Walls

"Walls are hot right now" 
Banksy, wall artist, and creator of the newly opened Walled Out Hotel in Palestine
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/banksy-opens-bethlehem-barrier-wall-hotel

The oldest walls delineating the limits of the town of Hania were built about 1500 years ago by the Romans who ruled in the East - those who conquered modern-day Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and originally Byzantium) at one point - otherwise known as the Byzantines, hence the 'Byzantine wall' (the green line in the above photo) as we refer to them in Hania. These walls were loosely based on the origins of the town which lie in the area of Kastelli, generally regarded as the oldest part of Hania. The Byzantine walls were built to protect the town from Arab invasions, but they were probably not very effective because the Arabs eventually invaded anyway, and despite their short rule, when the Byzantines took back the town, they needed to strengthen them due to the destruction that they had incurred.

The fear of losing what you gained - even if it was gained using illicit, violent means - was great in older times. Building a wall around your belongings has always been regarded as a way to keep yourself and your property safe. Even so, the newer Byzantine walls again failed to protect the town from invaders. The Venetians (Romans from the West) had conquered the city by the beginning of the 13th century. Their arrival also entailed a greater population. Builders began adding extra stories on the existing buildings, and new ones began to be built beyond the Byzantine walls. Since the town had expanded, new walls were in order. These newer walls - known as the 'Venetian wall' (orange line in the above photo) - began to be built soon after the Venetians established themselves in Hania, as they too feared attacks from other invaders (Arabs, Ottomans).

But the Venetian walls - built mainly by forced labour from the region - took a long time to be built. The Venetians weren't really very popular in Hania. For a start, they got rid of the high priests in the town, and installed their own ones. Different language, different customs, and a clearly urban attitude among the mainly rural people of Hania kept the two worlds apart, to the extent that the Venetians (read: Catholic) were living in the urban part of the province, while the Cretans (read: Orthodox) lived in the villages. The town of Hania was being constructed according to Venetian architectural standards - but beyond the urban area, the province remained decidedly Greek.

The arrival of the Venetians transformed Hania into a very beautiful one with distinct Venetians features. Hania was regarded as a mini-Venice. The Venetians built impressive walls around the modern town they created, with ramparts built at vantage points, enough room for a deep moat around the walls, and a large fortress on the west side. But these walls were not without their problems, which were known to the Venetians. They needed constant repair which was too costly to be done at regular intervals. It was to be expected that they too would eventually fail to secure the town against attacks. Barely had the fortress on the west side (known as 'Firka') been built than the Ottomans (read: Moslems) invaded and and conquered the island. The proposed moat had never actually been used, despite its existence. So the Venetian walls really did not live up to their expectations.

The Ottomans really didn't care much about the walls. They had already realised that the walls weren't very useful in performing their original function, so they basically went into decline after that. The Ottomans took over the Venetian buildings without changing them very much, and added a few landmarks of their own, like mosques and turreted towers on the churches and monasteries. Churches became mosques, storage areas, even soap factories. Such is the fate of the spoils of war. But the Ottomans were considered 'nicer' conquerors than the Venetians, because they reinstated Orthodoxy in the town, doing away with Catholicism. The Ottomans simply took over a pretty much ready-to-use town. When Greek independence became an issue of concern to the West, the Ottomans - who stayed in Crete longer than any other Greek territory of the time - must have realised that their time was almost up. Crete became a nation state in 1898, eventually joining modern Greece in 1913. It's been Greek ever since then.

When the Ottomans finally left Hania, and the Greeks took over, no more walls were built. The old walls were allowed to remain, but parts of them were knocked down in order to make way for roads. Ease of access was regarded as more important than preservation of the existing architecture. By then, Hania had become an important centre of trade as the capital of the Crete. Before town planning restrictions came into force in 1960, parts of the Venetian walls were knocked down to make way for roads, and people were living in houses built on, in and around both the Byzantine and the Venetian walls. The walls were therefore still serving a purpose, but it was quite different to their original use.

It's interesting to consider the failures of the fortifications of the town of Hania in the present time, when walls continue to be built (or are at least int he planning stages), and people continue to cross hypothetical walls - country borders - in order to reach their desired destination. The European Union is a prime example of having broken down barriers between countries by doing away with borders. But just 25 years after the fall of communism and the Schengen convention, borders are being reinstated in the EU, and in quite a few cases, physical walls are going up, such as the one between Hungary and Serbia, to stop immigration coming in mainly from Greece and Italy. Natural borders like the sea are no deterrent. A physical wall in such cases is impossible.

Beyond Europe, Donald Trump intends to build a wall to stop people entering the US from the Mexican side, while Theresa May wants the UK to leave the EU to curb migration. Yet Turkish authorities continue to turn a blind eye to people departing from its shores as they make their way to Greek territory, while Greek authorities continue to turn a blind eye to the disappearing migrants that were initially registered here. Whether a wall - physical or hypothetical - is able to prevent the movement of people is pure conjecture - history tells us that walls do not stop people's movements. The Cretan waters surrounding the island are a great deterrent to the movement of people as they are very rough and they are considered too dangerous to cross on a rusty leaky dinghy. But only a month or so ago, 60 illegal migrants were found hiding in caves near the north coast of Hania (they were temporarily housed in the gymnasium where my children do their sports activities), and another 113 were found on the south coast of Crete; the determined will always find a way to execute their plan.

Walls come up and walls fall down. Sometimes they come back up again. Since the late 1980s, the existing walls in Hania have been prominently restored, with work continuing in the present day. Some of the houses were removed from the walls, and a whole hotel was knocked down on the western side of the fortifications, so that the walls could be renovated, restored and displayed. These fortifications are being given a new lease of life for sentimental and historical reasons: for tourists to marvel at, and for future generations to learn the history of the town. As recently as last month, the wall on western rampart was damaged due to bad weather. This part of the wall is deemed a precious relic of our history and will be restored: in fact, it isn't the first time that it has fallen and been restored according to historical records.

Walls against 'invaders' continue to be built, restored and maintained. But they aren't really working.



Collage of Hania's walls by Vaggelis Diamantakis: Byzantine walls (961 -1204AD) red colour. Venetian walls (1204-1645) yellow colour. Hania was captured (sic) in 961AD by the Byzantines led by Nikiforos Fokas who took it from the Arabs and they rebuilt the city with fortifications on the Kastelli hill, turning Hania into a walled city. Of the Byzantine wall, what remains is the north section near the coast  and a small part on Sifaka St.  

My photos were taken on a recent trip to Iraklio, Crete's biggest city, showing another use for walls in modern times: as an outdoor art gallery. This post is based on discussions I had with a group of 60 students from MAICh, when I conducted a tour of the old town of Hania with them at the beginning of the year. See http://www.organicallycooked.com/2016/02/the-multicultural-layers-of-hania.html for more information about Hania's landmarks. 

Cretan gastronomy

Sneak preview of what I'll be discussing soon, in good company (more details later).

Crete is the largest island of Greece, with a permanent population of 600,000. At 8500 sq. km., it is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean. Blessed by the gods, unique in the world, thanks to the generous gifts of nature and history, its mild climate, fertile soils and strategic location have bestowed on Crete the gift of year-round agricultural activities with an age-old pastoral culture. Its majestic canyons, caves and plateaus cohabit fields and plains covered in thousands of olive trees, endless vineyards and the richest flora of Europe, all contained within 1000 kilometers of coastline.

Crete is believed to be the cradle of European civilization, and in modern times, the gastronomic traditions of Crete have given rise to what is known as the Mediterranean Diet, with extra-virgin olive oil at its base. For this reason, Cretan cuisine is regarded as one of the healthiest cuisines of the modern world. To this day, Cretan people proudly continue the agricultural and culinary traditions of their ancestors, with a high reliance on grains, grapes and olives, which is what gives us the most famous ingredient of the Mediterranean Diet, extra-virgin olive oil.



The history of Crete is backed up by nearly 8000 years of continuous population of the island. The Minoan civilisation, developed in Crete from 2500 BC to 1100 BC, is regarded as the most significant civilization that first flourished in Europe, attested by the presence of the palace of Knossos. During the period of classical antiquity, Crete was still on the fringes of the Greek world. It did not take part in the Persian wars or the Peloponnesian War. In the Hellenistic, the Roman and the Byzantine periods, Crete remained relatively untouched. This all changed when it was occupied by the Venetians in 1204, when it became an important trading post in the Venetian Republic. Crete maintained its importance in this way for four centuries until it passed into Ottoman occupation 1669. When the Ottoman Empire fell, Crete was declared an autonomous state in 1895, until it was unified with Greece in 1913. In the 20th century, Crete was plagued by post-war circumstances, with poverty and emigration. But the 21st century finds the island in a very different situation, mainly due to the spread of mass tourism. In the summer period alone, Crete hosts over three million visitors a year. If it weren't for tourism, Crete can be said to be relatively independent in its food supply.


Crete is intensively cultivated by the local population, which is engaged in the primary sector, producing mainly extra virgin olive oil, grapes, wine, vegetables and cheese, with a smaller proportion of meat products. Crete also hosts the highest number of PDO and PGI products in Greece. Crete's land-based agricultural traditions provide the impetus for the daily cooking habits of the Cretan people. Cretan food is based on fresh local seasonal produce. The abundance and ease with which a seed grows into a fruit or vegetable on the island provide the source of inspiration for Cretan gastronomy, all based on the the simple olive fruit, with aromatic plants added to dishes to strengthen their flavour. It produces olives and olive oil, grapes and wine, orange and other citrus, many fruits in general, wine and spirits, a wide variety of fresh and hard cheeses, cured meats of all sorts, fresh and dried bread products, thyme flavoured honey, wild greens and aromatic plants, and all manner of vegetables.

The Cretan diet, which is now known worldwide, attracted the interest of the scientific community in 1948, when the Rockefeller Foundation conducted surveys in Crete. The island's culinary traditions were regarded as a model of the Mediterranean cuisine, which was recognized by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Olive oil is actually the biggest secret of the Cretan diet and longevity of Cretans. Around 85 per cent of the olive oil produced in Crete is extra virgin quality. At 35 litres per person per year, Cretan olive oil consumption is the highest in the world. Many families own olive trees that not only meet their daily needs but provide a supplementary income. The island has 40 million olive trees — that’s an average of 70 trees per person. Olive tree cultivation is believed to have been pioneered 5,000 years ago by the Minoans who used it in their diet, as a cleanser, a scent and an ointment. The high quality crop is attributed to the island’s soil and climate — hot dry summers, cool autumns and rainy winters.

The Cretan earth is a botanical paradise with over 1700 species of plants, of which 159 are endemic. The Cretan kitchen uses herbs, especially oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, cumin and fennel, and Cretans still like to brew malotira, a plant gathered from the mountain tops, to make mountain tea), together with other aromatic tisanes like dictamus, sage, marjoram and chamomile. These plants are not only eaten by the people, but also by the animals raised on the island for food purposes, which gives rise to their exceptional flavour. And many Cretans still maintain a tradition of pastoral life from prehistoric times to the present day. Cheese is often served with fresh fruit, it is offered as an appetizer and it is even presented as a dessert wrapped in pastry and topped with honey. Pastry products also form a significant part of the Cretan diet.

Cretans eat less fish than perhaps would be considered normal for an island people. Cretans are more likely to worship snails which they cook in various ways, boiled, fried and stewed. Lamb is roasted in the oven or stewed with vegetables. Meat is often boiled and eaten with rice flavoured in its stock, known as pilafi, which constitutes the main meal of a traditional Cretan wedding. Of the dozens of unique recipes of the island, the most typical local dishes are characterised mainly by wild greens and vegetables. The most well known dish of Crete which has been adopted by the whole of Greece is the dakos, which consists of dried bread slices, also known as rusks, topped by grated tomato, fresh cheese and oregano.

Crete is also believed to have the highest cheese consumption in the world. Dairy products of the island form the basis of many traditional Cretan dishes. Cheese is consumed in Crete at all hours of the day, as an accompaniment, starter, main snack, or even as a dessert. Despite the modernisation of milk production techniques, the traditional form of farming is still based on the experience of many centuries. Nowadays, milk is pasteurized, culture is added, and he milk is heated at specific temperatures to make cheese.

The Cretan diet is all about eating everything that this land produces — organic vegetables and fruit packed full of nutrients, as well as liberal quantities of olive oil, wheat and herbs. Cretan delicacies will delight your taste buds. Cretans linger for hours over freshly-cooked meals. Lunch often extende into dinner. One day, It’s a way of life that is starting to change as youngsters move away from villages to the towns and cities. But Cretans still maintain a passion for their local food and it is this enthusiasm that we want to share with our guests to the island.




So I wish you all bon appetit! As the Greeks say, Kali Orexi!

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Last Lands Conquered

My latest quilt project is about how the world was conquered. Many of the fabrics were collected from scraps, repurposed fabrics (eg curtains), used clothing and gifts from friends. The design of the quilt top is broadly based on a pattern I found on the web (Lantern Bloom by Fons and Porter). As I was using fabric scraps, I adapted the pattern to suit by scrap sizes, and added sashing to make it bigger. 

The fabrics were chosen with a specific story in mind: the race to conquer the last lands on Earth. 

The South Pacific's colours and patterns were waiting to be discovered.

The whole world had been discovered...

... and all the oceans of the Earth had been sailed...

... in the company of the animals of the sea and the land...

... with the knowledge gained from clocks and stars, using the sun and the moon as guides on those very long journeys.

The last great land mass to be discovered - New Zealand - was finally colonised in 1840 by the British (the French would have got it if the Brits hadn't got there when they did), and it slowly began to be anglified and eventually europeanised.

Not everyone was interested in the Far East - modern Greece had just come into being and was a popular stop on young men's Grand Tour, notably Lord Byron's, who died fighting for Greece's liberation. Greece's beauty and her monuments became famous to the point that some visitors - like Thomas Bruce, aka the Earl of Elgin - set their sights on taking some with them when they left. 

And in this way, the last undisocvered lands were conquered and pillaged. 

A lot of discovering was going on in the early 1800s. And in 2016, we are still talking about what happened 200 or so years ago, and still arguing about whether it was right or wrong. Whichever it was, one thing we can say is that it was the way of the world. What had to happen did happen. Many things that are happening today continue to happen even though they are not desirable. Time and tide wait for no man.

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Samaria Gorge (Φαράγγι της Σαμαριάς)

Last weekend, I went on a trek through the Samaria Gorge with the students from my workplace at MAICh. The Samaria Gorge, which is extremely well documented in the web, is a 13km ravine created from the path of a river between a mountain plateau and the sea. This is my second time walking down the gorge - the last time I went through it was about 22 years ago with a cousin. The Samaria Gorge is often regarded as a nature reserve, but it should be pointed out that it has been subject to human intervention since ancient times. So what is really being protected here is the essence of this interaction. It only became a tourist site about 50 years ago, but people have been walking through the gorge for many centuries before that. In ancient times, the wood from the cypress trees in the gorge was exported to Egypt, along with a small but thriving industry making wooden columns for the Minoan palaces on the island. During times of war, people hid in the gorge away from the enemies of the time. The Samaria Gorge remained inhabited until 1962, which is not all that long ago, hence there are clear signs of human intervention all over the gorge, its most important characteristic:

"The most important characteristic of the landscape of Samaria is the intense interaction between humans and nature. The relationship exists both in today's presence of humans as observers/walkers and in the historical imprint that the inhabitants of Samaria have left on this space. The traditional habitations of village, oil press, vines, and preserved chapels declare the powerful relationship that the inhabitants of Samaria had with this place." (Samaria National Park information leaflet, which you get on entry to the gorge)

Since the area was transformed into a nature reserve, the aspect of human intervention has taken different forms. Where once the inhabitants of the gorge were building churches and houses, the local administrative unit now in charge of the nature reserve is ensuring that there are fire protection units and toilets at regular intervals. Fresh water sources are also located in the many rest stations along the way, and the buildings erected by former inhabitants are preserved for historical reasons. Another important aspect of the modern administration of the gorge is that it acts as a refuge for endangered species, such as the agrimi, known as the Cretan ibex, Capra aegagrus cretica, which is normally very shy and keeps away form humans. But some of those found in the gorge have become familiar with the presence of human beings and the students in my group did actually see them up close - one person even fed them from their hands. (I was unlucky, in that I did not see any agrimi - next time, maybe.)



Work in the gorge is ongoing. The pathways that have been created are not all natural - specific work has been conducted on the gorge to make it both accessible and safe. As recently as 1991, the well-preserved Byzantine church of St Nikolas was discovered just 3km from the entrance of the gorge at the Omalos plateau. It had been hiding amidst a part of the forest which was cleared to make way for a path and rest stop.



The largest rest area and the best organised is found in the middle of the gorge in the former village of Samaria (7km in the gorge, its mid-point) where the gorge gets its name from. Here, you will see how man interacted with nature to make nature work for him, despite the difficulties of the terrain. The original residents' olive groves and vineyards are retained here. Some of the houses have been repurposed as medical centres and other administration units.



The most famous picture in the gorge is the 'sideroportes', the iron gates, so called because of their hardiness to the gushing water of the wintertime that passes through them. The narrowest point of the path is found here: the mountain sides are just 3m in width, just enough for two people to spread out their hands between them. This part of the gorge is found close to the exit near the south coast.



During my walk through the gorge, I rested at all the stops and it took me 6 hours. But the gorge can be walked downhill in anything as little as 4 hours. Walking it so quickly means that you will probably not stop to take in the sights along the way. One of the most important aspects of the walk is to spend time on observation. There were a fair number of walkers doing the sprint version on the day I walked through it (it was a busy day at the gorge). When they asked me to move over so they could zip by me like a streak of lightning, I didn't do so because I would have fallen into a ditch. (Since I was wider than them, they were obliged to wait). I also met up with some walkers doing the uphill version, which is said to be better on your feet. The path is nearly all filled with rocks and stones, so good walking shoes are a must (NOT open toed sandals). Climbers' sticks are really really helpful - three-four legs are really much better than two! The gorge is safe enough for children to walk through it, but take note: it's an easy but strenuous walk in hot conditions. (Be prepared for whinges and whines.)



The gorge can be walked down or walked up. It's up to the walker which route s/he chooses to do. At the end of the downhill walk, you get to the coastal isolated village of Agia Roumeli where you have a swim in the sea on the (almost) black pebble sand, whereas the other end of the gorge is found in a mountain plateau and is therefore not as enticing as being on the coast. Whatever you choose, you need to be aware that this is not a round trip - you arrive at/depart from the plateau by car/bus, and you depart from/arrive at Agia Roumeli by ferry boat, where you must take another bus to get to the town centre of Hania (or wherever else you may be staying in the region). Some people overnight at the plateau on Omalos and/or the vibrant coastal village of Agia Roumeli which does not have wheeled-vehicle access to other parts of the island. It should also be noted that the Samaria Gorge is not the only gorge in the area - the south coast of Crete has many ravines, which have all been created in the same way as Samaria, which is the deepest and longest. The Samaria gorge is in fact the longest gorge in the whole of Europe (not even the Swiss Alps beat us on this one).



The gorge is the second place in Greece that I have been to which does not seem to show any signs of commercial activity for a long stretch (the other place was Lake Kremaston, a very spooky nature paradise on the central mainland). When you come out of the gorge on the downhill walk, a warden will take your ticket (to ensure that no one stays in the gorge overnight, as camping is not allowed), and at this point, the commercial activity will strike you in the face, as if you woke up form a dream. in the form of cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops. The walk to the beach takes you along the river delta, past the former old town of Agia Roumeli where people lived in the past until the gorge area became a nature reserve (it was possibly the location of the ancient city of Tarra, mentioned in Homer's works), through a paved road (suitable for cars) lined with the houses of residents, which eventually leads you to the very touristy but oh so enticing and highly picturesque village of the new Agia Roumeli. (You don't have to walk that bit if you don't want to - for just €1.50, a mini-bus takes you from close to the exit of the gorge to the sea. This facility didn't exist when I first walked through the gorge.)



Since the walk is not a round trip, you need to be well prepared. Hotels and tour companies organise the whole trip for you. If you prefer to do it on an individual basis, it will cost you as follows:
- €7.50 for the bus to Omalos from the town centre of Hania
- €6.00 for the entry ticket to the gorge
- €1.50 for the bus ride from the exit to the gorge to the seaside (optional)
- €12 for the ferry boat ride from Agia Roumeli to Souyia or Sfakia (depending on which village you prefer to visit) - the last ones leave daily from the coast at 5:30pm; if you take the boat for Sfakia, you may wish to stop off and stay overnight at the village of Loutro, another inaccessible-by-road- gem on the south coast of Crete
- €8-9 for the bus from Souyia or Sfakia to the town centre of Hania (the buses leave once the ferries arrive at the port).
You don't need to carry much with you: a small backpack with a water bottle, some food, sunscreen and bathing clothes (including jandals as I would call them in New Zealand, aka flip-flops) is all you need, plus some money (or credit card - I saw bog large new colourful signs denoting that CCs are now accepted!) for a delicious relaxing meal when you exit the gorge. Phone and wifi are not available in the gorge, only out of it. And everyone working in the gorge area, without exception, has an adequate level English. Listen out for the switch from the Cretan dialect as spoken by a moustachioed black-shirt local to English - Cretans' evolution really shows in this aspect alone!.

My full photo set, with more information contained in some of the captions, can be viewed here:

If you have origins from Crete, then you really should walk through the Samaria gorge at one point in your life at least, so I can say that I have fulfilled this vow.

 ©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.

Visitors (Επισκέπτες)

My most recent visitors came from far away, not just from another country, but from another continent. Students from the University of Arkansas, headed by Leslie Edgar, they flew directly into Hania, straight from that other continent. Understandably, they were very tired from the long journey and jet lag complicated matters, making it quite a challenge to keep up with my introductory lecture on the environmental basis of the sustainability of Crete. To really get to grips with a topic of this kind, you mustn't be in a lecture room - you need to take to the streets. After a restful evening, we set off the next morning in search of tangible signs of Hania's survival over the centuries that would create lasting impressions for our visitors from the University of Arkansas.

We started off our walk at the Agora, a traditional 'fresh' market in the town centre, based on the site of the main open-air market of older times, making its existence on this site not at all coincidental. The Agora has nowadays become a glorified Cretan souvenir shopping mall, and it doesn't sell just fresh produce but it's a good start to getting acquainted with the fruits of this good earth.

Before entering the Agora, I asked my group to take a quick look around the square which revealed an interesting array of sight: some senior citizens sitting on the benches watching the world go by, the down-and-outs of the town debating the latest political events, a constant stream of tourists offloading from their coaches wearing number badges on their shirts. A lot of action in one small space, with a real community feel. But the people's chatter combined with the noise of the traffic roaring past the main square of the town can give the initial impression of chaos to the uninitiated. Where does this chaos lead?

My visitors were well informed about the subjects of their interest: sustainability, environment, local/organic food production. They bombarded me with questions, many questions. The sights they were about to encounter were wholly new to them and required explanations. So I tried to put it all into perspective for them:

• Are all the products sold in the Agora from the island? (No. The Agora has taken on both supermarket and touristic dimensions over the years. So while there may be many local fruits and vegetables being sold in the Agora, there will also be Himalayan pink salt and made-in-China souvenirs)
• So many cured olive varieties! Do you eat them all? (No. Many of the curing techniques are relatively recent developments, as technology becomes more advanced. We prefer the traditional varieites of cured olives, but people are diversifying their tastes which is why a wide variety of cured olives are now found all over the island.)
• Does that dry bread go mouldy? (My visitors are referring to παξιμάδι (Cretan dry rusk). No. It never goes mouldy. It will last forever. It may not taste so good a couple of years from now, but it will still be edible, as long as moisture never gets close to it.) 
• Oh... I just saw the butcher handling meat without wearing gloves. Aren't there health and safety regulations here governing this kind of thing?  (Yes, there are. But this kind of thing, while not uncommon, is not really frowned upon. If you really think about it, the meat that the butcher is displaying has been handled very few times by humans. It doesn't necessarily go through a long chain. Health and safety regulations probably do require the butcher to wear gloves... but it's not that policed. Kind of like smoking. Look at the staff member in the butcher's in the neighbouring stall - she's smoking. It's a Greek thing... not necessarily a good thing, but just a Greek thing. 
• Do you buy your meat supply here? (No.)
• Er... what's with the phallic symbol-shaped souvenirs? (No idea... I think tourists like them... They're from the north... It's dark there... Really, it's anybody's guess.)

We must have spent a good hour of our time in the Agora, as there was so much to take in, in such a short space of time there. Some things do not make sense in the global world; but they seem to make perfect sense in a small town on a Mediterranean island. 

On exiting the Agora, we were faced with the sun above our heads. It was going to get hot. May had been a very dry month, so unnaturally dry, that we were already parched and summer had not even started. We made our way through the town's jumble of narrow streets, doing our best to avoid crashing into the crowds of other tourists. Every now and then, we would catch a glimpse of the sea through the streets we passed. But there was still more to see before we got to the water's edge: the lone minaret that resembles Rapunzel's tower, the church that used to be a mosque and now houses both a bell tower and a minaret, the Byzantine walls, the Venetian walls, ancient Kydonia.

Noting that my visitors were getting tired and were probably feeling rather hungry as they passed by the various food outlets with their delicious smells wafting in the air, I announced the final stop of the tour before they could appease their stomachs with a souvlaki. We were at this point walking along Kanevaro St, away from the Minoan ruins of the original town, and the busy Santrivani square with its cafes and souvenir shops had just come into view. 

"OK, guys," I said, "I'll let you walk to the corner fot he street on your own, because I think you will want to savour the next few seconds privately, without my explanations." They looked at me puzzled, and kept on walking. I slowed down to a complete halt a few metres behind them as they rounded the corner. I could hear their gasps as the view of the Venetian harbour hit their faces full on.

At that moment, they probably forgot all about the questions they had been asking me earlier in the day, let alone the answers I gave them. That first sight of the Venetian harbour will probably remain embedded in their memories for the rest of their lives, summarising their visit to Hania, as they leave with the hope that they will return one day.

*** *** ***

More youthful visitors with inquiring minds, this time from the University of Nebraska, headed by Tala Awada.

I took this bunch through Nea Hora, ending up at the laiki (street market), where they all bought vegetables that they would use the next day in a culinary lesson, with the MAICh chef. A nice way to not only try something new and unfamiliar to you, but also to see how it is prepared for enjoyment.

©All Rights Reserved/Organically cooked. No part of this blog may be reproduced and/or copied by any means without prior consent from Maria Verivaki.