Our week has been one with lots of motoring to friends in a number of villages, which wind north or south from the main road of Crete. This road runs from East to West close to the northern coast and roads curl up into the mountains south of it and north of it too in the Apokorono region on the way to Chania. Last Sunday, it was very hot and we ended up at a great and very popular place for our Sunday lunch nearer home at a large taverna called Zizes where the food was very good indeed. The locals all thought so because the enormous place was heaving with people and it had a real buzz as Sunday lunchers trotted in and out of the kitchen to view the variety of dishes on offer.
After this busy-ness, we unwound with a coffee at a delightfully old-fashioned campsite called Camping Elizabeth which reminds us of our teenage days and how Greece was back then. We spoke to Elizabeth who has owned the site since the sixties. She applied for planning permission to modernise the kitchen and upgrade the facilities, but found that their whole stretch of beach had been granted nature reserve status and she was unable to make any new developments. Most of her customers were so relieved to hear this and were happy that something on the coastline stays the same. Not smart, not modern, a little tired round the edges but pure sun, sand and sea. There were plenty of tents, camper vans and caravans tucked into the bamboo cover all enjoying a “desert island” sort of a holiday. We love it!
We had the usual round of week day activities, art school, queuing up at government offices (this time for a European ID card which Kimon needs if he keeps his car here). We had bought tickets for the Vamos Arts Festival several weeks ago and needed to find somewhere to stay for a couple of nights. We looked the village up on the internet and found that the Tourist Office had the keys for a dozen or so little village houses and we booked a place for two not quite knowing what it would be like other than it was close to the old school where lots of events were taking place.
We struck gold; it was like Goldilocks Gingerbread Cottage – a small traditional stone built house with lovely wooden beams, beautifully fitted out, we had a little courtyard to have our coffees and really enjoyed our mini holiday break in Vamos. We heard that empty and tumbledown ruins had been developed by local builders to be used for tourists rather than building horrible concrete hotels and the end result was very charming (but I couldn’t help thinking I was in the Cotswolds). The village itself is small butseemed to be full of English people (slightly worrying) and the mosquitos had a wonderful feast while I was there, in spite of a large mosquito net thoughtfully provided. The star of the show for us was Roger McGough who did a Poetry Reading on Friday night - brilliant and much enjoyed in spite of thunder and lightening outside- followed by a proper hands-on Poetry Workshop for 15 people on Saturday. I had bought Kimon a ticket for this for his birthday and he went along with his friend Nigel who had enjoyed Mr McGough’s poems for many a year. They had a most interesting afternoon and were glad that their pet celebrity seemed to be enjoying his time in Crete.
It is K’s 60th on Tuesday and we have a party planned on the beach at Panormo at our favourite taverna. With apologies to Jenny Joseph (who wrote the “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple” fame), we collaborated over a fitting birthday poem – a special commission in his birthday blog. Our friend from Guildford, Peter Gresham is due to arrive on the day and all we need is a nice, sunny day!
Chrona polla!
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