Lars Story 3

I hope that you enjoy these stories from the keyboard of Lars Magnusson as much as I. They were originally published on the Interkriti and Explore Crete websites and have proved to be tremendously popular there, so I am delighted to be able to reproduce them here. At the end of each story you may continue on to the next by clicking on the icon at the bottom of each page.

It is early in morning and a quick look behind the blue curtains is telling us that this is a perfect day for a tour.  Behind the curtains the sun is sending its first warm beams to the landscape of Crete. There is still some snow on the peaks of the White Mountains, no wind at all and the sea is like a mirror with some small dots here and there; the fishermen are early today. Having yoghurt from Vrises and honey from Anopolis, a cup of tea and a sandwich on our balcony overlooking all this makes you feel good at heart and ready to explore.

Loading the Vitara (Vitality would be a better name) with our stuff is easy and made very efficiently by my excellent co-driver and wife Sofia. A quick look into some maps, yes some maps, she wouldn't trust only one, because through the years she has become very experienced. Then the sign, the thumbs in the air, and off we go.

We are driving through Chania, the streets are almost empty and the air feels cold and clean. Close to the center taxi-station we pass the place where the men from Albania are waiting for someone to offer them some work for a day or two. It is time for oranges and for building, painting, gardening and so on and the chances for a job are good. It is a crazy world sometimes!

No traffic on the high-road and we are passing Aptera, the old town, Vrises with the best yoghurt in western Crete and Georgioupoli where the tourists always seems to be waiting for the buses to Rethimnon, in good speed. It is a beautiful road with the sea on our left side and the hills dressed in green on the other.

After Rethimnon we turn right and are heading for Perama and the Melidoni cave, which unfortunately is closed. It is yet too early, the new season has only started a couple of days ago, not enough tourists around.  What to do?

"Let's try to find little Eleni now when we are travelling by jeep". My co-driver is studying the maps again. "What was the name of that village again?" "Kateriana, I am sure!" A couple of years ago we visited an almost deserted village, where we after a walk around in the village, met a little very nice 5 year old girl by the name of Eleni.

She was sitting, together with her grandmother and grandgrandfather in front of a house, playing with a toy consisting of the loose parts from a small bus. "Kalimera sas, ti kaneis; I mera simera einai poli orea"  (Good morning, how are you? Today is a very beautiful day") "Nai poli, poli. Apo pou eisai;" ("Yes very, very, where are you from?)

A few words and the Cretan world is opened.

We were invited for a cup of coffee, Greek of course, metrios (medium coffee with a bit of sugar as opposed to sketos which has no sugar and glykos which is swimmingwith it). I tried to fix the bus and little Eleni looked at me with her dark big eyes; yes I really needed her full support. Unfortunately we were unable to get the bus to run properly again but we have tried our best, and we did it together. Before we left, she sang a little very nice song to us. I showed her the result in my videocamera and she looked very proud.

We promised her to come back the next time we were going to visit Crete so now here we are trying once more to find the village of Elenis. Actually we had tried once before when we brought the Volvo along but the roads were too bad to keep on searching. "We have to go to Garazo and then turn left in Omala and drive onto Faratsi and finally reach Kateriana."   She is very determined, my co-driver.

Garazo is easy and so is Omala but then the road becomes one of those millions of dirtroads you will find in Crete. "Left or right?" ..."Left!!" The road is very bad but the Vitara has a nice vitality for roads like this one, but is it the right road?   "This cannot be right, do you  think we'd better turn back ??" "Yes"

The glasses on my co-drivers nose are very deep down into the maps now. "These da.. maps are not accurate" Whoops, where is my cool and calm co-driver now? We return to the cross and now we turn right. Soon we recognise the very bad road and after 5 minutes of driving we reach the point and the houses, where we had to turn back last time we were trying to find the village.

In front of one of the three houses we can see some women, old and young, chatting and also a little girl playing. The place is very nice and peaceful with high trees, a lot of flowers all over and somewhere in background we can hear the sound of running water. Crete dressed in its spring-gown. Disturbing the peace though is a dog barking all the time and therefore we have to step out of the jeep to make us heard and understood.

We are asking about the road and if it is ok to continue. The youngest woman with lipstick and almost dressed for a party answers; "Yes I think it will ok" A man in a blue shirt, black trousers, big glasses and under his nose a big black moustache is coming towards us with a big smile on his face.

"Geia sas, apo pou eisai" ("Hello, where are you from?"). We tell him, that we are from Sweden and again we ask if the road is ok? "What are your names?" "Well my name is Lars Magnusson but in Crete it is Leonidas Manousakis and this is my co-d….. sorry my wife and her name is Birte but in Crete Sofia." "Bravo, elate, come!"

We enter one of the houses and in front of us is a table covered with food, wine and fruit. Around the table there are 6 men of different ages. "Say hello to my good friends Leonidas and Sofia Manousakis from Sweden."

We are presented to Manolis, Georgos, Dimitris, Antonis, Jannis and Kostas and in seconds there are two more chairs around the table. They have already finished their meal but we of course have to eat. A plate, fork and knife, chicken, lambchops, brisoles me patates, salad, kalisonia, cheese and wine. Everybody is looking at us, waiting for what?

A wink to my wife and we grab one lamb chop each - with our hands - and start to eat.Laughter, cheers and applause; " You are real Cretans! Bravo!" They are all very curious and we have to tell them about Sweden, why do we come to Crete and so on and so on...in the Greek language…I think…at least some of it!!!

Georgos, the oldest, with a fantastic charisma, is telling stories from the old times and also from the war. He even shows us his old rifle, which is not so big but very heavy. When we empty our glasses, they are very quickly filled up again with a superb…..and strong local wine. Why all this food and wine, why this celebration, someone having his nameday or what?

The answer from Georgos is very quick: "No, no we are celebrating our church Agios Ioannis today." There are only two people living in Faratsi today; Georgos and his wife but they have many good friends visiting them, especially when it is time for celebrations like this one today. It is now a very festive atmosphere and the spirits are running higher and higher. My videocamera is also running and they don't mind at all.

Sofia is placed next to Georgos and he is looking deep into her eyes and here comes the mantinades (Cretan love songs in rhyming couplets), one after the other. He is just fantastic, 81 years old, and acts like a young boy.

A kiss on his cheek and he continues, everybody is smiling and joking and we have a great time together. Time is flying though and what about little Eleni and her village? "Leave now, no, no you stay a little longer, Katriana is very close from here" It is now time for some tsikoudia; Yamas, skål, si´gia, viva Manousakis, viva Georgos, viva Antonis, viva Sofia.

Suddenly a telephone-call. It is from Athens and Georgos is telling his son all about the celebration and his guests from Sweden.  Very politely we tell all our new friends that we have to leave. First I have to show the videotape to them, new laughter and smiling eyes.

"Leonidas kai (and) Sofia Manousakis you have to come back September the 26th again because then we will celebrate Agios Ioannis again. You are my friends and you are very welcome." "Of course we will come back." "Before you leave you must have something to take with you" He is telling his wife, a very nice little woman dressed in black, to give us a bottle of his best wine.

Before we leave, we hand over some of the chocolate, we always have in the jeep when driving around, to the little girl and she is very happy. "Yes, yes the road is ok for a jeep." Finally we got the answer to the question that we had put 4 hours earlier!

Well, well, well what to say? After a couple of hundred metres we had to stop and to look at each other. Can we continue? What about all that wine and tsikoudia? We emptied as much as possible and there was for sure no traffic on our road and the hairpin-bends were easier at this stage.

We did not find Eleni in Katriana. It was not the right village and I did not recognise the nature in this area. We continued to Drosia and Theodora, where we met our ladies from last year's visit. This time we also met with all the youngsters from 2 to 6 years. We offered them some ice-cream and we had a good time together. The youngest did not get too much of his ice-cream into his mouth but all around it and all over his face.

Now it was time to look for a place to spend the night and we decided to go up to Anogia. On our way there the nature suddenly was changing and I was sure, this was it, this was the area with the Elenis village. Ahead of us pointing to our left was a sign saying "Kamariotis."

We turned and there it was but this time without Eleni.

Anyway, we were very pleased because things had started to happen in the village. Some new houses but most of all some of the old houses were restored and we hope it will continue like that and maybe we will find Eleni next time.

Late that night, when I put my head on the pillow, I could hear my co-drivers silent laughing. "What?" "Kalinichta Leonidas Manousakis"

Kriti stin cardia mou

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