Makrigialos

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Wednesday, 10th December, 2008

Another peaceful night, with a good night's sleep.

We weren't up too early and sorted out our Christmas email picture.

Eventually we left the villa about twelve thirty and headed for Ag Nick. We bumped into Bob the electrician on the way out and stood talking with him for a while. He was telling us all about the utility costs and how things work in Crete, very interesting for us.

We parked on the back road we knew from our time being at the Hotel. The Tourist office was shut with a sign saying it would be closed due to the strike.

We decided on some lunch and ended up at the restaurant La Casa, which is alongside the sea water lake. We had a kleftika and mixed grill, with a Greek salad.

As we were watching the lake, we noticed a pelican. It was moving around the lake and we could see in the distance some people were stroking it, so not afraid of people.

After lunch, we moved up to the cafe Du Lac and had some coffee's and logged into the internet.

We updated the blog, checked our emails and sent a Christmas message to our friends and family.

While we were in the cafe, the lady who we gone to see in the tourist office came over to say hello, she just happened to be there. Great coincidence. We chatted with her for a while, thanked her for her help the other day and told her we had found somewhere to stay.

It was a little cooler today and time had moved on, it was about four thirty, so we decided to head back to the villa and give Gournia a miss because of the time.

We had a quiet and early night.

Thursday, 11th December, 2008.

Another quiet night.

A slow start to the day. I sat and read on the balcony, sunbathing. Pat was doing the ironing on the top balcony, in a bikini. Life can be so difficult.

We decided to go for a walk up the path towards Pefki, by the Villea Villas. We left just after twelve.

A pleasant walk, we ambled gradually up the mountain, we were both in trousers and T-Shirts, and the temperature was wonderful.

White River cottages complex is on the hillside and we believe to be some sort of holiday place, it is blended into the countryside and difficult to see much of it from the outside.

Not sure how far we had walked, but we were half way up a mountain and gone as far as we wanted, so turned round and walked back. We got back at two o'clock.

We had a peaceful afternoon and had discussed going to the Darts night at status, we didn't know what time it started, but planned to get there about seven.

Pat prepared a lovely dinner with the turkey pieces (we thought we had bought chicken, but what the hell) in a sauce, with pasta and a home prepared Greek salad. Some local apples for dessert.

We duly got ready and left around seven fifteen. We had planned to drive, as the weather was a little breezy, and to save the walk back up the hill in the dark.

There weren't too many people there when we arrived and the darts started at nine. A different barman was on - an English chap, Alan - who we got talking to and spent lot of time speaking to him over the course of the evening. His wife / partner also came over and spoke to us and we had a wonderful evening of conversation. They had been in Crete about six years and again we learned a lot about the way of living and so on.

One piece of information was about parking, if they catch you in a no parking place, they take your number plates. Apparently you cannot easily get replacements and therefore you have to go along and pay the parking fine, to get your plates back!

A few more people came in leading up to nine o'clock and we were invited to take part in the darts, which we declined.

The evening flew by and to my astonishment, we were one of the last to leave and it was ten to midnight.

Friday, 12th December, 2008.

The wind blew through most of the night and It also rained at some stage. We had a very slow start to the day, reading and relaxing.

We had a snack around two o'clock and took a walk out as we needed a few things from the shops.

We popped into Status and passed a couple of hours, playing pool and chatting.

The meat shop should now have been open so we left the bar, and investigated the meat market, recommended by a number of people. It seems to be all new and shiny, clean refrigeration cabinets and a general air of hygiene. We bought some milk and a couple of Pork Chops, for our dinner.

Next came the bakery for some bread, then the supermarket. We bumped into Nico and said hello. He said the weather was due to get better again tomorrow.

We arrived back around five.

For information, I shall describe the development that we are currently residing on.

It is a roughly rectangular plot of land, immediately adjacent to the main road and sits on top of the easterly side of Makrigialos, looking down on it from a hill.

It has twenty houses / villas, although there are two unfinished plots, which when and if finished would make twenty two.

There are five houses adjoining each other terrace fashion, on each side of the rectangle, with a swimming pool in the centre.

The house which we are in is designed as follows; on the ground floor as you come in the front door on the left is a bedroom with two single beds, then a main bathroom, with bath and over bath shower. I use ths one because of the bath. Then the main bedroom, with double bed, an en suite bathroom, with shower cubicle, this is Pat's because she likes a shower. Through the main bedroom, a large sliding door leads out to a ground floor back garden area, with patio and some garden. We haven't really used this particular area.

In the foyer area where the various rooms lead off is the spiral staircase, which runs up the entire height of the house.

Going up to the next floor, leads you into one large open plan area, with kitchen, dining area and lounge. By the kitchen and dining area is an outside small balcony which is west facing and overlooks the swimming pool and inside of the complex. At this time of year the sun doesn't really hit this balcony, so again, we haven't used it that much. We tend to go and see if anything is happening in the complex from this one.

The lounge area leads onto another much bigger balcony which overlooks the side road of the apartments and you can see towards Rosemary and Nico's. This is then east facing and catches the sun earlier in the day.

This has a set of furniture for dining out. We use this one in the morning as it catches the sun and is not really overlooked at all.

The spiral staircase takes you up to the next level consisting of a small mezzanine, which has the washing machine, and leads out to the final terrace. Not small, Pat has tended to use this one for hanging out the washing and ironing. Again, it is not overlooked and very private. Facing East the same way as the dining furniture balcony below.

Pat cooked the Pork Chops for our dinner.

We had another peaceful evening, and an early night,

Saturday, 13th December, 2008.

We awoke around our usual time, to glorious sunshine.

Another leisurely start to the day. Pat again was doing some ironing on the top balcony and reading her book.

I got up and sat on the middle balcony, drinking coffee, while reading and sunbathing.

We finally made a move to Gournia, at twelve thirty, which is an archaeological site on the way to Ag. Nick, we had intended to visit the other day, but ran out of time,

The car temperature said 20°C, the sky was predominately blue, with the odd wisp and puff of cloud.

When I look up at and see the beautiful blue sky, with a colour that is so different from the sky at home, it brightens my heart. I have two pictures at home, which I had enlarged and framed, from shots that I took on the island of Nissyros, Greece a few years ago, they have the Greek white with blue houses against the Greek blue sky, and appeal to me.

The colour of the sea, is also wonderful, and as we drive along the coast, you can see the aquamarines, turquoises, and vibrant blue's, not the inky black and cold looking North Sea of home.

Then match the two in one shot, the sky and the sea, competing in the colour blue against each other. Producing a picture that to me, is difficult to describe, but joyous and breathtaking are a start.

I hope that whatever time I get to spend in this part of this earth, that I never fail to appreciate or take for granted this beauty.

Back to reality, we got to the site at Gournia and made our way around the ruins. The site originated around 1500 BC and has a few signs explaining things. It passed the time for a while and was reasonably interesting for us. Entry was €2 each.

As we were near we stopped at the Carrefour supermarket on the way back, and stocked up on things.

We arrived back at three thirty and had a snack lunch, bread, feta cheese, olives, ham and so on.

We popped to Status at seven and stopped for a couple of drinks. The bar was pretty quiet and we spent some time on the internet, using their machine.

We had half a chicken and chips from Lucky Luke's and had this for our dinner.

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