Eating and Drinking in Greece

This is an ongoing entry about my experiences with food and drink in Greece, including the many things I have been happily surprised by and the handful I have been disappointed with. And, while I like Greek food, I know that the handful of things I am familiar with represent just a small part of what the country has to offer and am endeavoring to try as many other things as possible. Tavernas are the Greek counterparts to German gasthauses and French cafes and are the ideal places to get great food at affordable prices. Bakeries and grocery stores are also good places to purchase local delicacies, to reduce the number of meals you end up eating out, and to allow you to do some picnicking. 

* How much to tip is often not clear but apparently 10% is appropriate in Greece and at the high end of what people tend to give (although less does seem to be the norm in some areas, such as Crete). 

* Think twice about tavernas and other establishments that cater to a specific non-Greek ethnic or linguistic group if you are not part of it! Places that specialize in the needs of German customers, for example, are so enamored with serving what they clearly consider to be a superior people that they are notoriously indifferent to the needs of other patrons. This phenomena is almost certainly what caused us to have negative experiences at Arkhado Restaurant in Rethymno, Crete, on Day 6 of our journey and at Naoussa Restaurant in Fira, Santorini. 

* Supermarkets or open-air markets in villages, towns, and cities can be great places to pick up olives, cheese, produce, bread, wine, beer, and other items to eat wherever you are staying or in some idyllic spot you are visiting. 

* Check out bakeries for local delicacies of various sorts, especially for breakfast items or meals on the go. "Ask for kaltsounia," my friend Dimitri Kremmydas told me. "And see if they have local pies. Koulouri with sousami is also great with some cheese in the morning. Pies, especially with greens are big in Crete."

* It is traditional for tavernas to provide complimentary desert at the end of a meal, almost always watermelon and/or other fruit, but sometimes ice cream or yogurt, and about half the time raki, a local distilled liquor. The most sumptuous bonus spread of this sort I have thus far had was at Zisi's in Rethymno, Crete, and appears below; it included a flask with three shots of raki, yogurt with candied pumpkin, honeydew melon, and watermelon. 

* If you are planning on eating gyros, look at the meat on the rotating spit to see how full it is! If it is slim then you may get smaller, drier pieces of meat then is optimum. 

* Get a male waiter if you can! Yes, I know, what a terrible and sexist thing thing for me to say. Professional table service is more traditionally performed by men in Greece, however, and young female waitresses are much more likely to be dull-witted younger daughters who are at loose ends for the summer and being put to work at their family's establishments. 

Aegean Odyssey Day 6

RETHYMNO, CRETE -- Woke up around 8 a.m. after sleeping about 11 hours. Calves were so stiff I could hardly walk. Self examination revealed the blister on my left foot was worse than ever. Hips, feet, arms, and shoulders, however, which all hurt badly after our return from Samaria Gorge last night, were all OK, and with proper care I will recover quickly. Diane is not doing so well and with here injured knee will likely be in bed most of the day. 

Breakfasted on pita bread, feta cheese, olives, and two cups of coffee. Took a couple of dips in the pool and sat for awhile in the jacuzzi, where I found some jets to work my calve muscles. Then, made appoints for hour-long full-body massages for both of us. 

Went to the mini-mart at the resort to get Diane provisions for the day and stopped at the front desk to ask where I might find three local dishes my friend Dimitri had recommended -- stifado, burburistus, and kokoresti -- which I was pretty sure I would not find in a touristy taverna. After the pro forma delay in helping me, the front desk clerk warmed at little at my question and recommended a taverna called Zisi's, which he said was about a kilometer down the road and were he was pretty sure I could find at least one of those items. I am a pretty good judge of distance and was starting to think I had somehow missed the place until I had gone about a mile and saw it just ahead of me (and a check online later revealed it to be about 1,500 meters). It was worth the walk, however, and a very pleasant taverna that had one of the more obscure items on my list, burburistus, which I promptly ordered, to the waiter's obvious surprise and amusement. It is, in short, a Greek version of escargot, but cooked in olive oil and not butter and much more generous in it portions, coming with three dozen snails rather than the more effete French six (an image appears at bottom). With toasted bread and a half liter of red wine the tab was just 9.80 Euros -- and then the waiter brought me some honeydew melon and watermelon, a dish of yogurt with candied pumpkin, and a flask of raki with three shots in it! Overall a very pleasant and affordable experience. 

Cut over to the beach on my way back, walked about halfway back along it, and had a dip on the way at a secluded spot where no one could run up and grab my bag without me seeing them approach. (Above top, a view of the shore from the main road through the area of Rethymno we are staying in; above center, a picturesque ruin -- and a fixer-upper that we will use as a the basis of our relocation to Crete?)

Back at the hotel had a one-hour massage and then a some time in the excellent steam room and dry sauna, followed by a dip in the pool. 

Diane and I then went to dinner at the taverna across the street from the hotel, to Arhodiko Restaurant, which is clearly a place that caters to a German clientele and is much less particular in its treatment of people from other lands. I did not have a good feeling about it, but it was close and Diane was still have trouble walking, so we gave it a try, and I had the first bad meal of the trip there. Gyros should have been a safe bet but what I got were tepid, dry, little chips of meat, not the hot, succulent ones I would have hoped for, along with cool fries that I did not try to finish. Diane had the moussaka and said it was good. 

Worked at little at the hotel and then passed out early, probably around 10:30. 

Aegean Odyssey Day 5

RETHYMNO, CRETE -- Got up very early so that we could be out in front of the hotel by 5:15 a.m. and on time to catch our excursion bus to the Samaria Gorge. Stopped for breakfast but were there and beginning our descent by about 8:15, from an elevation of about 4,150 feet. 

Started down along the xaloskalos, a series of switchbacks at the head of the gorge. Very rough going, with loose rocks and very smooth ones compounding the steepness and frequent lack of railings, conditions that had not been mentioned in any of the descriptions of the hike that we had read; main provisos we had heard was that it was important to carry plenty of water and to go as quickly as possible early in the day when it was still cool. Things were all pretty much what I would have expected but Diane was unhappy with the conditions and having trouble early on, especially with keeping her balance, and, about 5 kilometers in, she threw out her knee. Everything became pretty much an ordeal after that, as she was in a great deal of pain and periodically falling over because she could not effectively bend her knee, and for me because I was putting a lot of energy and effort into assisting her. 

Water was not actually much of an issue initially, as fresh spring water was available at four or five places in the first half of the gorge, so a couple liters each beyond that, or half what we had brought, would have been fine (although Diane opted not to avail herself of the spring water and to stick with what we had in our bottles). It did heat up after noon, but was not nearly as oppressive as people had let on, especially as much of the route was shaded by the surrounding forest of Calabrian pine and Calabrian cypress. Overall, the environment was much more Alpine than I ever would have expected for a Mediterranean island. 

There were also a number of fascinating things in the gorge, to include a number of small churches; the remains of the village of Samaria, which it residents had abandoned in the 1960s; and the ruins of an ancient pagan worship site. An especial high point for me was encountering a small herd of rare Cretan ibex, which were identical in appearance to those I had seen depicted on artifacts in the antiquities museum in Rethymno! This reinforced to me a sense of continuity between the ancient past and the present in this special place. 

As we continued the gorge narrowed progressively in general. We start off in a very broad area without any sort of an obvious course for water, then after a couple of hours began to walk above and beside an increasingly profound riverbed, and then eventually descended into the channel itself and walked right beside the stream, crossing it frequently on small bridges. 

After about 13 kilometers we came to the end of the national park and then, after another 1,000 meters or so, we reached the point where a shuttle bus was available to carry anyone who wanted it the last two kilometers into the village and the coast. We reached it around 3:15 p.m., about seven hours after we had begun to hike. Diane was in profound pain at this point and we went straight to the Taverna Farangi, where we were instructed to meet our group, and ordered the biggest beers they had and some food. 

At 5 p.m. we boarded a ferry, this village being accessible only be sea, and rode it for an hour to the village of Sfakia, where we once again boarded our bus. From there we rode about two hours back to our hotel and were finally done with with our expedition to the Samaria Gorge. 

Aegean Odyssey Day 3

RETHYMNO, CRETE -- Long, lingering day made phantasmagoric by heat, lack of sleep, travel, and alcohol. 

Got up early and flew out of Athens on a 7:20 Aegean Air flight to Iraklion, Crete (here is a glimpse of the coast of Attica as we crossed over it and began to fly southeast). Collected our luggage and were picked up by a shuttle service and friendly driver Demetrius, who was chatty but whose English was only marginally better than my non-existent Greek, causing him to give us slightly suspicious sideways glances anytime we referred to our friend Dimitri during the hour-and-15-minute drive from the airport to our hotel (at bottom is a view of the Sea of Crete from a little ways west of Iraklion). 

Room was not ready when we got it so we went for an early lunch and were pleased to discover at the place we stopped that we could get a liter of decent local red wine for 7 Euros! We had that and a couple of mixed grill plates that included gyros, chicken, pork souvlaki, and a lamb chop. Proprietress Maria also provided us with some great information about the local area and gave us a nice complimentary plate of watermelon, oranges, and figs for desert. 

Went back to the hotel and finally got into our room a little before 2 p.m., upon which we promptly passed out for about four hours. We then got up and walked down to the beach, where I bathed in the surf, always loving the opportunity to scrub myself with sand and wash in natural water. 

After that we got dressed and went out to find a place to eat dinner. We ended up choosing Mr. Gyro and met two nice couples of expat Brits who now live in Crete and, after spending a number of hours chatting with them, were left considering relocating here after we decide we have lived in Texas long enough (from bottom left are Alison, Toni, Michael, and Nathan). 

Vocabulary
Figs: Syka
Oranges: Portokali
Watermelon: Karpousi

More to come! 

Aegean Odyssey Day 2 (Athens)

ATHENS, GREECE -- Landed here about 8:30 a.m. local time and then fairly quickly collected our luggage and cleared customs. Almost always struck when coming in to a major European port of entry how much easier and less stressful it is then coming back into the United States. Then walked across the street to the conveniently-located Sofitel (the lobby of which is shown at right). Staff was very friendly and gracious and let us check into our room at 11 and then had our stuff hauled up to it for us. 

Friend Dimitri Kremmydas met us at the hotel and then took us downtown via bus, allowing us to see the orchards and farm plots that provide much of the produce available in the markets of the city. We then spent several hours exploring a number of downtown neighborhoods, from some of the most chic to ones that have fallen on hard times but still have a great degree of local charm. Highlights included walking through the traditional open-air produce, meat, and fish markets (some glimpses of which appear here); a look at some of the outdoor exhibits at the War Museum and Byzantine Museum; a walk past the parliament and brief stop to pay respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (some of the evzones guardsmen from the site can be seen patrolling below); and a visit to a subterranean archaeological site inside a metro station (also below). 

In the course of all this we had lunch at a traditional Pakistani street food vendor, not what we had expected for our first meal in Greece but delicious and a nice surprise. We enjoyed beef kebabs, samosas, salads, wonderful flatbread hot off the grill, and a very spicy dish of minced organ meats (which Diane would not touch but that I thought was great). 

We also had an enlightening conversation about U.S. and Greek society, history, politics, religion, and related matters. And, as we are both wargamers, we also talked about that a bit as well! 

Got back to the hotel and, after resting a little, walked across the street to the airport to see where we needed to check in for our 7:20 flight to Crete in the morning. Then, each had a Hellas Fix draught beer and a much-needed glass of water in the Artemis Bar and picked at the snacks that came with them (including, much to Diane's amusement, a little dish of bugels!). 

I went up to the sauna and pool for a sweat and a dip and watched the sun go down over the hills surrounding the Messoghia Valley. Then, came back down to the room, made a cup of espresso, and updated this blog and did a little other work before turning in. 

Today's vocabulary: 
efcharisto = thank you (a good first word to know wherever one is travelling)
kalimera = good morning

That's it for now. More to come! 

Aegean Odyssey Day 1

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -- At San Antonio International Airport getting ready to board our flight to Philadelphia, the fist leg of our journey to Greece and more than three weeks in the Aegean! Will be keeping a running log of our odyssey here and posting interesting and useful information at once a day, Internet access permitting. So, come along and enjoy the trip with us!

There are a few things to note already:

* TSA recently implemented "Pre-Screening" for some travelers and apparently my wife Diane was approved for it (she is not sure how, as she never applied for it, but is assuming it is in part because she is retired U.S. military; I suspect it involved some sort of background check by TSA). Both of us therefore got moved into the pre-screened line, which meant we did not have to remove our shoes or belts -- I did not wear one anyway because I did not know about this -- or have to remove our laptops from our carry-on luggage. This made our trip through security the quickest and most painless one I have experienced in about 13 years. Suffice it to say, this is probably the smartest, best thing TSA has done in more than a decade, and certainly the one that will improve quality of travel for the most people -- and even people who are not pre-screened benefit because there are fewer people waiting in lines with them.

* Don't be fooled by airport bars that are open when you are waiting for early-morning flights, because you cannot get a drink at them! They are not permitted to serve alcohol earlier than 7 a.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on Sundays. Suffice it to say that those of us who have no values at all are not particularly tolerant of those who turn theirs into legislation or presume to dictate when other people are allowed to have a drink. If we had recalled this from the last time we experienced it we could have brought a couple of vodka minis and used them to spike some "virgin Maries."

* San Antonio International Airport has free Wifi! This is nothing new but a real plus for me and goes a long way toward making them traveler-friendly so it bears mentioning.

Greece, the Ghosts of South Texas, and Trips Past

CANYON LAKE, TEXAS -- Am at home writing this as I try to complete a current project, prepare for an upcoming trip, and reflect upon my most recent big adventure. 

* As many of my friends know, I am the editor of Clerisy Press's America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides to reputedly haunted places people can people can visit and am also the author of three of its titles. Two of those, Ghosthunting Virginia and Ghosthunting Maryland, I wrote some years back, and the third, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, I am fervently working to finish up now. While this latter book has involved a considerable amount of travel I have not posted too much about it here, as it has got its own dedicated blog (and I have updated it 10 times this month alone!). I have spared no effort on this book and anyone interested in haunted or historical sites in South Texas should do themselves a favor and check it out. (Shown at right is the tower at Comanche Lookout Park in north San Antonio.)

* In less than two weeks, my wife Diane and I will also be leaving to spend a month traveling to several locations on Greece! We will be starting off with a single day in Athens and will be doing something fun but yet-to-be-determined with my friend Dimitri Kremmydas, who lives there. Next morning we will be flying to Crete for six days and, among other things, are planning on visiting the Minoan ruins at Knossos, the Samaria Gorge, and the cave where Zeus was believed to have been born. We will then move on to the island of Santorini, site of the largest volcanic eruption in human history and known in antiquity as Thera, were we will spend 10 days, a week of it with our close friends Richard and Laura Allan, who will themselves be flying down from Scotland (Hotel Atlantis, the place we will be staying, is the large rectangular building in the picture below). We will then travel by ferry successively to Rhodes, Kos, Nisyros, and back to Kos, where we will spend a couple of days with my friend and colleague Brendan Cass and visit some of the sites I have featured in my "Swords of Kos" fantasy fiction novels. Then, we will fly back to Athens for a day and, from there, return home! 

* In the midst of everything else I am have also been trying to finish posting to this site the journal I kept during my voyage last September and October from Hawaii to French Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia on board the Royal Caribbean vessel Radiance of the Seas, for which I served as the cruise lecturer. 

More to come as I complete one project, finish talking about another, and embark upon the next!