You could have fooled me that I would be returning to our little mountain town Pendamodi in Crete for the 4th time in four years, but it’s such a welcoming and comfortable place that it’s impossible to say no. The thing about returning to Crete is that there is a certain familiarity at the same time there is still so much to learn and explore. The familiarity makes me seek out experiences to feel more a part of where I am living – hanging out more in our little village where we can work on our language skills for one. Also, knowing where to shop for our necessities, or being invited into the homes of local people for a meal in spite of language barriers. There’s a pull to go someplace every day because there’s so much to see and do here, but I am definitely buying into the local experiences.
Many people in Pendamodi don’t speak but a few words of English, and as hard as I’m studying, I am at the most basic level of communicating. I did bring a little translator that I purchased, but I’m actually finding Google Translate easier to use and more reliable with internet access here. Two years ago I took an hour Greek lesson every day and that certainly helped, but I feel as if I have to relearn everything after a year hiatus. My next step is learning the alphabet so I can read the signs – knowing their “P” is the Greek letter “rho”, which is an “R” sound, for example, or the letter “B” is the Greek letter “beta”, which has a “V” sound. And then there are those whole new letters like “Pi”, which is written like an upside down capital “U” – kind of! At any rate, I am constantly amazed and grateful to be able to experience a totally different culture from my own and not just blow through a country as a tourist.
For my birthday, I had quite a surprise. We had been out for dinner the night before with our friends Georgio and Antonia. We thought we agreed to meeting Georgio for breakfast, and then I was going to go for my morning walk. After breakfast he insisted we get in his car and he was going to give us a ride to the next town where I said I was going to walk. He gave us a little tour of the town (another post) and then he insisted we get back into his car after some photo opps. He took us to Heraklion – about 20 miles away – to pick up some baked goods. I was getting antsy to get on with my day, when my husband stopped me in my tracks and said, “I’m just embracing it!” What a great way to deal with the situation.
As we drove back to Pendamodi, Georgio stopped at his house, where we discovered Antonia had been cooking all day to prepare a meal for us in celebration of my birthday. We realized that Georgio thought we had talked the previous night about a meal at his house while we couldn’t figure out why he was driving us all over creation! Somehow we missed that we had agreed to go to their house for this birthday celebration!
The meal was amazing! Antonia had made moussaka (quite time-consuming), french fried potatoes (the Cretans love their french fries), two kinds of breads, pork chops to feed an army, Greek salad, meatballs, homemade coleslaw, wine, raki, coca cola, pastries, etc. etc. etc.! It was one of the most endearing things and special birthdays that I’ve ever had. We danced and ate and drank and went home after 5 hours of broken Greek and English with a memory that will last a lifetime. Efcharisto poli, Georgio and Antonia.
