CRETAN DIARY

13. JUNE 2007

It's time for some short stories about our life on Crete. As I am a big fan of "Seinfeld" and life here sometimes is like a episode from that series (lot's of talking, much ado about nothing but always with humour), I'll do it a bit "Seinfeld" style:

The Lost Wallet.

I had to go to the hardware store to buy some cable and paint. Manolis, the shopkeeper however insisted I had a look at his puppy dogs. I was a bit in a hurry but I'm also a sucker for puppies. Two beautiful heartbraking small young dogs lay in the back of his pick up together with their stressed mother. I wasn't sure if Manolis wanted to sell or give me one of the dogs and, afraid of returning home with cable, paint ánd a puppy, I did my best to leave a.s.a.p. without being rude.

A day later I discovered that my wallet was missing. In it a thousand euro's a credit card, my drivers license and some bank cards. Later that day we were invaded again by the sheep and goats from the sheperd (see earlier in this diary) and we were advised to go to the police this time.

So I had to go to the police filing a complaint about the sheperd and about my lost wallet. And all this in Greek ofcourse. Filing a complaint about the sheep was difficult enough and then I had to explain that I had yet another case to investigate; my lost wallet (I was sure that it wasn't stolen from me). I have to give credit to the policemen that they could make sense of my ridiculous Greek and they told me to wait another day before they would write a protocol for the insurance and bank.

I returned to my car heavily sweating due to the linguistic efforts I had made as I heard somebody calling my name. It was the police again. Somebody had just found and returned my wallet!! And guess what: everything was still in there, including the thousand euro in cash and more importantly my driver's license.

Ofcourse I was absolutely cheerful and almost embraced the policemen. But I didn't get the chance because they put me in the police car to see the finder of the wallet so I had to cahnce to thank him personally. I didn't mind at all. The trouble in a small city however is that everyone sees everything and for the next few days the town was gossiping about the "Xeni" that was taken away by the police.

That's it for now! Join us next time when we meet the police again because we had a little accident. In following episodes you can watch us going to the police for witing a signature, us going to the police for getting a residence permit, and us going to the police to have witnesses for signing a contract.

In the mean time take a look at these pictures

1. JUNE 2007

And again a month has passed since we last contributed to our diaryn.This would suggest that nothing is happening but is right the contrary. We re still busy with lots of things but regularly interrupted by workmen who come to do the last odd jobs.

Life here is much stranger than we ever could have imagined. Sometimes we were driven to disparation becaused it seemed some job or another would never be finished. But then, when you least expect it, you come home and you'll find the job done! Sometimes that even happened when we came home late on a sunday evening from the taverna! Someone had spent his sunday evening finishing the job.

Or this situation with a carpenter. A door didn't shut properly and I asked him if he could fix it. Then he just pointed at the keyhole and asked if I didnt't have a key. Ofcourse I have a key but I would prefer a door that shuts evn without locking it (as most doors tend to do). After a long discussion I restated my arguments in the Ducht language (Greek didn't seem to work) and hence the problem was soved in a few seconds..

Waste disposal. Very funny how they (don't) deal with it. There's no such thing as a container park where you can rid of building rubble or other bigger amounts of garbage. No separate containers for glass or chemical waste. Everything is dumped in containers that stand by the side of the road. The rest is burned on site

In a country where water can be scarse it's very strange that there are no wc's with a watersaving knob and everybody is hosing their terraces like there is no tomorrow. They even hose of there terraces and paths DURING a rain shower.

We zijn nog steeds niet gewend aan de afwisselende drukte en rust in het dorp. Ga je 's morgens het dorp in, dan vind je een levendig zelfs druk plaatsje waar we maar met moeite met onze grote auto langs de geparkeerde auto's kunnen laveren. Vanaf een uur of 2 loopt het helemaal leeg, gaan de winkels dicht en is er bijna geen mens op straat. Voor ons voelt dat nog steeds als zondagmiddag. Vanaf een uur of half 6 stroomt het dorp weer vol, gaan de winkels weer open en is er bijna geen parkeerplaats meer te vinden.

Na wekenlang shoppen in Chania om de appartementen in te richten, heb ik nu dan eindelijk ontdekt dat Kastelli zo gek nog niet is. Alles is hier te koop, alleen ligt niet alles zichtbaar in de winkel en de meeste dingen zijn niet geprijsd. Dat schrikt ons als West Europeanen een beetje af, we willen tenslotte prijzen vergelijken, maar ik begin nu een beetje door te krijgen hoe het hier werkt. Ik weet het niet zeker, maar ik vermoed dat veel artikelen niet geprijsd zijn omdat de prijs gewoon niet vaststaat. Zo vond ik eindelijk een winkel waar ze hoeslakens verkochten en ik wilde er 10 hebben. De prijs wordt genoemd, je kijkt een beetje bedenkelijk en de prijs zakt al. Dan benadruk je nog eens dat 10 stuks wel veel is en de prijs zakt nog een beetje. Een leuk spel waar ik veel plezier aan beleef.

De buren zijn lief.

We hebben Spiros, een schat, die regelmatig voor verrassingen zorgt. We hadden via hem een mooie grote tafel besteld voor op ons terras. Een vriend van hem in Heraklion zou hem voor ons maken en op 29 april komen brengen. De hele dag zaten we te wachten en te kijken of er al iets kwam. Nee dus. 's Avonds gingen we even wat eten in het dorp en rond half 11 belde Spiros op mijn mobieltje: "Waar zijn jullie nou? De tafel is er!" Nadat de enorme tafel op ons terras was geplaatst vroeg ik of de heren wat wilden drinken, een glaasje wijn misschien? Daarop vroegen ze me of ik van rode wijn hield. Ja, dat deed ik en toen ging de kofferbak open, er kwam en jerrycan uit en ik moest maar even een lege fles pakken. Diezelfde avond werden we uitgenodigd voor een feest op 1 mei in een dorp in de buurt. Onze gasten Maas en Annelies moesten ook beslist meekomen. We hadden geen idee wat ons te wachten stond, maar het was een geweldig feest met overvloedig gedekte tafels, muziek en dans. En wat een hartelijkheid. De gastheer kwam ons vaag bekend voor en ook hij meende ons al eens eerder gezien te hebben. Uiteindelijk bleek dat Raymond en ik ongeveer 14 jaar geleden in een van zijn appartementen gezeten hebben!

De buurmeisjes komen iedere dag wel even buurten. Irini van 11 wil vooral iedere dag heel graag het zwembad in en dat mag, als we tenminste tijd hebben om erbij te zijn. Haar kleine zusje Beba van bijna 3 (betekent zoiets als baby, ze krijgt haar naam pas als ze binnenkort gedoopt wordt) roept me iedere dag en vraagt waar ik ben. Ze komt dan de binnenplaats op en we spreken gebroken Grieks met elkaar. Dit hummeltje was in het begin panisch voor honden en is nu helemaal gek op onze Donna en Ligo.

De andere buren zijn Stella en Vangelis van het feest met het schieten. Stella spreekt goed Engels en vertelde me het verhaal van de hond en het konijn. Ze hadden een puppy gekocht om te trainen voor de jacht. Er wordt hier vooral op konijnen gejaagd, dus besloot haar man er meteen een konijn bij te kopen zodat de pup zou leren wat een konijn was. De 2 werden dikke vrienden wat vast niet de bedoeling was en het konijn werd vrijgelaten. Maar het konijn gedroeg zich als een trouwe hond, ging overdag wel wat scharrelen, maar ging 's avonds weer braaf naar huis. Na Pasen hebben we niks meer van het konijn vernomen.

En dat zijn alle buren. Je hoort soms wel eens wat, Vangelis die op zijn bouzouki speelt, of je hoort een paar mensen praten, maar het is hier ook heerlijk stil. Dan horen we alleen maar de schapen en de vogeltjes. Ongelofelijk, zo dicht bij Kastelli en zo stil

Met onze stek gaat het goed. De tuin is voor het grootste deel aangelegd. Alleen jammer dat de schapen van de naburige herder al mijn rozen hebben kaalgevreten en daarna als een leger door de rest van de tuin gemarcheerd hebben.

Het zwembad is natuurlijk geweldig. Gek genoeg gaan we er niet eens iedere dag in. Het is nog steeds onvoorstelbaar dat dit niet zomaar een zwembad is maar ONS zwembad! Vandaag het hele terras aangekleed met parasollen, zitjes, mooie ligstoelen en hele mooie barkrukken. Het barretje staat er nog werkeloos bij. Het is een leuk "huisje" met een echt dak met dakpannen, maar daar is alles mee gezegd. Geen koelkast, geen glazen, geen drankjes, geen licht, geen muziek. Ach, wie weet hoe het er over een week uitziet.

Met de boekingen gaat het goed. Via vrienden, kennissen, familie en deze website komen er boekingen binnen en sinds kort werken we samen met Petrock Travel (zie op hun site onder nieuwe appartementen)

30. APRIL 2007

I've just noticed that it has already been a month since we contributed to this diary. Seems the we're quickly taking over Greek ways! Ofcourse we have been really very busy. On April 1st our first guests arrived and at least theit appartment had to be ready. It was ready in the nick of time

After our first kind guests who didn't mind that there was a lot of building going on around them, new people were due to arrive. Accommodations unfortunately were not ready or showed serious faults. But we made it a habit that everything was ready sometimes just minutes before they arrived.

The only problem was that the Builders Esq. after finishing their work left a huge pile of rubble and didn't take in consideration that people have to actually live in the mess they left behind. I had more work cleaning the paint spats then it took the painters to put it on where it belonged. The same goes for the glue the carpenter left on te windows, the cement from the macons and tilers and the packagings of suppliers.

But anyway, we have no right to omplain at all because we are nearly there and that is, after hearing stories from both Greek and foreigners, nothing short from a miracle. We've met an English couple that had to wait three years before their house was somewhat habitable. A big thumbs up for Minas and his miracle men and ofcourse our agent Stuartm who himself just recently moved.

Many thanks too to the inventor of the mobile phone without whose brainwave this result wouldn't have been possible: Usually Minas comes to check every evening and when we remark that our guest will arrive in a week/in a few days/tomorrow/any second now (in that order), he grabs his phone and starts shouting "malaka, malaka! Pote!? Malaka" (When? you asswhole! When?). Not long after that an old rustpile will drive up our road with some smiling Greeks in it who have seem to forgot that they have just been called the worst bums in the world. After a while their work is finished and they leave us with the usual pile of rubble and mess

Enough now! It's time for pictures. There are a lot this time. They have been taken today so there will be some untidyness on them but that is just how it is and also a prove of the hard work that was done

Enjoy and click here

27. MARCH 2007.

We are well into our fifth week on Crete and although it's hard work and we're still adapting to a different culture we have to conclude that we are very, very happy here. The weather was awful, we had some heavy rains and storms. It has been cold (and our heating isn't working yet). We're not in our place. But despite all that it feels wonderful being here.

Every day has it's surprises and we've met new friends (both Greek and British) and I could easily fill pages of this diary every day (but unfortunately haven't got the time). What happened yesterday however deserves a place in this log. We were taking it easy late on sunday afternoon, enjoying the view on Kissamos bay. Suddenly there were some very loud bangs accompanied by some shouting in Greek. It was as if we were in Bagdad instead of a quiet village on Crete. Our dogs went crazy as we were looking around for what was happening.

Then below one of our neighbours saw us and shouted: "Ela! Edo jortazieme" (Hey come here, we're having a party). And, being party animals, we did. When we went down we saw what these loud bangs were. It was the zound of partying Greeks shooting their .45 Magnums (amongs other very impressive small arms) in the air. We heared that it was Greek custom to shoot at parties but we never saw it.

Entering the house of our neighbours Stella and Vangelis it turned out that Vangelis was celebrating his nameday. The house was filled with tables that had enormous quantities of food and wine on it. We were wellcomed as good old friends and everybody told us what great job we had done to the house and ofcourse wanted to know everything about us. Not very long after that they got out the bouzoukis and the violin (before that they sang continously, who needs CD's?). I'm sorry if all this sounds like a commercial for olive oil, but it was really like the way I've described it.

And during the whole evening one of the men would suddenly stand up grab a gun from his hip and shoot their guns empty in the sky. And everytime for one split second yu would think that it all was over and that you would be executed by a neck shot.

Anyway it was all great fun. After a while, exhausted from speaking our awful Greek and trying to understand what they were saying to us we wanted to leave, a hard days work ahead for us in the morning again. "Why are you leaving my friends!? Tonight we're having a party and tomorrow, well tomorrow is another day".

Who could argue with that!

12. MARCH 2007

And we've passed another milesstone: We're in the house now and we have an ADSL connection. The lower part of the house (our private residence) is not finished yet. The delay is mainly caused by the arch at the reception. The cutting of the glass is difficult because the curve of the arch is not perfectt.

Ofcourse there are hundreds of thousands smaller and bigger problems that have to be taken care of. We have to get accustomed to the fact that there are no Ikea's or somethig like that on Crete: for cupboards you have to go to a cupboard shop, for lights you have to go to a lightsshop and so on. The local economy resembles that of ours in northern europe of the seventies. That meansthat you can't shop by just lookig around on your own, the shopkeeper or his staaf immediately comes up to you and asks if he can be of service. But this is also an advantage because as a newcomer it is very good to set up a network and it does wonders for your Greek language. And ofcourse it's quite sociable too.

We've promised to tell something about our journey. We left in the middle of the night and 17 hours later we arrived exhausted in Bari where we had gret difficulty to find a hotel where they would take in dogs.. Our navigation was a tremendous help (although my co-driver will not agree on that). It is very difficult to find your way at night in a city you don't know after you've just drove 1600 km virtually nonstop.

The next day we did the last bit of 150 km to Brindisi where we got caught up in the narrow streets (the ferry company gave us the wrong adress to collect the tickets). In these streets, that are hardly suitable for any vehicle, let alone a big pick up like ours, we got involved in a little accident. Luckily we got away without being shot but only a bit short of cash.

The ferry Brindisi - Igoumenitsa was a wellcome breathe, and drinking pauzeeen welkome adem,- en drinkpauze. On board I even gave an interview to Dutch local radio (from my province Limburg) about carnaval on Crete.

In the evening we set foot on Greek soil and found a place to sleep for ourselves and the dogs with a very distrusting hotel owner's who was prepared to set aside his disgust for dogs for some hard cash

The next day another 500 km to Piraeus where we landed in a complete and utter chaos. Thanks to our forgiving time schedule we could board very early, which was a good thing because the boat crowded with people wanting to spent carnaval on Crete. The next day we finally reached our destination. After two hours waiting our Navara rolled of the vessel and without further redue we drove to the house. And I could tell you now that it was astonishing but this was three weeks ago already and su much has changed since then............

To be continued.

MARCH 2ND. 2007

Finally and after a very long journey we arrived on Crete! The house is not ready to move in yet and we haven't got our own internet connection. Our agent Stuart is kind enough to offer us his office to update this site. Because we have a lot of catching up to do we won't have time tonight to update you on all our experiences here (like what happened on our journey and our first Greek church service!) but we will make up later. For now: take a look at these pictures: