Makrigialos 3

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Thursday, 18th December, 2008

We had another very slow start to the day and both read for most of the morning.

The weather was very grey and overcast and rained much later in the day. It is still confusing, because it is still so warm though.

We made a move to the town at two forty five. Our plan was to visit The Gecko Bar and update the blog.

The bar was very welcoming and we chatted about our travels and so on. A group a people came in celebrating a 40th birthday, and we left about five o'clock.

Pat heated up the bolognaise and cooked some pasta, followed by some fruit.

Friday, 19th December, 2008.

The weather was again really nice and we both read and sunbathed in the earlier part of the day.

Pat cooked bacon and eggs for our late breakfast.

We decided to go out for a drive and a walk and left after two o,clock.

We headed East and simply followed the coast road, driving slowly and stopping now and again to look at anything that took our interest.

We ended up in Goudouras, which appears to be off the general tourist route and is a mainly agricultural town, with row upon row of poly-tunnels, growing various vegetables..

We drove back to the villa and had a quick change before continuing into the town and popped into Status for a couple of hours, chatting and putting the world to rights.

Connie spoke to us and invited us to join her and some friends for a meal on Christmas day. We accepted with pleasure.

Lucky Luke's was chosen for our dinner and we had pork souvlaki's and chips for two. It was good Greek food.

Pat's is starting to change colour with all this sitting in the sun.

Saturday, 20th December, 2008.

Pat said it had rained overnight. We got up and read outside, sunbathing. At one stage the sky darkened and we went inside, thinking that, that would be it for the sunshine today. However, it rained and then the clouds moved away and the sun came out, so we decided to make the most of it and go outside again.

We walked into town at two and spent some time in Status, playing pool and chatting.

As we headed back along the main street, we said Kalispera (good evening) to an older Greek gentleman, and he said hello back and started speaking to us in English, asked where we were from, told us were he lived and said if we passed by, to knock, and he would give us some vegetables from his garden. He asked if we wanted to learn Greek, advising that after two ouzo's you can speak Greek, and after three you can read a newspaper.

We needed a few supplies, so stopped in the butchers and picked up various things. Then the bakers for some bread.

Pat cooked some of the Pork for our dinner.

Sunday, 21st December, 2008.

Today, being the 21st is the shortest day, so we have the evenings gradually drawing out again to look forward too.

The weather was good enough to sit outside first thing for a while, but the wind was cooler and when the clouds covered the sun, we moved indoors.

We decided that we would go for a drive and head for the general direction of Vai, which is on the North Eastern coast of the Island.

We left about eleven, and headed initially towards Sitia. We drove at a slow pace and stopped and looked at things whenever anything caught our eye.

Eventually, we arrived at Vai. This is a unique natural palm grove, that grows entirely of it's own accord, as it has done for centuries, and can only be found on this part of the Island. There are palm trees dotted around the Island, but not in a grove.

The beach with the palm trees growing as a backdrop is one of the best that we have seen on the Island. A long, wide sandy beach, with a shallow drop into the water and a small Island, a short swim into the middle of the bay, all making it a very pretty place.

We walked around for a while, there were only three other people we noticed on the beach, that we just know in the height of the summer will be hectic with tourists.

We left and headed further East, as far as we could drive. There are “off limits” areas at the end of the Island, so you can't drive all the way.

We phoned home and had a terrible signal, so drove a short way back up the road, to the phone masts we had spotted, and got a powerfully strong signal. All was well at home.

We had a look at the Site of Itano, an ancient town and we then headed back and arrived about four o'clock.

The temperature on the car dropped to 9°C when we were driving in the mountains. I haven't seen the temperature in single digit figures for a couple of weeks. It increased back to 14°C as we headed South again.

It's funny actually, because whenever we spoke to anyone on the North of the Island they believed it to be colder and having a lot of wind in the South. It is simply not true about the temperature, if you think about it as you go South it gets warmer and we have noticed when driving around that it is always warmer here.

With regards to the wind it isn't noticeably windier, and if it comes from the South, it's coming from Africa, so it's warm anyway. Although you did get red rain sometimes apparently, which are the clouds filled with sand dust off the Sahara dessert.

Makrigialos is not always affected by the general weather trends, because of the mountains holding the clouds back, which then changes what is happening more generally.

We were told the other day that a town along the coast, called Arvi, slightly West and not far from here has the highest temperatures in Europe. It is surrounded by mountains and has it's own little micro-climate, facing South and getting little cloud, because of the mountains. I am not sure if it's true, but I can certainly believe it.

We had a meal of the various things in the cupboards, and a quiet evening.

Monday, 22nd December. 2008.

The weather is overcast and raining, so we had a slow start to the day.

Pat cooked the chicken sausages, we bought from the butchers, with an omelette for our lunch.

We went out out four o'clock and took a drive to the town. We popped in Status and played pool and chatted.

We returned home at eight and Pat cooked the Pork Souvlaki's, with some chips for our dinner.

It continued raining for most of the day and the temperature was cooler.

Tuesday, 23rd December, 2008.

A damp start to the day, but it brightened up gradually.

A visit to Ierapetra today, to see the town and visit the supermarkets to stock up for the next few days.

We left at eleven, and had an uneventful half hour drive. The road is mainly along the coast, and runs just to the side of the beach most of the time. The sea is some wonderful colours, with the rain run off from the land dragging dust into the sea and changing the colour of the water.

This was our first visit to the town. We have driven through it a number of times, but not stopped and looked around.

We parked in the Port area, the town was busy with traffic and cars were parked everywhere and anywhere.

We walked a short way and stopped for a coffee, in Chocolicious. Then had a wander around the port area, which has a Venetian fort protecting the harbour area. After this, onwards into the main pedestrian shopping area.

We saw a sign in the Port area, pointing to Napoleon's house, we have no knowledge of the story relating to this place and walked into a housing area, and saw no further signs, but saw a very old house which could have been it.

We stopped at another cafe at the way back, to go to the toilets more than anything. The place was buzzing, and I guess this was because of Christmas.

Then, back to the car and to the supermarket.

We stocked up for a few days, and then headed home arriving at three o'clock.

We then had a snack lunch.

At about five o'clock we decided to pop down to Status and we stayed for a couple of hours.

Feeling very lazy, we went to Lucky Luke's and bought a ready cooked chicken, with chips.

My HRPA (Highly Paid Research Assistant) advises that Napoleon stopped at the house in Ierapetra on his way back from Egypt to France, and we had found the correct house.

Wednesday, 24th December, 2008.

Thirteen weeks travelling today and it's Christmas Eve.

It had been raining again and it was generally overcast.

Pat cooked us some boiled eggs for brunch.

We relaxed for the morning and took a walk down to the town, at two o'clock. We popped into the butchers for some meat to get us through the next few days.

Then on to Status. There were a few people in today. We played doubles at pool and enjoyed the afternoon. We left at four and it was raining. We were pretty damp by the time we got back to the villa.

We had bought some beef that was minced for us in the butchers and pat prepared this as pasta bolognaise, this was our dinner for today and some of it to be frozen for another day.

There was a Christmas Eve party at the Status bar and we got ready and left the villa at eight thirty.

It was a very pleasant evening and the bar was quite full of people. After the usual few drinks, the ladies danced to various records played by Jonnie. Connie had done lots of nibbles and it was all very festive. We stayed until just after midnight.

Thursday, 25th December, 2008.

Christmas Day.

A slow start to the day, recovering from the late night. I took a picture of the clock, outside on the balcony at 1135, showing a temperature of 21°C.

We both phoned and spoke to various family members, wishing then Merry Christmas.

Pat and I had agreed previously that we were happy with no Christmas presents for each other. The trip we are on and some many aspects of it are so outside “normal”, that we consider it to be a big present to ourselves.

We are rarely out of each others company, and to be able to surprise the other in a purchase, would not be easy. We don't need anything, if we do we buy it. There are not really things that we want, because we are not in a settled day to day routine and something that we may want today, we maybe won't want tomorrow, so we have a different mindset at the moment.

Because of carrying everything around in the car, we are also conscious of not loading ourselves down with too many superfluous items.

In general terms we are away from the things that would be the usual indicators to us of Christmas. The weather also confuses things, because it is not freezing cold, it can't be December. It is therefore an experience that is all very different and of course wonderful because of it.

For information, the Greeks celebrate Easter to a far greater degree than Christmas. The traditional Christmas that we are familiar with decorations outside the house and so on, is not the norm for here. However it has been growing more each year. Speaking to people they have themselves noticed the increase in the amount of Christmas paraphernalia. It has struck me as completely incongruous, from the first moment I saw a Santa climbing up the outside of a Greek residence. It just doesn't seem right.

We had a brunch of bacon, eggs and toast, and left the villa at four o'clock, to meet at Status before moving on to the restaurant.

There were about twelve of us in the party and we had drinks and nibbles before going to the restaurant just after six o'clock.

The restaurant is only three houses along from where we are staying, and we had a general selection of Greek starters, which everybody tucked into.

Pat had a Pork in wine sauce and I had a mixed grill. The evening was very convivial and we decided to make a move at half nine. A very short drive back.

Friday, 26th December, 2008.

Boxing Day - Saint Stephen's day, and therefore my name day

The weather was less cloudy and we did sit outside for a while enjoying the sunshine.

We decided that a drive out was on the cards, as we had not done much recently, and that we would head West along the South coast, with a general destination of Arvi.

Pat prepared a picnic lunch and we set off at eleven o'clock.

As with a lot of our drives on the Island of Crete, when you look at the map things don't seem that far away, but by the time you have driven up and down the mountain roads, in and out of the coastal roads, it all takes a lot longer. Of course what you do get is lots of scenery, which is the upside.

We drove up to and past Ierapetra, at which point we noticed the the mountains in the distance were snow capped.

We followed the road until the signpost for Arvi, then went towards the coast. The reason that we were heading for Arvi was that it was alleged to us that it was the hottest town in Europe. We eventually arrived at Arvi, and it is a small fishing village with a new looking harbour, and was sadly not the sort of place that we would have lived.

We then followed the coastal road and headed back a different way to the main road. We stopped and had our picnic lunch.

There is still a lot of work going on in the olive groves collecting the olives.

We arrived back in town at four and popped into Status, to see how everyone was after last night. We left about six o'clock.

Pat cooked the Pork chops, with some potato's for our dinner.

Pat wants me to mention what she calls parking lights. This is the Greek practice when driving, when you park or are about to park of putting your hazard lights on, indicating to others your intention to park, usually only for only a short while, in the way of all other road users.

Saturday, 27th December, 2008.

Pat cleaned the villa and I washed the car. It was overcast, and just I had finished with the car, when it started to rain.

We went out at four o'clock and popped to Status, and left about quarter to seven.

We popped into the butchers and bakers on the way back.

Pat cooked some chicken fillets in a sauce, with pasta, and a side dish of Greek Salad.

Sunday, 28th December, 2008.

The end of our third week in the villa.

It was cloudy, interspersed with blue sky, and a little windy to start the day. We have heard the weather should improve again next week.

We made the usual Sunday phone calls and all was well at home.

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