day 32 to 42 in Crete

Well here we are in Crete, where we have had a holiday from the holiday in our lovely villa, in the mountain of Myrthios looking over Plakias. We couldn't be happier with the area that we chose here. Overlooking the Meditereanean and gorgeous mountain views everywhere you look.

To all our permaculture and wildcrafting friends, this is an absolute paradise as far as wild edibles growing everywhere. Natalia all on her own has learned to tell the difference from a wild oregeno bush and one that looks very similar just by the shape of the leaves, the oregeno are a little flatter.

The nature has refilled our bodies for the next half and a bit of our journey. For as much as we love the arts and history we love nature equally, and the terraine of this land is ancient and rich.

Our really first day venturing to far from home base took us to a beautiful ancient Monastery of Prevali, where  a  few monks make their home in this serene peaceful place, filling their days making beeswax candles and incense from the 1500 diiferent types of flowers that grow wild here.

Onto a hike to a beach that you basically walk on a goat trail to get to. Speak of goats they are eveywhere as well as sheep. The bells you hear in the mountain in the morning is the most beautiful sound. We have even seen some sheppards with their original clothing of times gone past in Crete. (back to the walk to this deserted beach on the goat trail.  We get down to the beach and first thing we see is a guy that looks like Tom Hanks out of Castaway , kind of looking like he lives here. Well, he does. A German man that left Germany years ago to travel around the world and live naturally giving up all of his worldy possesions, and living from the earth. What a character!!  As we sat and talk though he was most inteligent interesting man, who travels to different places looking to learn from the shamans of the lands. Apprently in Crete which I sensed there is a lot of mystical healers and people that are drawn here to live this way.

He lived in a cave since December, and fishes, and wildcrafting to get his greens. He had a chicken and 2 cats that found him, and they are his companion on this beach. Addi and Natalia were a little taken back when he decieded he was getting too hot, and has zero problem with nudity, and took his shirt off to sit and chat a little longer with us (lol) 

He kind of went back to his daily routine as we sat on the beach , burying Addi in the sand. He came over with the chicken and said do you want a picture?, and of course this was one of the many shots Borys was hoping for. We've unfortunelty missed a few brilliant characters in Greece we would have loved to have pictures from. 

Our days for filled with lots of olive oil which we purchased that huge bottle for 5 euros, and lots of olives  feta, and halva. Evening coffes with Metaxa brandy, and their wild honey which I have never tasted honey like this in my life, wild flower is an understatement.

We went on quite an adventurous  hike and ended up a little off of the beaten path, and had to find our way back, ended up being a 4 hour hike, that we all felt proud of, some of the obstacles we had to get through to get back down. 

We went to the city of Rethymnon one day to the old city, but both agrre for us Greece is about the countryside the Greek Cities didn't do much for us.  On our way back we stopped at an ancient grave site of the Minoans which dated back to 1200 BC, the 1st civilization in Europe. Man thats old!

We  would love to come back again and take in some more of the Island another trip, with some more history, but we were quite content to go at a Mediteranean pace here, and eat sleep and be in nature.

Addi has been homesick  for his cats, but interestingly enough this entire trip we could have a blog of the cats of the mediterranean. One that has taken residency with us here in Crete, the kids call him Rubba. Addison, hs started to pick up guitar on the trip, and lots of animated film ideas, is favorite passtime at home. Natalia said she hasn't really missed home, just her friends, that she loves travelling. She is most excited for us in Scotland, it must be her Celtic blood, starting to boil as mine, as we get ready to leave for Ireland tomorrow, and then Scotland. I believe if I'm right (Mom) my great grandmother on my mothers side is from Ireland and then both of my parents origins going back as far as they know are Scottish, I'm excited for the children to feel their roots. Natalia has practiced her sword dance on the trip , so I hope to get her on film in Scotalnd doing her highland dance.

That's it for now, hope you enjoy Crete and we will see you in Ireland!!!

Welcome to Greece Day 29 to 32

We arrive in Rhodes, Greece, and Italy already feels like a dream behind us. We stay in the Old City of Rhodes which is very ancient where some of the first crusaders came in, so they built this walled city.

The stoned streets, and the atmosphere feels quite different from the rest of the Mediterranean countries we have traveled  the past  5 weeks.

Our first taste of Greece is this little family pub that made the best Greek food. We indulge in homemade Pita and Greek salads and the children had a variety of different  things including some classic foods the children like.

We meet an Austrailean Greek in the pub ( The Walk Inn) as well as a Texan women who live here now. He shares that while renovating his house and digging into the foundation he digs right into ancient Byzantine walls, that is a common scenario when building in the old city, for there is basically another city under the ground of this city (or more).

One afternoon we went to a public baths of Turkish origin, the building of which no one knows the date of origin and bathed as people did and still do - very relaxing - an element that should be re/introduced into Western society.

We spend our few days here seeing the things we came specifically to Rhodes for, the old City and then to Lindos to see the Acropolis of Athena, and then onto another ancient city (Kameiros) - there are 3 sites on island that predate BC, where the ruins were of an ancient City left in enough of an assembly to actually feel and picture this ancient civilization that lived and work and played here. Truly wonderous, we all enjoyed the ruins Of Rhodes.

We hit a few deserted beaches in our travels and saw olive orchards everywhere, as we have seen a lot in the Medateranean since Spain, but somehow Greek olive orchards have this incredible ancientness to them. Certainly many beautiful sites and the ocean is the most gorgeous deep blue, that epitomizes the Meditteranean.

Now the people of Rhodes we couldn't quite figure, they look at you with little expression and at times suspiciously, perhaps even curiosity.

The plane ride leaving Rhodes to Crete, or should we say our flight that got canceled and then we waited on standby  for the rest of the day to see if we get onto another plane was a cross between a comedy and horrror show. At one point the disorganization and laid back attitude of 'don't bother us', or each person you spoke to told you something different was a test of patience.

At one point Borys and I started singing the Beatles 'all you need is love' just to remind ourselves that there are all kinds of people in this world with different ways even if its not to our liking. All we could do after a while was laugh about it all.

This island was a cross between the good(Gorgeous place and not so Gorgeous), the bad and the ugly, but in the end loved it, but looking forward to Crete, for the Cretians are supposed to be the friendliest in Greece.