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Post by bazfaz on Jan 29, 2010 21:03:45 GMT
Mrs Faz was so outraged at Kerouac's comment about not using olive oil that she has taken this photo. Now, K2 has never been to Greece and hasn't in all likelihood taken evening classes in Greek - but the olives on the label must be a hint.
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Post by lagatta on Jan 29, 2010 21:12:13 GMT
L'honneur culinaire est sauf!
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 21:19:27 GMT
I will be able to sleep tonight after all, especially after seeing the fresh coriander trying to hide behind the bottle. Things are looking up.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 29, 2010 21:33:05 GMT
Alas no coriander but parsley. I believe parsley also helps sleep.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 21:35:18 GMT
Ah, flat "Italian" parsley then. That is quite good also.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2010 21:37:29 GMT
Quote: Deyana, thank you for saying we look a nice couple. Over on the Meeting Pot onlyMark has wanted to know why the obviously younger Mrs Faz was attracted to the mature Baz. Obviously I cannot reply to that. Baz, I think it must be a combination of your charm and modesty. Both qualities are irresistible.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 30, 2010 6:16:59 GMT
What? Jack hasn't been to Greece? Ever? It looks like a nice winter haven, Baz. Will you be staying beyond spring? Or at least until Easter? Is any of the moeds on the pic of your lodgings at your disposal? You can dedicate all the octopus to me, by the way, I love the stuff.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 30, 2010 7:22:00 GMT
I pondered about the word moeds. I thought at first it might be a typo for mopeds. This was too tame, I decided. Coeds was obviously what you meant. Alas, Mrs Faz is keeping a sharp eye on me.
We shan't be here for Easter, Orthodox and Western Easter being the same date this year. I was on the island of Kythera for Easter once. We did a tour of the island villages in an old bus with the Potamos Symphony Orchestra, a motley collection of fiddlers and trumpeters. At each stop tables were laid with roast lamb, salads, red painted eggs and retsina. We ate, the band played, there was singing, conkers were played with the eggs and many toasts were drunk. After five villages I believe the bus drove itself.
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Post by hwinpp on Jan 30, 2010 7:56:29 GMT
You overestimate my what's-it-called, forthrightedness?
I actually meant mopeds. I'm typing on my laptop and obviously the keys seem to have shrunk or something. I type too many letters, then delete too many. Haven't seen you mention retsina yet.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 30, 2010 9:10:21 GMT
I lived in Greece for 6 months and grew to love retsina with local food. Strangely there is very little retsina here in Paleochora.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 31, 2010 10:50:28 GMT
Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day so we took a picnic and walked up to Anidri in the hills. Here we are having coffee in a little taverna. There were signs saying To the beach and we set off to go down the the gorge. At first the path was easy. Hello! Where did that path go? In fact we were following a stream, sometimes walking in the stream. Nobody had told us this. At one stage there was a rope dangling over the boulders but the stream had turned it into a waterfall so we had to clamber round the hillside. My God! They called this a path. Where do I go now? One hour and forty five minutes later we arrive at the coast. It was a great walk but not one we shall be repeating.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2010 11:02:43 GMT
Oh, I think those little "pebbles" that covered that past were just deposited by the last tsunami in the area. Nothing to worry about.
Lovely photos for us city-bound folks!
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Post by traveler63 on Jan 31, 2010 11:36:51 GMT
bazfaz and mrs bazfaz:
Terrific pictures and I love seeing the sea. That is one thing this California gal really misses. When we lived in Oregon it was wonderful, but we are landlocked here in AZ. You both look terrific.
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Post by bjd on Jan 31, 2010 12:28:28 GMT
Hopping over those boulders will keep you in shape! It looks like a nice place and you are lucky to be able to sit outside in shirt sleeves at this time of year -- at least in Europe. I just had a quick look at the French weather site and it seems to be about 5° and sunny at your house in France -- so enjoy the warmth.
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 31, 2010 15:41:47 GMT
It has been very windy today. We went out this afternoon for the Walk of the Hundred Dogs. They sound ferocious. Do dogs that wag their tales bite? Is it just a ruse to get you to put out your hand to pat them and then - snap?
On the way back a girl on the waterfront hailed us in English. We had a little chat and we asked where she was from. Italy, he said. But she was ethnic Chinese.
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Post by cristina on Jan 31, 2010 16:51:55 GMT
Baz, I am really enjoy your photos and like T63 I miss being a bit closer to water of some kind. I love the photo of you and Mrs Faz at the Taverna - you are are a beautiful couple.
I am intrigued by the reference to the Walk of a Hundred Dogs - what is that?
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Post by lola on Jan 31, 2010 17:16:29 GMT
Walk of a Hundred Dogs. Love it.
We took a shortcut between Canyon de Chelly and Shiprock NM that your path reminds me of, Baz. It started as a lovely 2 lane blacktop through an Indian reservation and looked fine on the map, but degenerated over a mountain range to where it felt like driving over those boulders. Never mentioned it to the rental car people.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2010 17:26:59 GMT
I passed a Greek grocery store in the Latin Quarter last night and wondered how it might compare to your local establishments, Baz. Seemed pretty well stocked to me with an impressive deli section. (but I just peered through the window)
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Post by spindrift on Jan 31, 2010 18:35:42 GMT
That's a nice picture of the two of you. Can you speak Greek? Do the locals understand English? Are you eating a lot of fish?
Do you decide on the spur of the moment where to go next or do you plan ahead?
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Post by bazfaz on Jan 31, 2010 20:39:48 GMT
Spindrift, I am poor at languages. I can order food in most European languages but then get lost. Of course the trouble comes when you say your pathetic few words and then a stream of Greek comes back that passes me right by. I lived in Greece for a bit but I can't say I took on board more than about 200 or 300 words. Around here the locals speak a fair bit of English. There is this belief that one comes to the islands of Greece and sits at a taverna munching fresh caught fish. The seas round here have been overfished. Fresh fish is very expensive. A restaurant in Chania had fish on the menu priced by weight: 62 euros a kilo.
We are staying here for a month at least. It is very relaxing, we don't feel restless and the locals greet us with a friendly smile.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 1, 2010 5:34:51 GMT
Oh my gosh -- that walk was downright dangerous. My ankles were wobbling in sympathy as I looked at the pictures. Fabulous pictures, incidentally! The beach (almost) looks worth it. How did you all get back?
I would think that photo of the two of you together would become a favorite -- it's lovely and you both look so relaxed.
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 1, 2010 7:43:43 GMT
The Bixa, the photos should have been better. Unfortunately the setting on the camera slipped and they are over-exposed. From the beach we followed the track along the coast back to Pal. It is a rough road (no black top) which is actually part of the E4 long distance footpath that starts somewhere at the other end of Europe. One oddity was that we came across a man who had parked his car and was raking a patch of the road. He wasn't an employee so we had no idea what he was doing. Maybe searching for a lost earring?
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 1, 2010 7:59:40 GMT
Give that man the zen driving award!
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 1, 2010 9:46:10 GMT
Kerouac, the Greek store you saw must have had supplies from all over Greece. The supermarkets here have a poor selection. We were having a coffee with Haris (who owns the studios where we are staying) and he agrees that everything is very expensive (with the exception of oranges, bread and ouzo it is more expensive than France).
Spindift, we are getting a lift out of town this afternoon and then going to walk back. It looks a tricky path on the map. I hope we don't get lost.
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Post by spindrift on Feb 1, 2010 19:03:49 GMT
Did you enjoy the walk?
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 1, 2010 20:44:30 GMT
In short, yes. There is an English couple in the room next to us who are very kind. They have a rental car and volunteered to take us up into the hills, drop us, and then they would drive on somewhere else. So we got dropped and found our walk which is well described in a small book 10 walks from Paleochora. It went along a path that wound round hills. Once we passed an old plane tree that is evergreen. There is a complicated story about 99 saints who died all at once and the plane tree will stay evergreen until a number of branches make crosses, when it will die. On we went. The path was rough but not as difficult as the last walk we did. Fantastic views and Mrs Faz will post some photos tomorrow. The path was waymarked so we were never in danger of getting lost until the last bit leading to Anidri which was hopeless. Then we were on known territory and walked back on the road to home. Three and a half hours in all, a descent of 900 feet to the sea.
We were hungry for our dinner this evening. We hade gigantes (large butter beans) with tuna, then a swordfish steak and leeks with tomato and a bit of pasta; and mandarins. And wine.
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 2, 2010 18:00:50 GMT
We went for another challenging walk in the hills down to the coast starting at the village of Azogires. This is a bridge just beow the village. Near the bridge is a sacred plane tree with the bones of saints buried under it. The legend says there are 99 saints. The legend also says that when the branches grow into 99 crosses the tree will die. Mysteriously it is an evergreen plane. The path ahead looks daunting. Real estate opportunities here. We wonder how people who once lived in these little houses could have scratched a living. The path can be tricky at times but Baz has his faithful cameraperson to record it. This is where we have come from, that village in the hills. Somewhere up there are the ruins of a Turkish fort. Can the spot them? We couldnt. And this is where we are going. The sun is shining down on the coast but it is still a long walk. There were lots of flowers on the way even though it is still winter. This is an asphodel. We went on and down until we reached the village of Anidri where we had been on Saturday. It is still a long way to go but now there is a paved road.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2010 18:06:25 GMT
You are going to be in top form when you come back to France if you haven't broken any limbs.
As lovely as the photos are, I am forced to think of all of the forest fires there have been in Greece in recent years and how well a lot of that vegetation would burn in the hot summer.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2010 18:12:30 GMT
What a lovely country, makes me want to see it.
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Post by bazfaz on Feb 2, 2010 20:33:58 GMT
Kerouac, where we lived in the Herault there were terrible fires every summer. Many were started by hunters who wanted to drive the wild boar into areas where they could be shot. There are arsonists in Greece but who knows there motivation. In Athens we saw graffiti in English: Burn Athens. So, anarchists.
Deyana, Greece is a country to visit when you feel your spirit needs to be uplifted.
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