Home again

Oh, what a lovely trip that was! We saw lots of beautiful places and ate lots of beautiful food.

Beth and the birthday girl

This is me and Margie, the Birthday Girl, in front of a very old fountain in Heraklion/Iraklion/Iraklio

Things I learned in Greece:

  • There are at least three ways to spell anything in Greek.  Heraklion, Iraklion, and Iraklio are all the same thing.  Road signs are no exception.
  • Yogurt, cheese, bread, tomatoes and olive oil are all better there than here.  Way. Like, no comparison. Who knew?  Must be the soil, because the ingredients are all the same.  Their restaurant tomatoes were all better than my homegrown.  I didn’t know that was even possible.
  • Goats and sheep can climb trees.
  • Locals like to play chicken on the one lane roads with the tourists.
  • The Mediterranean Sea is not bathtub warm but it’s so beautiful it doesn’t matter.
  • Greeks always drink a shot of Raki after dinner.  It’s AWFUL.  Made of grape leavings, reminds me of grocery store vodka.  If you eat a lot of rich Greek food and then have MORE than one shot of raki, you will probably be hurling/yakking/spewing at 3 a.m.  Bob can personally verify this.
  • The spiders on Crete make the largest of spiders here seem small and slow.  Eeeek!
  • Rock walls can be works of art.  That was, I think, my favorite part of the trip.  All the beautiful stone walls, old and new.  The really great ones look like they are fitted together with no mortar.  Seriously, they were works of art.
  • Greek people don’t seem to care too much about coffee.  We couldn’t find a coffee maker.  The restaurants and stores all featured NesCafe like it was something good.  Bleah.  I missed my Seattle’s Best for sure.
  • Greek restaurants overcook just about everything but it doesn’t seem to really matter.  Rare meat is not an option there.  Crisp tender vegetables do not exist.

rockwall3

Gorgeous rock walls.  One side of the island has this red colored rock, the other has a gray color.  Two tectonic plates met up here.

Here are some of the eight gazillion pics.  Bob took the bulk of them – if it’s scenery and beautiful, he took it:

Beaches  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/BeachesCrete#
Samarian Gorge Hike http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/SamarianGorgeHikeCrete2009#
Heraklion  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/IraklionFountainAndPort#
Knossos  (birthplace of the Minoan labyrinth myth) http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/KnossosPalaceCrete2009#
People http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/PeopleShotsCrete2009#
Sailboat trip  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/SailboatTripSoudaBayCrete#
Glass factory in our village http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/GlassFactoryKokkinoChorio#
Various architectural shots  http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/OldBuildingsWallsInterestingArchitectureCrete#
Flora and Fauna http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/FloraAndFaunaCrete#
A few villa shots   http://picasaweb.google.com/bcamero/Villas#

7 thoughts on “Home again”

  1. I wrote a comment earlier (like way earlier, about 4 in the morning) on the iPhone and then while it was loading I inadvertently shook the phone and deleted all the text! Damn technology.

    Anyhow, sounds like it was a wonderful time and I am very envious. Also quite sure I’ll get a lot of “wish I’d been there” moments when I view the photos.

    I’ve heard about goats climbing trees, but sheep? Seriously?

    On the south coast here, near Huelva, they grow the sweetest most delicious onions I have ever tasted. I’m told it’s because of the soil. Now I want to try Greek tomatoes.

    How did you get along just speaking English?

    Raki sounds a bit like grappa. What were the wines like?

    Okay, going to check out the pics now. Really glad it was a fabulous trip.

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  2. We got along pretty well just speaking English. I know a lot of Greek words now, too. But most of the restaraunt people had some English and we did just fine. I rather enjoyed that part. The area where we stayed is apparently a Brit vacation spot so there have been lots of English speakers before us.

    The wines were all over the map. I asked for the house red at one place and what they brought tasted exactly like tawny port. Very strange. Everyone had something different for their house wine and you never, ever got to see the bottle so it was probably really 3Eu rotgut – but mostly it was pretty good and I enjoyed it.

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  4. I’m looking forward to looking over those photos over the next few days, but… there aren’t any, uhm, photos of… those spiders. Are there? Kind of afraid to look…

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  5. The photos are lovely! i like that i can click through them quickly and they seem animated! It does sound a bit like grappa. Blechhh… Digestive aid my arse…

    Thought the tree-climbing goats were unique to Morocco, but apparently not! You’ve driven Greece to the near top of my “must visit” list!

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  6. I’m amazed that you people looked at my vacation photos.
    Probably the animated look means I put too many pics of the same shot up there … but I was tired and I actually DID sort through and discard a lot of them.
    Anyway, thanks for looking.
    Did you find any spiders, Lorena? Amanda had one, I think, in her linked picasa album.

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