time too! It's the best time for picking wild edible plants that are so important to the diet for most Cretan people. To learn about Horta, Click here.
Missing Curry Both Alison and I love Crete and we love the genuine generosity of the people. We have recently been invited to stay with a Cretan family at their Taverna, after they had seen our web site. We are looking forward to meeting them and sampling their well renowned vegetarian Cretan cuisine and will give a full account on the web site later, so watch out for that. There are some things we miss though. I love Cretan food and the fresh local ingredients, but being English, I like a good curry occasionally too! Indian restaurants and takeaways are on every street corner in the UK, but there's none here in Kalyves or Chania, so I have had to resort to my own recipes. All the herbs and spices needed to make an real Indian or Chinese dish are available here in Crete. I will soon publish some of my recipes for anyone living in Crete who is pining for that authentic British taste - the Indian Curry! Watching Football (soccer) in Crete I have just watched England national soccer team, and it was a sorry sight. We missed Ferdinand, and Rooney of course (I'm a Manchester United fan - from Manchester.) It was on the SKAI channel, which has a Greek commentary. I subscribe to Nova so I get loads of Premiership games live, with English commetary, but not England usually, nor the FA Cup, unless a Greek channel is showing it. I have just found out that the Greek NET channel is showing FA Cup tie Derby v Man Utd live, which is a bonus, and I'll look forward to that whilst eating my Indian Curry (lamb pasanda.) Greek commentary's not as bad as it sounds (just say the Greek equivalent but with a Greek accent):
Eating Out in Winter We just found out that one of our favourite restaurants here in Crete, the Medusa Taverna, has decided to open at weekends throughout the rest of the winter, so we are going soon. Don't get out much in the winter normally, because many resort restaurants are shut in the winter. Last Friday went to a local "Psistarias" (which means Greek Meat Grilling Place.) We had spit roasted chicken with Greek salad, tsaziki, Mythos beer, a bottle of water, and chips - this cost €20 Euros. Twelve months ago this would have been the equivalent of £15. Now, because the pound is so poor, it's not quite a cheap (about £19). It's a shame that the rich and powerful in the world have so badly and greedily mismanaged their work that many ex-pats are feeling the value of their pensions and savings plummet. I'll just step off that soapbox... We also just had an email from someone called Vivi who has seen our website and owns a Taverna south of Heraklion, She wants us to visit for three days, insisting we try her well renowned vegetarian restaurant. It's a great opportunity to do a future on our website about her village and surrounding attractions. More later... Unfortunately I need to keep being able to get into my favourite trousers, so the diet starts "tomorrow" (which never comes.) I generally keep under 80 kilos which is 12st 9lbs in your English weight measurements. At the end of December I'd crept up to 82 kilos. When the summer comes it's no problem. With all the swimming and walking we do we keep nice and slim, except for the food, wine and raki consumption. Plus, it's elasticated waisted shorts all the way, so no problem. Anyway, must go now - got to make Alison a Lamb Kleftiko (she doesn't like curry). Take care, Graham
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