Crete-Day Eleven

Today we made some traveling mistakes and corrected some we made earlier in the trip. For example, Jamie drove and Seth navigated (instead of vice versa). Mistake corrected. We also finally found the supermarket and bought water to bring places with us instead of waiting too long and nearly dying of thirst. Mistake corrected. We also finally realized that eating only one big meal each day is more than enough. More food than that will give us big belly muscles we don't need (to quote our friend George from Athens). Mistake corrected. We did however, make some new mistakes. We ate pizza, thinking,"how bad could it be?" because we were trying to avoid yet another meal consisting of lamb and tzatziki. Big mistake. We also neglected to feed Jamie every three hours. Not smart: near fatal mistake!

We took our first foray into real Crete driving and exploring this afternoon. But before that, we had two very important appointments with Angelina, the hotel's masseuse. Angelina was an angel sent from France who kicked our asses and reminded us to relax more. Jamie commented that this was the most relaxed she'd ever been, which could be worrisome. Seth was ready to run a marathon but decided he was weighed down by feta cheese (Seth is currently on an "I Heart Cretan Feta" t-shirt quest: stay tuned). After some laying by the pool, we geared up and set off for our driving adventure.

We decided to drive south to see the mountains, explore some towns (a word used very loosely here), eat lunch and see one of the many gorges on the island. Note - there is a gorge you can hike through which is supposed to be lovely. It takes 4 to 6 hours and is hot. Shockingly, we are not walking this gorge but instead driving through a different one. Armed with a map and loose directions (and by directions I mean, follow the signs on the roads and hope we see a sign for a town noted on our map), we head off to our first stop. After arriving at the "town" of Meskla, we realize that a town in Crete literally can consist of three houses. Compared to Meskla, Hillsdale is New York City. We observe the three houses and continue on our way deciding that our new goal is to get to lunch. We are planning to eat at a restaurant known for serving traditional Crete food made only from ingredients found in the owner's farm and garden. We pass through two more towns, Zourva and Therisso, asking a nice man if we are headed the right way, and, after a precarious 9-point turn during which Jamie nearly careens our Hyundai Accent down a Cretan cliff, we finally make it to the town Drakonas, where will eat this famed food.

The town has two buildings, the restaurant and a house. We park our car and are greeted by the restaurant owner and are immediately taken into his kitchen. We are told by the concierge at out hotel that (1) the restaurant owner is "strange" but welcoming and (2) be sure to tell him that you are from Ammos Hotel and he will take good care of you. As for (1) above, the answer is a strong affirmative, as this guy is a hermit obsessed with food in a Tony Bourdain way, speaks little to no English, has a bit of a twitch and displays mannerisms like Bobcat Goldwait. Needless to say, Seth loves this man, as evidenced by his post meal bromance photo with the restaurant owner. As for (2) above, thank the Lord we informed him we were staying at Ammos Hotel, as we were welcomed into his kitchen, shown each and every dish he was preparing and Jamie was even given a sample straight from the pot. As for the meal itself, we (mostly Seth - Jamie was the DD) drank a homemade red wine which was not that red and not fully aged and/or distilled. Accompanying the wine was a 5-course tasting of all that was being prepared in the kitchen, namely: (1) homemade bread with homegrown olives, homemade olive oil and homemade cheese (see a trend here?), (2) shredded lamb meat over a polenta type grain (both homemade / raised), (3) dolemadas (stuffed grape leaves), stuffed white cabbage and a stuffed tomato (all homemade, grown, etc.), (4) goat chops (think lamb chops but from a goat of his that we saw on the side of the road) and (5) gigantes beans with their own sauteed edible pods (homegrown). The meal, and the whole experience for that matter, was lights out and nothing less than surreal, as we dined on this feast at an outdoor table overlooking the most picturesque mountain-filled Cretan countryside (while no more than a half dozen cars drive by on this the only road during that time.) Needless to say, this was an experience that neither of us will soon forget and was one of the best we have had yet.

We begrudgingly got up from our table about two hours later and headed back to the kitchen to pay. The owner asked us to wait 5 minutes and sent us away with a package of straight out of the oven bread. We floated back to our car and sadly made the trip back. When we got back to the hotel we sat by the pool and watched kids torturing their parents who were trying to eat dinner. We were acquainted with Joe and Ella (who played a rousing game of tag with their dad who was not voluntarily part of the game) and Archie and Max, who insisted on running as close to the edge of the pool as possible. There were shouts and threats of no pudding while we silently laughed. Since our lunch was so big, we kept dinner low key and ate pizza and salad at the hotel. As noted, pizza is not a wise choice in Crete but was a nice change from our regular food. We shared drinks (and chocolate ice cream) with our neighbors and the woman who runs the restaurant and went to sleep very happy.