I found this song in my mailbox this morning and this is exactly what I mean when I say Live Crete Alive!!!!!
Live Alive!!
jouer le komboloï
Comme je l’avais promis à l’équipe de Pierre Maillard, je vous donne ici les informations nécessaires pour jouer le komboloï correctement.
Maintenant, vous devez déplacer votre main pour que le côté du komboloï derrière vos doigts vienne de la paume de votre main, comme sur la photo ci-dessous.
dans le dernier mouvement, nous amenons les trois doigts inférieurs entre les cordes du komboloi, comme sur la photo ci-dessous
le dernier mouvement nous amène à la position de départ où nous rapportons le quatrième doigt sur la corde du bomboloï
Mais comme je sais que ce n’est pas si simple, j’ai aussi fait une petite vidéo pour vous avec tous les mouvements.
Beaucoup de plaisir a tous!!!
A picture from Gramvousa
These 2 pictures have been taken within a difference of 1 week exactly.
Excursion must-know for Crete
When you buy an excursion be sure you get the right information from the seller.
A lot of sellers won’t give you all the information. Here are some examples of what they may forget to tell you:
- extra fees, for example : entrance fees, travel taxes, a meal that is not included, a boat trip fee, etc.
- that the duration of the pick up (before the excursion starts) can take one hour or more.
- that the guide will not speak only your language in the bus, but also 2 or 3 other languages.
- the duration of the excursion. (the giving of a false return time is very common)
- that you can’t pay everywhere with a credit card.
- that cash money will be gathered in the bus by the guide.
- if you will be the first or last ones on the pick up list.
- If your hotel is at the end of the list you may ask if they can arrange 2 seats together. (unless you don’t mind sitting apart during the whole trip.
Here is already some more information about beach excursions on Crete.
Have with you of course your bathing suit (we have only very few nudist beaches and no organised excursion will take you there 😉) and instead of taking a towel (takes a lot of space in your bag and is quit heavy) take a large scarf to lay on, they dry fast and or very light. You will also need a pair of surf shoes because at nearly all the beaches here there are rocks in the water. Most of the beaches have sunbeds and umbrellas, but then if you don’t want to be all the time with a lot of people around you buy yourself an umbrella (they’re not expensive) so you can find yourself a quit spot on the beach. The waters in Crete are very clear so take a diving mask with you!
If you want to go for a walk in the mountains then this is what you will need.
First of all take enough water with you as also some nuts and raisons, these are light to take with you and a perfect energy source. Make sure you wear walking shoes ( no brand new onces please) and use walking sticks if you have (they will help you stepping down from rocks and stones). Protect yourself against the sun (not only your head but your whole body) by covering yourself and you should also protect yourself against the heat, so take a small towel with you that you can make wet from time to time and put it in your neck, not on your head! If you go into the mountains without a guide (something I do not recommend) take a compass with you or download one on your phone and inform some people of the hike you’re going to do.
So before you book an excursion be sure to ask about these points or try to look them up on the internet. This is easy to do for entrance fees and for distances, so you can figure out by yourself the extra money you will need, and the return time of the excursion you want to do.
And the most easy way is to send me an email to livecretealive@outlook.com with your questions about excursions organised in Crete. I will answer you accurate and within a day.
But first of all enjoy your stay in Crete!!!!!!
Voutimata oder Kekse
Zutaten :
1 Kilo Mehl. 3 Tassen Olivenöl
1 Glas Orangensaft
2 Gläser Zucker
1/2 Teelöffel Zimt
2 Esslöffel Backpulver 1 Esslöffel Soda
Vorbereitung
Alle Zutaten ausgenommen dem Mehl vermischen, dann fügen Sie das Mehl hinzu und zu einem festen Teig kneten, bei Bedarf Mehl dazugeben, bis der Teig nicht mehr klebt.
30 Minuten im vorgeheizten Backofen bei 180 ° C backen
The Loquat fruit
When you’re in Crete at the beginning of May you see this kind of tree with it’s yellow fruit everywhere. It has a yellow fruit that has a sweet taste when it’s ripe.
It’s one of the few fruit trees that cary ripe fruit at that time of the year and it is very easy to eat. You should peel the fruit and eat its flesh, it has some dark brown seeds inside that you should not eat.
The video below shows you more about these loquats.
Having lunch with sheppard Andrea
Yesterday I went on a trip up on the Psiloritis mountain to have lunch with sheppard Andreas. He lives in the village Livadia in the Idi mountains and he has been a sheppard for his whole life. He loves being out there in the nature high up in the mountains
with his sheep and goats. Together with his brothers they have around 3000 animals to take care of. Today 200 of them are already up on the mountain where Andreas milks all 200 of them twice a day and they give him each time around 100 liter of good quality milk. The other animals are still on the land they have further down the mountain and they will be brought up until the end of April.
Andreas will be milking the animals twice a day until the end of May and then for about one more month he will milk them once a day. From the month of July on the animals will mate, so they won’t give any milk until they give birth about 5 months later.
During the months that the animals don’t give milk Andreas still goes up to give them extra food and water but also because he loves being up there.
His family also built a chapel there, a saint George chapel.
Close to the chapel there stands a very large Stone Oak tree where you can enjoy the real sheppard’s lunch called antichristo. Which is lamb that is cooked next to the fire instead of on the fire. No herbs are needed during the preparation of the meat as his animals eat lots of herbs during their time in the mountains. Andreas is a very good cook and also very good company, he likes to talk about his life and work up there on the Psiloritis.
The road up to his mitato is not an easy road as it lays on a hight of 1200 meter but it really is worth the trip.
If this looks like something you would like to do during your stay in Crete than don’t hesitate to contact me.
ready to walk the Samaria Gorge?
The caves in Matala
Matala is a small village at the south side of Crete, where the Lybian sea is, there is a beautiful bay there with a sandy beach. The beach and the caves of Matala are well known all over the world because during the 1960s and ’70s hippies from all over the world lived there. They had no rules, no bills and no restrictions. They were free people living from nature in nature.
Every year now you have the chance to relive the hippie atmosphere here in Matala, every third weekend of June there is a hippie festival where ‘everything’ is allowed.
When I go to Matala I usually have lunch in Taverne Minos Palace, Stefanos cooks here for 24 years now, no need to say more about it’s kitchen. The staff is very friendly and professional too, just give it a try, you won’t be disappointed.
The mules in the Samaria gorge
A lot of people who come to Crete want to walk the famous Samaria gorge, but not everybody has the strength to walk 16km over rocks and stones and pebbles, starting at a hight of 1200 meter and walking down untill sea level.
That is why we have these mules here, they are empty today so it was a day without accidents or people that gave up.
Mules are a crossing of a horse and a donkey, they are very strong animals and they are trained on bringing people up or down the gorge.
Live Crete Alive 