Settling in Sisi

Dear friends and family,

Ah, settling in again. Are you sick of me talking about those first few days? Nevertheless, it is always a part of every shift of location. You unpack, you do an inventory of supplies, you take a breath and dive in. Our hostess, Angela, always starts you off with a well-stocked fridge, which in someways makes inventory trickier. What is still missing? So, with my list, I take my first walk into Sisi (first for this trip as we have been here twice previously).

Actually, you can find Sisi spelled at least 3 different ways, but this seems the town's approach to it, while various maps add a second "s" (Sissi) or a second "i" (Sisii). Anyway, for the next 3 weeks we will simply call it home. It is the true home for Stuart and Angela Sturgis who retired here about 8 years ago after running owning and running a hotel in England. After vacationing in Crete for many years, and being burned out by hotel life, they sold and moved down here and built a wondferful home, with their living on then top two floors and adding two one-bedroom apartments on the ground floor.

Just outside our door is a lovely pool

And a glorious view from their rural, elevated lot down into the village

We are located about 2 miles from the village. Each morning I get the car and go down the highway for about 3/4 of a mile and park the car and begin my walk from there. It is a bit more than a mile into town, past olive groves, rental apartments and a few barnyard animals.

When I turn east, I come to a lovely Greek Orthodox church that rest on the edge of main street

The stone work is beautiful. From there you come straight down to the sea

Ahead is a long row of restaurants. These tend to be the tourist traps where the photos of the food are as good as the meal will get. We have learned in our travels to avoid places that display photos of food! From there you circle around restaurant row and come to the tiny harbor.

One advantage Sisi has in its avoiding commercialization is that it does not have a formal stretch of beach. If you want to swim, you grab a sun chair and go into the bay

Opposite this is our favorite bar, Oromos, where on can enjoy a beer, a wine or an ouzo and watch the lovely sunsets over the bay and stone break. Nothing truly exciting about the village, but that, thankfully, is part of its charm. More later.

 

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