On Sunday, March 31st, our second host in Hania, Hamdan, took us on a tour of his favorite beach, Juniper Forest, and two others he thought we'd like see. Before we started out, though, we had a bite to eat - Hamdan made us some scrambled eggs for breakfast. We offered to make him breakfast, but he basically shooed us out of the kitchen and served us instead. Hamdan is new to couchsurfing, we were his first surfers, and he was a wonderful host. In fact, all but one of our hosts have just been so great that we're looking forward to getting home and paying their hospitalty forward.
We left the apartment around 10:00 and spent the next 6-7 hours visiting the beaches and driving around the area. (pics on Facebook whe we get home!) Each day the weather is a bit warmer than the day before and on this day, it was perfect. The air was a bit cool, the sun warm on our faces and only the slightest of breezes. After several hours of walking, hiking and scrambling on rocks, I confess I was ready for a bite to eat. I dropped a couple subtle (yes, I can be subtle) hints, but it was almost 5:00 when we got to a favorite restaurant of Hamdan's. When he and his friends go camping at the Juniper Forest beach, they always stop at this place on their way home. Oh my gosh, was it worth the wait!
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| Juniper Forest Beach |
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| Hamden in his favorite camping spot. |
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| The second of the three beaches we visited. The sand has a pink cast. The color combination was so beautiful. |
The restaurant is a cozy place with an indoor seating area and walls of windows they open in the warmer months. These windows opened out into a courtyard with orange trees and other flowering plants and trees and a little creek running alongside. Hamdan said the owners place tables out in the courtyard, too, during the summer season. There was a slight chill in the air, the sun had gone behind the mountains, so we sat inside. The owner greeted Hamdan by name and welcomed him back, even though it'd been last fall since he'd been there. The owner saw that I was chilled and seated us next to the fire they'd started. Val and I let Hamdan and the owner figure out what to order for us all. And then, just like the last time at Dimitris' friend's fish restaurant, the food kept coming! These folks can eat!!
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| Hamdan, Georges (the owner), George's son, me |
The family that operates the restaurant grows all it's own food or gets it from other local growers. Delish! The owner's two sons served us, the older one more confident in his English, the younger one a bit shy but still game to practice on us. We started with a local vegetable green that they grow in the mountains, kind of like cooked spinach. Then came a full fat cheese made from goat milk and a no fat cheese with two kinds of bread, french fries (which is a frequent side dish), olives, and another vegetable dish. THEN the main dish. I ordered a vegetable pie with eggplant, potatoes and cheese in a wonderful pastry shell - all home grown and cooked by the owner's wife. Remember in an earlier blog when I mentioned all the goats that roam the hillsides? Well, sadly, they aren't used just for their milk, and Hamdan and Val had roasted goat for their main dish! I'm probably forgetting a few of the dishes because the owner kept bringing out different things for us to try. Just as we were finishing the meal (on Crete, "the end" of a meal can take 30 - 45 minutes, you'll see what I mean - read on) when the owner pulled up a chair and set down the customary bottle of raki and four shot glasses. Raki is a local digestive liquor that follows every meal. It's got an unusual , strong taste and I usually declined it, but this was home brewed and flavored with berry so both Val and I threw back a few. But, wait, not time to go yet. A plateful of a lemon, sponge-cake like desert was brought out to accompany more shots of raki and some conversation, translated by Hamdan from Greek to English. After that, we just had to try a few of the oranges from their trees in the courtyard. Which were so good that when they asked if we'd like to take a couple we said sure! They gave us three each and we almost made it to the door. As we were walking towards the door, they brought us one more dish to try. So generous and hospitable, one of the best meals of the trip! If it hadn't been for Hamdan sharing some of his favorite places with us, we would have never be able to experience those things.
Next stop, Santorini!
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