Crete Walks (2)

Thanx and a tip-o-the hat to Geoff Needle and his book Crete Walks in the Apokoronas for another great hike, this time a walk from the village of Gavalahori to the village of Douliana and back.

The walk began in the town square of Gavalahori and we were soon out in the countryside, passing shrines and getting great views of the Aprokoronas and Souda Bay. Up and down and around and, after getting good and hot and tired, we were in Douliana, a sort of tourist resort ghost town this time of year. But the taverna was open and the beer was cold.

The walk back to Gavalahori was mostly along an old, worn, rocky, twisty, turny, donkey trail and along it we found the cave church of St. John; a refreshing place for a rest. A few more ups and downs and arounds and we were back in Gavalahori.

And thanx and a tip-o-the hat to Jeff Buckel for visiting and sharing this walk!

Dream Come True

I am very happy to report that my Cousin Dian was able to come for a visit. Dian has lived in Greece for over 30 years. During that time she has never been able to come to my home for a visit. Now she was able to come! Even though I had to move my home to Greece for her to be able to come. It was truly a dream come true. We spent time together as children and had many memories to recall. We had a lovely visit and dinner with Christina and Kostas. Christina is a friend of Dian's from Ionnina in northern Greece. Christina is also our Greek teacher. Lucky for us Kostas loves to cook so we always have a wonderful treat when we have dinner with him.

We also had the pleasure of visiting Dian's relatives in Crete at a small village in the mountains. Nikis and Mimis were wonderful hosts, Dian was a stellar translator, and Eftihia (Nikis, mother) was lovely. Nikis dinner was the best traditional Cretan food we have had on Crete or ever expect to have again. We even got to meet a neighbor friend and a donkey. We toured Nikis and Eftihia's olive orchard, picked grapes, went for a swim in the Libyan Sea and ate more great food. And not to forget another of Niki's long time friends invited us to share in a celebration for his daughter's graduation and acceptance into college. There must have been over 100 people at the party. There was much singing, dancing, and I'm pretty sure much sprits, given the spirited nature of the party!

Right now our nephew Jeff is visiting us. Lucky for us. It was sad to see Dian leave and has been very cheering to have Jeff with us. One of our blogs to come will be Adventures with Jeff.
It's starting to cool off now. Jeff went swimming this evening and said that the water was warmer the deeper he went and that the surface water was chilly. But that if you really wanted to warm up you could pick up a rock off the bottom, they were nice and warm!

Pancratium maritimum

This lovely flower is in bloom on the beaches of Stavros. One of its common names is the Sand Lily and the bulb, deep in the sand of beaches and backyards, waits until now, after weeks and weeks of cloudless days, to put forth leaves and flowers. Maybe it was waiting for the migratory and nocturnal hawkmoth to make the trip from Africa to stop by and pollinate it on its way North. A couple of hawkmoths have migrated through our house; at first we thought they were small birds.

For reference, the lily plant in the photo is about a foot and a half tall; the flower, about 4 inches in length and, at the opening, about 2 inches wide (just the right size for the moth).

Short Trip to Omalos, Sugia, and Almost to Lisos

The Omalos Plateau is about 2/3 of the way across Crete south from Chania and a bit west from Chania. It reminded me of a miniature North Park in the Colorado Rockies (from a distance). Up close it is a bit drier and is a big goat and sheep pasture. The south edge of the Omalos plateau is the head of the Samaria Gorge. You can hike the rest of the 1/3 across Crete all the way to the Libyan Sea down this gorge. I say YOU can. We did not! We are thinking that we may be able to put off hiking down the gorge until it closes at the end of September, then it's likely to be too hot for us to go when it opens again in April, or maybe it will be too windy. One can only hope. But I'm thinking we are likely to hike down the gorge or be called wimps (which we are).

On the way to the Omalos Plateau we stopped at Laki where they have invisible hand rails. The village is on a lovely hillside, the statue and the platia are in Laki.

The incredible craggy mountains are at the beginning of the trail down the Samaria Gorge and late in the day the shadows were very pretty. We went for a short hike farther west along the edge of the beginning of the gorge trail, that's where the natural bonsai tree pictures were taken.

We stayed overnight in Omalos. It was wonderfully chilly in the mountains and we got to use blankets at night! This was so encouraging to us that we decided to hike to ancient Lisos the next day. To do this hike you drive to Sougia, which is on the south coast a bit farther west and then hike up the Lisos Gorge over a headland and then down to sea level in the next inlet west of Sougia. Both Sougia and Lisos were originally Minoan Settlements. Nowadays Lisos is an abandoned city other wise know as an archeological site. And Sougia is still a lively small port and summer time beach resort. We started out in Omalos very excited and energetic thinking about the hike, but as we lost elevation and gained temperature we turned into our usual wimpy selves. So we sat on the beach and took naps in St. Lucy. Then at about 5:00 PM we suddenly got energetic again and decided to go for the hike (it got cooler). So you will see pictures of the Lisos Gorge where we thought we had suddenly been transported to somewhere in the canyon lands in Utah or New Mexico. Except they don't paint Greek flags on the canyon walls in New Mexico. We did not make it to Lisos, but we did make it to the cliff edge looking down into Lisos. We are thinking of taking the water taxi from Sougia to Lisos next time and then spending our day hiking around in Lisos and maybe hike back. So, come see us and you can come along. You don't have to hike, you can take the water taxi both ways!

By the time we finished our hike it was getting along towards afternoon (7:00 PM) and we started the drive back across the mountains. We took a different route home because we saw on the map that it was a red road. This means that it is not a yellow road (we don't take yellow roads any longer unless under duress). But as we found out not all red roads are equal. This road was not equal. Actually I am exaggerating a little, part of the road had recently been redone. There were even some nice wide straight stretches along the road where new bridges had been built over some of the larger gullies. At each of these nice straight wide bridges there were extremely tall bright lights along each side of the road and then it got pitch black again on the remaining narrow curvy parts. We stopped for dinner at about 10:00 PM in Kolumbari at Grier's favorite restaurant. Then home by 1:00 AM.

Such a beautiful place and always something unexpected.

Some sad news. St. Lucy had her first (and I hope only) run in with a stone wall on my way home from work on Monday. It was one of those tiny windy roads, with double parking, two cars coming head on, and three following me, and a pedestrian. I chose the wall. Next time I will just stop. We were all going slowly enough, I could have. :(

St. Lucy has also developed a suspicious rattle coming from underneath. And I think there is also a new peculiar smell, although I haven't told Grier yet. But, he'll find out when he reads this Blog adventure. On a happy note St. Lucy got a bath on Friday. The Seabees are earning money for the Seabee Ball by doing car washes. They did a great job. The scratch on her side doesn't show up as much as it did when she was dirty.

Tonight the cats will get baths too. I hope you like the pictures.

Modern Greek Poetry

"Well," you say, "what about modern Greek poetry? Isn't it about time you said something about that?"

Okay, thanks to Kimon Friar, we can say a few things. Modern Greek Poetry, translation, introduction, commentaries and notes by Kimon Friar, Efstathiadis Group, 2005 (you'll be able to pick up your copy at the Hania airport), covers Greek poetry from the late 1800s through the mid 1960s. While you might object, saying, "that doesn't sound very modern to me", Friar has selected poems from all the heavy hitters from the 20th century: Cavafis, Sikelianos, Seferis, Elytis, and Gatsos; as well as lots more who deserve to be better known.

And, Friar has also provided short biographies of each poet with interesting information like: "Many of his poems were written on cigarette boxes and scraps of paper aboard ship."; "... he has tended toward a conscious control of the subconscious ..."; "His poems are often inspired by a frenetic, orgiastic, Dionysian ecstasy in an ultimate triumph of life, love, and a lust so cleaned of guilt and ethical distortions that it flows as from the pure springs of creation."; and, "In substance, his poetry becomes transcendent and ultimately irrational."

Of course, now you'll want to read the book yourself, but here are a few selections that we think stand out, and which seem to have the common theme of heat and light; impressive things here on Crete.

Aquarelle

On the mole, half-asleep in the summer's heat,
scalding mists leap above the blazing sand,
and its small houses, whitewashed and stripped bare,
make white brush strokes on the unmoving sea.
There gold-green waters in translucency
reveal snake-twisted seaweed, silver pebbles,
red-rusting anchors, shadows of dark blue
cast round their rims by the becalmed caiques.

Not a single soul! A lone man fishing there
stretches his numb hands sluggishly and yawns,
then sprawls on the hot stones and falls asleep;
there only a ferocious, black-haired dog
squats by the prow of a large fishing boat
and squints on the dead seastrand drowsily.

Kostas Ouranis

Daybreak

Frenziedly but certain
The colt of day charges into
The mouth of spring and the birds are singing
With the clear sky in their voices
Like flutes that echo and reecho in the flora
Of a handful of angels who remain in rapture
Like windflowers that arise
From the petals of pleasure.

Andreas Embiricos

And this, also by Embiricos, from his prose poem "In The Street of the Philhellenes":

"Oh God! This searing heat is necessary to produce such light!"