Roll on for another festival

WELL the festival season has officially ended, Clean Monday brought about the first day of lent, and here in our village they went out with guess what - yes another party!!
Officially the Greeks will stay clean of meat, dairy and fish in the lead up to Easter, but on Clean Monday villages around the island celebrated. Our village has not managed to get themselves organised for the last couple of years, but, despite a wet start of the day, they pulled out all the stops.
  There was a huge vat of bean and vegetable soup, with lagana (flat) bread to mop it up, and there were cold dishes including taramasalata, dipping veggies and halva (sweet made from sesame) all washed down by as much wine as you wanted - and it cost nothing.
  The villagers pulled together to support it all and, as the weather improved for the rest of the afternoon there was sunshine, music and dancing - a great end to the Apokries period - roll on Easter

COME ON - LET'S PARTY

Life is anything but boring here in Crete, there always seems to be one party or another, and February is now the time for the fesitval season..

  It's the party period of the year in the build up to Easter, the main religious time. We have got used to events on birthdays, but also not to be confused are names days. There are saints days and of course, two big national celebrations in March and October. But February is the time for Apokries.

  Apokries, is the Greek version the worldwide known as “masquerade partying festival,”  The festivities in Greece have their origins in ancient religious traditions that honored Dionysus, the god of wine and joy and celebrated the end of the winter season. In relation to the Greek Orthodox Church Apokries, is celebrated three weeks before Easter, and visitors will see thousands of costumes, parades, masquerades, and dancing people. 

  The event is most noteworthy in the carnival capital, Patras, in the Peloponese, and the Rethymnon Carnival is coming up the radar with each passing year. okries, is the Greek version the worldwide known as “masquerade partying festival,” carnival. 

   The festivities in Greece have their origins in ancient religious traditions that honored Dionysus, the god of wine and joy and celebrated the end of the winter season. In relation to the Greek Orthodox Church Apokries, is celebrated three weeks before Easter, 

  All over the island and the mainland  visitors will see thousands of costumes, parades, masquerades, and dancing people. The event is most noteworthy in the carnival capital, Patras, in the Peloponese, but the one in Rethymnon, here is coming up the radar with each passing year. 

  But it is not just the big cities, far from it. Our first one of the yuear came the other day, when our senior citizen group KAPI held their own party. Hundred came to feast, dance and celebrate in style. The food may have been served, but withg music live, they were up to dance and dance.

  Costumes were not the order of the day, but, of course some did dress up. Now we have other parties to attend to, our local onbe is at Agriana, but there are events annually also in Malia, Heraklion and any other opportunity that offers itself. 

What a winter!!

FIRST  we had driving rain, then came heavy snows in parts of Crete. Back came the rains, flooding in Chania and Heraklion, people trapped in the mountains and roads blocked, and not just the smaller ones.
  We seem to have this kind of weather in four-year cycles, but this was the worst since we came to the island 12 years ago. Luckily our village suffered very little, a smattering of sloshing snow, forcing people wisely to stay in, and that was it, but how the rest suffered.
  It was during this time that we sat down to analyse our winter projects - we always try for something. Last year it was the re-furbished kitchen (done), the wooden stairs (done) and the smaller of our bedrooms (done) Now came something much bigger - our main bedroom.
  We decided that it was not enough just to decorate - we went for broke with a bespoke wardrobe, complete with mirror doors.
  It was not the first plan to have the glass and aluminium doors, but, after considering the options of wood, we took the plunge. A carpenter who know came, took our design, measured up, gave us a price and away we went - or so we thought!
  Here in Greece it is natural to hand over some money to get the project going, fair enough. Our man called to say that the units were ready, but they were coming from Heraklion? They duly did arrive, complete boxes, which had to be lifted off the van, up from outside onto our terrace and through the terrace doors.
  After getting over the surprise of the units being complete, we were stunned to see that the shelving we drew on our plans was missing. We had all the main shelves at the bottom, with hydraulic rails to take the clothing, which you pull down. to load up.Then came the bigger surprise!!!
  The units covered over the two light and one power switch. No problem said our man - we can move them - No way we said . He had made the wrong measurements!!! In the end the factory had to take back the wrongly made units, re-make them, re-make the aluminium doors and runners and worse still - re-cut the glass - they were more than a little unhappy.
  Four days later they came back - correct, including the shelves on our plan, plus a man who installed them all. Our man asked for the rest of the money, we told him to wait, we had spoken to the factory boss and explained to him the situation, we eventually paid less than the first amount, telling our man he was totally at fault - if he did not like it- he would have to negotiate with the factory, we don't think so.
  We completed the room, re-decorated, rich reds and golds and finished - eventually - very happy with the overall result. The wardrobe gives us so much more space, allows for tidy boxes inside and neat hanging rails. Happiness all round - except our local man.