Hi guys, I'm really feeling the chill and it's turning my head east.
Of course I'm still having a great time here in Chania, but I did not pack for this kind of weather. I've been looking like some kind of DP dressed in baggy, borrowed clothes. Plus, I've got such a hankerin' fer some spicy Thai noodles!
So I'm planning to leave for Bangkok in about a week and a half.
Anyway, my normal parayah (loosly translated as: posse) of Marinos, Maria and Panayiotis decided to f-off to Marinos' family village yesterday and stay for the night and next morning. We were stoked to go snail hunting...........

Okay, its really like snail 'picking' but it sounds funnier the first way.
We figured it out; the going rate for snails is about 7 euro per kilo, so if we got a really big sack and an early start, we could totally find, oh, say...100 kilos=700 euro=good times for all! . Perhaps I should mention at this point that we were about 6 carafas of tskoudia into the evening while formulating this plan.
Anyway, the next day, was POURING rain. And, of course, the boys were dragging their feet about going. I didn't care, a change of scenery was neccesary in order for me to retain my sanity (I've been going a bit stir-crazy lately).
Eventually, we got into the car (with Sheeba the super-dog) and hit the road for the two hour drive south to Horio Sactouria. It's pretty spectacular when the wheather is like that here, the churning sea, the fog in the mountains, it's a real contrast to the Crete of spring and summer.
We arrive and Marinos' aunt Sophia was there to greet us. View image

She now lives in Iraklion (the capitol of Crete) but comes to the family home often and had been staying there alone for about a month this time. I think she was happy to have the company. She set out a nice spread for dinner, baked rabbit, lentils, two kinds of horta (boiled greens, and my favorite), fried potatoes (in olive oil, of course) cheese, wine........It was fantastic after the long, wet trip.
We spent the remainder of the evening playing cards (Maria whipped my butt) and the boys watched football (that's 'soccer' to all my American peeps).
The subject of my feeble attempts so-far to learn Greek language came up, and Sophia launched into this story about a South African girl who married a Greek man and how he broke this plate of food on her face and left her when she wouldn't cook Greek food for him. Eventually she learned Greek perfectly and when she learned to cook Greek food, her husband came back to her. I wasn't really sure what the moral of this story was supposed to be because it was presented in such a sympathetic way towards the husband. So my response was, 'Well, he should have married a Greek girl then, but I can understand his point of view; any guy I marry, I don't care where he's from, better learn to speak perfect English and learn to cook what ever I want to eat. He should expect a smack if he doesn't.' I was completely kidding, of course, but I was just so appalled that this story had been told to me by the Greek aunt of the guy I'm with. I'm my momma's girl and I don't take no kinda crap like that. Amazingly, no offense was taken by her, and we ended up liking each other alot.
The next morning, we were greeted outside the bedroom door by a huge, bright rainbow. View image
Maria thought I was cold, but I'm from Chicago! View image

We took a drive down to the shore to Agios Pavlos, this beach which I've never been to, but everyone here has always told me about. It was too cold for a big baby like me to go swimming, but Maria and Panayiotis did. Here's some cool shots I pulled off (the sepia one, Marinos took). View image View image View image View image View image View image

We had another awesome meal, courtesy again of Sophia, and went to the little chapel that Marinos' grandfather built. The story goes that he had this re-occuring dream about this old moseuleum (that was on this site) and that it was on top of an old chapel that should be unearthed. No one believed or wanted to help him unearth this thing so he got to work with his wife. They found the chapel, all kinds of other wierd stuff happened, and they built the existing structure incorporating the old chapel. Here's a cool picture from the roof of it View image

So, we left the village and I'm like 'Hey! What about the snail hunting!' Well, 'apparently', the snails were busy making babies, so we shouldn't pick them now (?). It's funny, but that didn't seem to stop the 10 people or so I saw snail hunting on our way home................oh well, I guess next time.
~~~~~~~K~~~~~~~