Slow Day in Paradise

Dear Friends and Family, Hard to believe that we have now been gone more than a week. Last Wednesday we left, but, of course, it took us until late Friday evening to arrive. So, the calendar of our minds is a bit confused. Yesterday was a kind of recovery day. Doing a day trip in Crete by car is an exhausting adventure. As our host, Stuart, says, when driving in Crete, don’t worry about the car next to you, or the car behind you, worry about the one headed for you! They are crazy and seemingly no rules apply: pass on double yellow, pass on the right on a two lane road, race through a narrow lane, it is always the first one to flinch loses. So, when you travel the smallest distance there is always a certain level of anxiety. When you do it for a whole day, you are done-in! So, it was a very relaxing day. In fact, it was so laid-back that I neglected to take a single photo. Actually, as I wrote that sentence, I was reminded that I did, in fact, take one. The requisite sunset photo! I will reveal that shortly. I did the usual morning walk. I did have one slight shock as I drove out of our apartment (I drive to the road leading down to Sissi, as the main highway is a bit scary to walk on – they don’t call their drivers Cretans for nothing!). As I came on to the gravel road leading to the highway, I saw a huge buck deer! It had a huge rack of antlers, but the car spooked him almost immediately and he ran off before I could get a picture. He was, however, seen later in the day nearby and nearly drove the Sturgis’ two dogs, Lia and Ollie, out of their tiny little minds! I got off on my walk a bit later than usual and, believe me, once the sun is up (right about 7 am now), it warns up very quickly. I was drenched upon my return an hour later. Polley and I chose to just sit around the pool all morning. As I said, it is already plenty warm by 8:30 or 9, so we were reading and jumping back and forth into the pool every 15 minutes or so. It was nice to just relax, enjoy the quiet (just the swoosh of the cars on the highway) and focus on our books. Very pleasant. About noon, Polley and I went down to Ormos Café. It is that lovely setting, right on the harbor and, of course, it is the opportunity to check e-mail. Most of what we get is junk, but we do hear from a friend now and then and send off a few notes of our own. Feels nice to be connected. Funny how something like access to a WiFi code sort of locks you into a place. We are now regulars at Ormos and the owner, Nikko, has been very kind to us, with plates of fruit, nuts and chips along with our beer or wine. We did need to do a little more grocery shopping yesterday as we had neglected that pretty much since Saturday, our first day here. Then it was home for lunch and siesta. The nap made it clear exactly how much the day trip had taken out of us. We were both out for about 3 hours. It was so deep a sleep that it took falling in the pool to bring us back to the living. About 7 we headed back into Sissi and sat and watched the sunset from the harbor.

The sunsets are very dramatic here as the sun becomes this intense orange ball. I recall that the finest sunsets we had every witnessed were on the island of Santorini. These are just as dramatic, but in Santorini you are sitting up on the edge of the caldera of an old volcano, so you are really looking down on the sun dipping down over the horizon so that it appears that you can actually peek over the horizon to see where Sol has done. It gives the illusion that you catch a glimpse of the sun behind the curtain of the horizon. Anyway, after that, we headed to dinner at Liofito. This is the restaurant and working farm. We were there last Sunday. It is such a nice, peaceful setting and the owner and his wife seem very nice that we wanted to return. Last evening we had a large red pepper that is soaked in olive oil and garlic along with a roasted pork omelet that is a regional peasant dish; both quite good. With a half liter of wine, our bill was 13 euros! It is almost cheaper to eat out than to buy things at the store. It was a leisurely two and half hour dinner. The night was warm, so we were in no hurry. We also enjoy the locals who seem to frequent the place. Last night was packed and the poor owner (as waiter) and his wife (as cook) were nearly run off their feet. Got home about 10:45 (that’s what the siesta does for you), poured a couple of ouzos and just sat out under the stars. Where the apartment is there is very little light, so the sky is a wonder. We are off on another day-trip tomorrow so you may need to wait for Saturday for an update. We are going to the little village of Kritsa which our friend who wrote the book on olive oil, visited in doing his research. The per capita consumption of olive oil in this village is more than 50 liters! Italy and Spain average 13 liters and the US, less than 1 liter per person. Also hope to have a little lunch in Moklos, a tiny village that we enjoyed last year. Hopefully, there will be some pictures, of something other than sunsets!