Manny and co arrived a day earlier than me and received a wonderfully warm welcome from the Klonzas family who hosted a dinner which I hear was a feast of great proportions. Platters of fasting fare that was hearty and delicious flowed from the kitchen of Maria, who then pan fried crepes with local cheese and honey – my mouth was watering just hearing about it! Yianni then showed an historic Crete movie which featured his father and himself as a boy – and incredibly Yia Yia had watched the very same movie in a foreign movie theatre in Melbourne in her 20s – which she remembered because she loved it.
I arrived the following day – feeling instantly at home on Greek soil, just as it was when I was working here in the 1990s. I always felt an overwhelming sense of relief to be back – and it was so again this time. I taxi ride through the mountains and I was at sunrise apartments and into the arms of Manny who I believed missed me greatly J
We settled in, had a light supper and then Manny, Cassiana and I walked to the local church (small with room for no more than 20 or 30 people) for the service of Holy Unction – where we received a blessing with holy oil. We were made to feel very welcome, ushered to the front and offered the sacrament ahead of the rest of the small congregation. Afterwards we dined at a nearby restaurant, ordering the most delicious vegetable soup, a Greek salad and Manny couldn’t resist a plate of snails. We washed it down with a bottle of surprisingly good local red.
The following day was our first adventure in the hire car – a 9 seater which is not ideally suited to the donkey pathways of the village, but as head driver I’m not doing too badly! We headed into Hersonissis , just a short drive down the mountain to the seaside and stationed ourselves at a water’s edge cafe. When I say water’s edge it is literally so – the waves of the beach lapping beneath the glass windows. I’m sure the entire waterfront restaurant scene contravenes every building licence under the sun, but I don’t think they’re big on those kinds of things here!
That night we were again hosted at the Klonzas for a Lenten feast in honour of my arrival. Baked tomatoes and capsicums stuffed with rice, horta (a wild green that is divine with oil and lemon), a cabbage salad with artichoke hearts, and the most amazing seafood dish of prawns, mussels, tomatoes, herbs and melted feta cheese. The bread is crusty and wholesome – and very much worth breaking the no-carb diet over. Yianni spoiled us with double-dried wholemeal bread soaked in oil and vinegar which is beyond description (I could eat it all day), locally made feta and delicious local wine. He then brought out Greek sweets made by Aris’ (Yiannis’ son in law) mother – a sugary crystallised fruit that was a cross between an orange and a grapefruit, served with fresh yoghurt. The Greek ‘spoon sweets’ were once well known among the Greeks in Perth and a tradition of Manny’s grandmother to make, but not often made in Perth any longer. A real treat!
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