I never thought I'd say it: I came back from Greece and actually let out a sigh of relief upon hearing Italian again! "At least I can sort of eavesdrop here!" Greek is a tough language. Somewhere between what sounds like Arabic, Russian, Italian and made-up language is where Greek lies to my ear. I think it's all an elaborate rouse to make tourists feel foolish. Maybe I'm a bit too paranoid, though...
Tom had a work meeting on the island of Crete so I tagged along the weekend prior to explore a bit. Observation: Greek food is heavenly. Everything was so flavorful and interesting. Italian food is good, don't get me wrong. But Italians love things to be very simple. If you are eating pork, it should taste like pork. Everything tastes like the best version of itself. Which is nice and all, but sometimes, I like to hide my food under layers of spices and cream sauces and tons of herbs. Greeks, it turns out, do too! We have so much in common already!
Crete is a hard island, made harder by the blazing sun, 100+ degree temperature days, being overtaken by Romans, Turks, Germans and being in the middle of the ocean! The people, much like Neapolitans, have struggled and persevered and somehow come out on the other side.
We stayed in Chania, pronounced "Haan-ya" which is bustling with tourists, fishing boats, and tons of shopping! It seemed like Sorrento, walking down the leather goods alley, with all variety of purse, wallet, jacket and sandal hanging outside of stalls until midnight or later. The streets were narrow, made of stone and crammed with people! In our very European way, we dined at 9 or 10 at night, conducting an independent study on tatziki, dolmas and vegetable fritters at each place. Shockingly, Tom was a fan of all three!
Before we left, I found a horseback riding company on TripAdvisor which was very highly rated and emailed the owner to set up an appointment. He emailed me back to tell me that I was crazy, that his establishment was far from Chania and again, that I was crazy. I booked it anyway and we spent a hot day driving through the coastline and exploring the ruins of Knossos, King Minos' palace where the Minotaur Labyrinth is said to have been. The whole place was 4,000 years old but had been rebuilt in the 1920's to look like it might have looked back in the day. We thought it a bit hokey, but did relish at the site of a German man, in a white linen suit with beach flip flops. Now that's how you do business casual in Germany! So after judging the German, seeing an ancient site and eating approximately 40 dolmas, we made our way to the horseback riding place.
It was all in all, a pretty fun little trek. The landscape was lovely, full of olive trees and little farms, Greek children stared at us as we rode by on our horses, shouting inaudible things to their mothers. The owner of the horseback riding company was a fairly insane man, foul mouthed and raunchy but very generous at the same time. Tom's horse, picture above, was bat-shit crazy (and that's putting it nicely!). He was constantly about 1/2 a mile ahead of the rest of the group, his horse likely to freak out if another one came too close to him. It was all a bit odd, but we got to spend some really quality time in the car (the town being some 2 hours from Chania), me singing Tom various whiny Indi songs from my college days and having serious discussions about future Christmas plans.
One thing to know about Tom: he hates the sun. Loathes it. Thinks Italians (and me) are crazy for laying in its rays for hours on end, seemingly enjoying that form of torture. Now me? I LOVE the beach. It's my favorite place to be. I'll spend hours swimming and floating and lounging and swimming some more. It reminds me of my childhood, of building drip-drop sand castles with my mom and my sisters, finding enormous pieces of kelp (which we invariably called "Lioney" each time) and dragging it all over the beach for hours. My mom thought we might have been part fish. I took this with me, this constant love of the water and the sun and the lazy days at the beach, onwards to Greece. We spent a day, surrounded by the Tower of Babel clad in various levels of Speedo. The clearly northern Europeans already blotchy from the sun, laying out again as proof of their Greek vacation. Tom hid beneath our umbrella, covering it with our towels just to be sure that no sun snuck in. I swam and swam and floated and swam and read and swam and drank several beers. It was my favorite day in Greece. It was perfect.
Now back in Naples, I find myself missing those lovely beaches, complex food and relatively courteous drivers! But I also have that feeling of familiarity that comes with living somewhere for over a year. Our brief sojourn in Greece was lovely! Some day, when our internet is working again, I'll add the rest of the pictures. These are uploaded via my iPhone, so please forgive the quality!
Baci,
Lynne
Tom had a work meeting on the island of Crete so I tagged along the weekend prior to explore a bit. Observation: Greek food is heavenly. Everything was so flavorful and interesting. Italian food is good, don't get me wrong. But Italians love things to be very simple. If you are eating pork, it should taste like pork. Everything tastes like the best version of itself. Which is nice and all, but sometimes, I like to hide my food under layers of spices and cream sauces and tons of herbs. Greeks, it turns out, do too! We have so much in common already!
Crete is a hard island, made harder by the blazing sun, 100+ degree temperature days, being overtaken by Romans, Turks, Germans and being in the middle of the ocean! The people, much like Neapolitans, have struggled and persevered and somehow come out on the other side.
We stayed in Chania, pronounced "Haan-ya" which is bustling with tourists, fishing boats, and tons of shopping! It seemed like Sorrento, walking down the leather goods alley, with all variety of purse, wallet, jacket and sandal hanging outside of stalls until midnight or later. The streets were narrow, made of stone and crammed with people! In our very European way, we dined at 9 or 10 at night, conducting an independent study on tatziki, dolmas and vegetable fritters at each place. Shockingly, Tom was a fan of all three!
Before we left, I found a horseback riding company on TripAdvisor which was very highly rated and emailed the owner to set up an appointment. He emailed me back to tell me that I was crazy, that his establishment was far from Chania and again, that I was crazy. I booked it anyway and we spent a hot day driving through the coastline and exploring the ruins of Knossos, King Minos' palace where the Minotaur Labyrinth is said to have been. The whole place was 4,000 years old but had been rebuilt in the 1920's to look like it might have looked back in the day. We thought it a bit hokey, but did relish at the site of a German man, in a white linen suit with beach flip flops. Now that's how you do business casual in Germany! So after judging the German, seeing an ancient site and eating approximately 40 dolmas, we made our way to the horseback riding place.
It was all in all, a pretty fun little trek. The landscape was lovely, full of olive trees and little farms, Greek children stared at us as we rode by on our horses, shouting inaudible things to their mothers. The owner of the horseback riding company was a fairly insane man, foul mouthed and raunchy but very generous at the same time. Tom's horse, picture above, was bat-shit crazy (and that's putting it nicely!). He was constantly about 1/2 a mile ahead of the rest of the group, his horse likely to freak out if another one came too close to him. It was all a bit odd, but we got to spend some really quality time in the car (the town being some 2 hours from Chania), me singing Tom various whiny Indi songs from my college days and having serious discussions about future Christmas plans.
One thing to know about Tom: he hates the sun. Loathes it. Thinks Italians (and me) are crazy for laying in its rays for hours on end, seemingly enjoying that form of torture. Now me? I LOVE the beach. It's my favorite place to be. I'll spend hours swimming and floating and lounging and swimming some more. It reminds me of my childhood, of building drip-drop sand castles with my mom and my sisters, finding enormous pieces of kelp (which we invariably called "Lioney" each time) and dragging it all over the beach for hours. My mom thought we might have been part fish. I took this with me, this constant love of the water and the sun and the lazy days at the beach, onwards to Greece. We spent a day, surrounded by the Tower of Babel clad in various levels of Speedo. The clearly northern Europeans already blotchy from the sun, laying out again as proof of their Greek vacation. Tom hid beneath our umbrella, covering it with our towels just to be sure that no sun snuck in. I swam and swam and floated and swam and read and swam and drank several beers. It was my favorite day in Greece. It was perfect.
Now back in Naples, I find myself missing those lovely beaches, complex food and relatively courteous drivers! But I also have that feeling of familiarity that comes with living somewhere for over a year. Our brief sojourn in Greece was lovely! Some day, when our internet is working again, I'll add the rest of the pictures. These are uploaded via my iPhone, so please forgive the quality!
Baci,
Lynne
This sounds like a vacation in paradise! Would love to re-experience with you! This sentence particularly appealed to me: "I swam and swam and floated and swam and read and swam and drank several beers." I was accused of being part-fish when I was a child also...
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