When you move to somewhere as attractive as Crete, you will be amazed at how popular you will become with friends and family. I even had someone I hadn’t seen since I was fifteen track me down via “Friends Reunited”, to try and bum a free holiday from us!
As sure as the swallows return every summer, so do our visitors. The year we moved to Crete was mostly devoted to family – the first of which was our thirteen year old grandson, who was with us for a fortnight. The house was immediately filled with the unforgettable mix of ‘Lynx’, trainers and hormones.
Rob and I felt like Butlins Redcoats as we organized a hectic timetable of activities, and prepared huge amounts of food. Fortunately he was not faddy about his food, and quickly became addicted to Greek yogurt, grapes and feta (or, as he would pronounce it – f e’a.) I was expecting him to be a late riser but by 7 am each morning he was dressed, breakfasted and ready to go, while Rob and I lumbered around in a daze, wiping sleep from our eyes.
Despite daily trips to the nearest beach to work off surplus energy in the sea he soon exhausted us two oldies, but fortunately the youngsters in the village – resident and visiting - helped out. Although there was no common language, they welcomed this novelty into their midst, and one youngster in particular – Makis – deserved a medal for his efforts. He came round almost every day and the two boys were always out doing something - playing football or darts, collecting almonds from our two trees, building tree houses, making whistles out of sticks or walking the village dogs. God knows what else they got up to when they were out of sight, but we just had to hope for the best.
Our next visitors were Rob’s daughter, son-in-law and their youngster. This gave us an unlooked-for opportunity to check out the accident and emergency department at Chania hospital when the two year old fell down the stairs and split his lip. After a fraught mercy dash, two doctors and a nurse immediately took over, checked every inch of the screaming toddler’s body, inserted two stitches, prescribed antibiotics and arranged a follow-up appointment – all in the time in which we would still have been giving our details to an overworked receptionist in a UK hospital. Naturally enough, the rest of their holiday was a little overshadowed by this, and the toddler’s understandable reluctance to go up and down stairs. But by the time they left, sunshine and smiles had been restored, bruises had gone, stitches had been removed and parental nightmares had faded. The holiday could not have left a lasting scar, as they all moved out here the following year and built their own home a few miles away.
Another week, a couple of friends arrived who just wanted to relax, so that was fine by us. They knew the way to our hearts was by bringing enormous quantities of teabags, so are welcome at any time. Then more friends – this time with the sense to book into a nearby apartment complex – one who wanted to walk vast distances and one who wanted to lie in the sun by the pool and read. No problem – this is Crete, you have both options. They flew home happy at the end of their week, and have been regular visitors ever since.
We love to show our visitors around our part of the island, and there are a number of ‘must sees’ that never fail to impress. These include a drive down the west coast to Elafonisi (not for the vertigo sufferer), over the mountains to Paleohora (fantastic for flowers in April/May), a visit to the Saturday street market in Chania and the Venizelos graves high above the city on Akrotiri, a boat trip from Kissamos to the Balos lagoon, the incredibly ancient olive tree at Vrysses, a Sunday lunch at Argiropoli where all the tavernas have done something different and fantastic with running water, and a visit to Rethymon to view the fort and the old town. If visitors are still eager for more, we gently suggest they might like to hire a car and do some exploring on their own!
Although it is always great to see our visitors, it is just as wonderful when the summer holiday flights finish for the season and the island – and the house – are our own again!
Cretan-homes, Crete property estate agents
