Tag: #livecretealive

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Fodele’s nature

When I woke up this morning my mood wasn’t in a very good condition….. or maybe I can say that I did not have any mood at all, not to get up or make breakfast, not to work in the garden as I had planed to…. the only thing I did do was sit on the sofa …. doing nothing, so I thought that today was going to be a very lazy, lazy day. And as I knew that a friend would come by to go find a waterfall close to my village, I decided to call it off.

Luckily she arrived just as I was dialing her number, she also brought some sandwiches so we could have a pick-nick, so calling of was not an option.

We didn’t really know where to start as our direction and google maps were not very clear, so we decided to start walking where the river flows as the water of the fall falls into the river.

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We were told that we could reach it through the water, but after a while we saw that that was not an option.

Some off these bushes need to be pruned

Back at our start point we took the car and drove up, for about 3km, where we saw a mud road going to the right, an off road with lots off stones and holes and small waterflows, BEAUTIFULL!!!!!

You beter use a jeep to take this road!!

After driving for about 10 minutes over this road we decided to park the car and continue by foot, that’s what google maps adviced us. Believing in G maps again we started walking…… Wrong way!!! We returned to the car and started listening to the sounds around us, we both thought we heard water falling so we took the other direction, and then we came up to this small “waterfall”

After shooting this little one we followed the river further up and……….. there it was!!! a larger waterfall, probably not yet The One but the place we found was amazing beautiful, take a look yourself

  • view from above
  • front view
  • the surroundings
  • the lake

We did not find the right waterfall yet but this place is also a pearl in Crete.

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tea workshop and more ( Eng, Nl, Ge, Fr )

14-03-2020

Because I have prepared for the tea workshops on my day trips, I can give you a recipe of a tea that will boost your immune system.

You just have to mix some yarrow, peppermint and elderflower, pour over boiling water, leave for 3 minutes and ready. this tea tastes delicious as it is but if you like to drink it sweet you can ad some honey or sugar of course.

Omdat ik me heb voorbereid op de theeworkshops tijdens mijn dagtochten, kan ik je een recept geven van een thee die je immuunsysteem zal versterken.

Je hoeft alleen wat duizendblad, pepermunt en vlierbloesem te mengen, kokend water over te gieten, 3 minuten te laten staan en klaar. Deze thee smaakt heerlijk zoals hij is, maar als je hem graag zoet drinkt kun je natuurlijk wat honing of suiker toevoegen.

Da ich mich auf meinen Tagesausflügen auf die Tee-Workshops vorbereitet habe, kann ich Ihnen ein Rezept für einen Tee geben, der Ihr Immunsystem stärkt.

Sie müssen nur etwas Schafgarbe, Pfefferminze und Holunderblüte mischen, über kochendes Wasser gießen, 3 Minuten ruhen lassen und fertig. Dieser Tee schmeckt so lecker wie er ist, aber wenn Sie ihn süß trinken möchten, können Sie natürlich etwas Honig oder Zucker hinzufügen.

Parce que je me suis préparé pour les ateliers de thé lors de mes excursions d’une journée, je peux vous donner une recette de thé qui stimulera votre système immunitaire.

Il suffit de mélanger l’achillée, la menthe poivrée et la fleur de sureau, verser sur de l’eau bouillante, laisser reposer 3 minutes et prêt. ce thé a un goût délicieux tel qu’il est mais si vous aimez le boire sucré, vous pouvez bien sûr ajouter du miel ou du sucre.

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My Crete, Mijn Kreta

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

the greek orthodox religion is what keeps the Cretans united.

de Grieks-orthodoxe religie houdt de Kretenzers verenigd

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Village adventure

Are you ready for a village adventure in Crete? Are you ready to accompany and milk the sheep, to drink tea with the shepherd next to an old church and to have a real shepherd lunch? Or would you prefer to bake your homemade bread in a wood oven and eat it with fresh cheese made in the mitato?

All this is possible in the village of my shepherd friend Babis whom we can keep company during his daily routine as a shepherd.

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NEE! In ere van alle gevechten, opstanden en oorlogen waarbij de Grieken en Kretenzers gevochten hebben voor een vrij land.

Elk jaar sinds 28 oktober 1944 wordt de NEE (OCHI) parade gelopen in elk dorp en stad in Griekenland.

Die wordt natuurlijk voorafgegaan door het oefenen van deze parade in alle scholen, organisaties en het leger natuurlijk.

De deelnemers aan de parade tonen hiermee hun respect aan allen die gevochten hebben tijdens oorlogen, verzetten en onderdrukkingen waar Kreta en Griekenland jarenlang het slachtoffer van geweest zijn.  Dit is dan ook een heel belangrijke dag waarbij toch zeker 80% van de bevolking op straat komt om actief deel te nemen aan de parade of als toeschouwer de deelnemers te begroeten en applaudisseren.

Hier volgt een korte video opname van de parade in het dorp Fodele, uitgevoerd door de schoolkinderen.

het Griekse volkslied

Ben je op 28 oktober in Griekenland vergeet dan niet iedereen “Chronia polla” te wensen.

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Een mmmm voorsmaakje

Kom je volgend jaar naar Kreta op vakantie dan kan je met mij meegaan voor een stressloze Kreta-dag!

De “Kalimera Tavli” daguitstap is getest, de proefkonijnen waren heeeeeeeeel tevreden en enthousiast, en ze hebben mij enkele foto’s opgestuurd waarvan hier een paar, 2 dus 😉 Ik wil ook niet teveel verklappen…..

Het zijn er dus 3 geworden ♥♥♥ (ik kon het niet laten) Met dank aan Mieke en Thomas!

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Bevindingen over de test dagtrip van Rethimnon

Na het laatste bezoek van deze dagtrip heb ik mijn 4 ‘test bunnies’ (Noren uit het uiterste noorden van Noorwegen) gevraagd wat ze van de daguitstap vonden. Hun eerste reactie was dat ze heel erg genoten hebben van de plaats waar ze zelf kruidenthee gemaakt en gedronken hebben en dat het heel ontspannen, gezelig en leerrijk was, ook de weg naar deze plaats vonden ze schitterend. Ze waren ook heel trots op de theezakjes die ze zelf gemaakt en meegenomen hebben om ook thuis nog van hun eigen thee te kunnen genieten.

Alhoewel ze niet zeker waren van hun griekse kookkunsten hebben ze toch genoten van het klaarmaken van de gevulde groenten die ze later met veel smaak en trots gegeten hebben met prachtig uitzicht op het meer.

Na een ritje van 45′ waarbij een beetje ingedommeld kon worden hebben ze ook nog hun cultuur verrijkt met een geleid bezoek aan het Arkadi klooster dat volgens Victor Hugo (en alle Kretenzers) het vrijheidssymbool van Kreta is.

Hun enige opmerking was dat ze liever in een iets ruimere auto gezeten hadden, en dat is natuurlijk heel makkelijk aan te passen.

Dus, al bij al was het een heel geslaagde dag!

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Some more Jazz in Crete

On the 24th and 25th of July 2019 the Freedom Day Jazz Festival takes place at the Kipotheatro (garden theatre) Manos Chatzidakis in Heraklion Crete.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Garden+Theater+%22Manos+Hadjidakis%22/@35.3336004,25.13111,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x149a59877d31e25b:0x8eaedf2170227ffa!8m2!3d35.333596!4d25.133304

The Fredom Day JazzFestival is an idea of the group Free The Soprano Player and is organized for the second time in Heraklion Crete. The aim of the Festival is to highlight modern jazz in Crete through the cooperation of Greek and Foreign musicians.

The program

Wednesday 24-7

Memos Moustakas; Ronan Guilfoyle and OutwardBound trio; Manolakis Giorgis and Nefalo project (with Andreas Polyzogopoulos and Niko Sidirokastriti)

Thursday 25-7

Bubble wrap; Maria Kritsotaki and Ntinos Manos; Babis Papadopoulos and Christos Yermenoglou (Basenezmen)

Both evenings start at 21.30 and have an entrance fee of 10 Euro

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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.

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Olive harvest

It’s December, time to harvest the olives!  It is since the 1960’s that Crete has lots and lots of olive trees, some say 30 milion, others say 35 milion, well it will be somewhere inbetween these 2 numbers.  Olive trees don’t always carry a lot of olives, like all fruit trees, the one year the harvest of a tree is huge, the next year it’s medium and the next year usually even less and then it starts all over again.  

Families in Crete can have over 5000 olive trees and imagine having to harvest them all, that is an amazing job so these families hire groups of people who have the full equipment to harvest olives, as you can see in the small video below

This equipment exist of nets that are put under the tree; jute bags to put the olives in so they can be trasported; a coarse sieve that separates the olives from the twigs and leaves; a generator that gives power to the oliviera, which is a tool that has large tongs that spin around quickly, hit the tree branches and like this remove the olives from the tree, and ofcourse the oliviera itself.

This is a quit hard job but as long as the weather is fine people enjoy it, they work together outside in nature, take a break to have a coffee or lunch under the trees and then start harvesting again.  Everyone has his own task, some people put the nets under the trees, others work with the oliviera, others gather the olives, others seperate them from the twigs and leaves and others put them in the jute bags.  It’s when it starts raining or snowing that the work starts to be really hard and difficult! 

It can take weeks or months to gather all the olives.  The olive harvest usualy ends at the end of February and then it is time to prune the trees.  Also a job that takes some time to be done, so olive farmers are busy all winter long. 

  • the nets are spread under the tree

And ofcourse as soon as the first olives are harvested they are brought to the olive press where that very healthy and tasty olive oil is made.  After the olives are pressed the oil has to rest for about one month to be ready to consume so every year in January the new olive oil is ready to be tasted and sold.