RussellsAbroad: The Greek Island of Crete

Chris and I spent 5 days on the beautiful island of Crete over the Easter holiday. I learned some interesting facts about the place when I wasn't stuffing my face with the abundant delicious food.

Enjoying welcoming beer

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands and has lots of history. We only saw one part of the island, the more touristy area. We stayed in the Elounda Beach Hotel right on the Mediterranean Sea. I hear Jennifer Anniston is thinking about having her wedding at that hotel! April is still early for the tourist season so we found the area peaceful and not crowded, which we liked. Everyone at the hotel was welcoming and friendly to us. We were greeted with a drink of our choice, beer for Chris, champagne for me, while we sat outside on a terrace with a nice view and a member of the hotel staff explained all the amenities of the resort. When we arrived in our room, a complimentary platter of fruit and bottle of wine was delivered. Our stay was starting out on a pleasant note. The warm sunny weather that day certainly helped as well.

Spinalonga Island

One of the top things to do in the Elounda area is to take a ferry boat to the nearby small island of Spinalonga. The remains of a Venetian fortress from 1579 still stand today. Turks occupied the island in the 19th century. Finally, the island was home to a leper colony from 1903 to 1957. It was interesting to wander among the remains of the buildings that housed the victims of leprosy. There was actually an entire village for them, with shops, gardens, churches, etc. A historical fiction novel called The Island, written by British author Victoria Hislop, is based on the leper colony. I just finished reading it and really enjoyed it, especially as the places in the book were fresh in my mind from just having been there.

Spinalonga Island

Walking around on Spinalonga Island

Tour

On a rainy overcast day, we took a Great Adventure Land Rover tour around the area to see some scenery and interesting spots. We snapped a quick photo at one scenic overlook while the sun came out for a moment.

Next stop was a local kafenion in the plateau of Katharo where we had fresh squeezed orange juice and a look at some prehistoric bones that were found at the site when the cafe was being built. The bones were from pygmy rhinos and elephants from 14,000 years ago. This area is so high up in the mountains that there are only shepherds living there in the summertime. There is no electricity or running water. The room we were in was heated by a wood burning stove that can also be used to cook food. The cafe uses a generator for electricity. The people were offered utility services recently but they turned down the offer, preferring to keep the old ways.

Lunch was at a taverna, a small restaurant serving Greek cuisine. Plates of meze were served as appetizers including feta cheese, olives, bread with olive oil, hummus, tzatziki cucumber yogurt dip, Greek Salad, and more that I can't remember. The main course was souvlaki, grilled pork cubes on a skewer. We were told not to call it kebab which originated in Turkey and it's still a sore subject how the Turks occupied Crete. Unlimited homemade wine was available. The first taste was bitter, but the flavor seemed to mellow with each sip.

We had a taste of Greek mythology when we went to the cave where Zeus, the father of all the gods, was born. After a steep trek up the mountain, steps lead down inside the huge cave to the bottom. Beautiful stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere. It was a tough climb and we joked about Zeus's poor mom being 9 months pregnant and having to negotiate the ascent and descent. While down in the cave, my over-active imagination wondered what it would be like to be down there giving birth. Then I remembered it was just a myth!

This cave is the birthplace of Zeus

A lot of British people holiday in Crete and we came across several who now live on the island. Our tour guide was an Englishman. He and his wife had always planned to retire in Greece someday. When he got laid off his job twice and his wife was not happy in her job they decided that "someday" had come and they sold everything and moved to Crete. He was able to give us a good perspective on the local life. They live in a small village in a house built into the side of a mountain. Their neighbors have accepted them and have even Greek-i-fied their names. Gary is now known as something like Gary-opoulis.

Here are some tidbits of trivia that Gary shared with us:

Olive trees - Practically everyone in Crete owns olive trees and every olive tree on the island is owned by someone. The locals have no need to buy olive oil as they use what their own trees produce. Extra oil is sold to wholesale companies. Supposedly the extra virgin olive oil in Crete is less acidic and higher quality than Italy's.

GMT stands for "Greek Maybe Time" - Maybe they will be there on time.

Weddings are huge affairs with the entire village invited and thousands attending. Money is the accepted wedding gift. Parents of the bride give a house to the newly wed couple. As soon as a daughter is born, construction on the house begins and is slowly built as money is available. That is why you see so many partially constructed houses.

Women are expected to serve the men who don't help out around the house at all. When out at the bar, the woman must watch to see when the man's glass is empty and then go fetch him another drink. If she neglects to do this, he will pound his glass on the table to get her attention. If this happens, all the other women shame her. Gary-opoulis said he and his wife were out one night and he had to pound his glass down. His wife dutifully went and got a fresh beer and proceeded to pour it on his head! All the women had a good laugh about it but then they reverted to the proper chastisement of the wife.

Goats - We saw tons of goats grazing, but only some of them wear bells around their necks. Gary-opoulis explained that it is only the naughty goats that wear the bells: the ones that don't return when called or that are too amorous for the females. We saw some goats climbing up to the tops of trees to get to the tasty leaves remaining there.

Climbing goat

Naughty goat with bell

Raki - A shot of raki is offered at the end of a meal, similar to the ouzo that the rest of Greece drinks. Families make their own from the leftovers of the stomped grapes from the winemaking process. Supposedly the families keep the best for themselves and offer the rest to the tourists. Maybe that explains why we could hardly drink it. It was way too strong for me. It's an insult to refuse the drink when it is offered so Chris would often pour it into his empty beer bottle so as not to hurt anyone's feelings. We did have some flavored with lemon and some with herbs that made it sweeter and much easier to down. Yammas! (Cheers!)

Recycling - Cretans are big into recycling. When they make their homemade wine and raki they store it in plastic water bottles, see photo below. We sampled some red herb-infused raki at this shop. We also were given a dollop of honey on the backs of our hands to sample, which promptly resulted in our purchasing a jar of the delectable treat. But back to recycling, a discarded refrigerator becomes a tool cabinet, a cast-off chest freezer gets built into a fence, you get the picture.

Bottles of homemade raki, wine, and honey for sale

Easter is the most important celebration of the year in Crete. The Greek Orthodox church was preparing to celebrate Easter just as we were leaving. All during the week firecrackers could be heard in the streets in the evenings in preparation for Easter. At midnight on the night before Easter, the whole town collects in the darkness and the priest starts with a single lighted candle. He then passes the flame to those holding candles nearby and they each pass the flame back to others until the entire area is lit up with candles. Our taxi driver told us about how beautiful it was, wish we could've been there to see it. Another tradition is a bonfire to burn an effigy of Judas the betrayer.

Guns - Crete has been invaded so many times, most recently by Germans during World War II, that pretty much everyone there owns a gun in case it happens again. We saw many stop signs riddled with bullet holes from target practice.

Widows dress in all black until they marry again. We saw a lot of widows, many of them sitting in the doorways of shops, embroidering lace.

Church memorials - Little church buildings are set on the side of the road where accidents occurred. Placed inside the memorial are items such as a photo of the victim, religious items, a candle. If there is a bottle of water or soda in the memorial, that means the victim died and the beverage is to refresh him on his journey to the next world.

Roadside Memorial

Is it any coincidence that there is an abundance of these memorials, black-clothed widows, and raki-drinking?

Zorba the Greek - The movie was filmed entirely on Crete but the name "Zorba" is totally made up and no one in Greece goes by that name, except for some restaurants that use the name.

Turntable business - This has absolutely nothing to do with Crete but I found it interesting that a guy from England that was on our tour works in a plant making turntables for playing records, remember those dinosaurs? He said they ship most of their products to America. I can't believe I got rid of mine when we moved to England.

Life is good in Crete

So I hope I didn't bore you too much with facts, I just find it interesting to learn about different cultures. We found Crete to be full of traditions, history, beauty, good healthy food, and people who are relaxed, friendly, and know how to enjoy life.