Exploring the beautiful city and harbour of Chania

Wow did we have a good lightning and thunderstorm last night! Lots of rain to. This morning it was still raining a bit but looks like it will clear up later on.  Now to catchup from the last few days :) 

New words we've learnt: Kaliméra - Good morning       Ya-su - hello 

Wednesday was a quiet day spent mostly at home. Vivien and her husband came over and picked us up to take us to the Lidl store in their neighborhood. This is one they knew was a large store. Ended up getting all our larger items that are awkward to carry and meat for the next 5 days. Everything else we can buy locally.

Since we were staying around I decided to make cabbage rolls but with a greek taste :)  In the ground beef/pork I had just bought I added fried onions and garlic. Then celery,  mushrooms, sliced green olives, some aubergine paste and spice mix for soukvaki.  Once I rolled up the cabbage rolls I put 2 tomatoes into the food processor along with oregano and more aubergine paste and poured it over the rolls. Covered the rolls with extra cooked cabbage leaves to keep them moist. Put them into the oven for 1.5 hours.

When we had them for supper they were very yummy :) I added tzatziki sauce on the side - which added a little more flavour.  Still have leftovers for lunch tomorrow and some put into the freezer until until day.

Thursday we took the early bus into Chania to enjoy a day exploring since it is another sunny day. We walked thru the streets and found another street market. Lots and lots of veggies, fruit and cheese. Then it changed into clothing and household stuff. All very interesting and cheap. As we continued on we arrived at the harbour. 

The regular buses here even have seatbelts, but don't think anyone uses them

Cauliflower here are huge!

We bought some persimmons but not really crazy about them 

And of course the "gadgets" table of stuff for sale

 On the way to the harbour we see the western fortification wall built by the Venetians in the 1500's

Very quiet here at the harbour early in the morning. Some men are sitting along the walkway in their folding chairs fishing. We almost saw one fisherman bring in his catch except it got away just before he could get it into the net.  After that we only saw little fish being caught and released. 

More of the fortification wall 

Lighthouse in the back original built in 1595 - then rebuilt in 1832 by the Egyptians in the shape of a minaret. 

Guys fishing along the walk - in the background is a Turkish mosque built in 1645 when the Turks invaded the harbour and took it from the Venetians. It's no longer used as a mosque

Sitting on a bench in the harbour and looking out onto the water that is so clear!

Another shot of the Venetian Arsenal where ship repairs were done. Built starting in 1467

We continue our walk along the harbour which is lined with many restaurants - all trying to get us to stop in and have something to eat.  Still to early for lunch. We walk over to the fish restaurant recommended by Vivien, but today it's closed! We decide to head into Chania's  Old Town area and go to the other recommended restaurant Kouzina.  Fun walking thru these narrow streets. Reminds us so much of Morocco. When we peer into some of the opened doors it is SO dark inside! Since the only windows are on the street side and are small, no much light gets in. 

This is such a cool courtyard 

With vine growing up and over for shade 

Not sure what this building is but looks interesting 

Looks like cool place to staying the middle of Chania

We find the restaurant and go inside and sit in the back area which is outside under a canopy. It has turned out to be a hot day so sitting outside is great. But still hard to get use to seeing people smoking while in the restaurant! Luckily no one is sitting near us smoking!  The waiter calls us over to check out what is "cooking in the pots" for todays specials - something done in these casual restaurants.  I choose a lamb in green beans and Dwayne picks moussaka - which looks awesome, but I really want to try lamb :)  

Our lunch arrives along with a few slices of fresh bread along with a fresh tomato sauce for dipping.  Dwayne enjoys his moussaka, even with eggplant :) and my lamb is tasty but not WOW! After we finish they bring us panna cotto drizzled with caramel sauce and a small bottle of tsikoudia and 2 shot glasses. This drink reminds me of the hootch that use to come out of old whiskey bars and called Swish back in the 80's!!  Dessert was great and we just had a little of the tsikoudia. But we were surprised when we got the bill and my meal was 11 euros!  Dwayne's was 7 euros. Total bill 20 euros ($30C) WOW pretty expensive for such a simple meal!!  Back to gyros we go LOL!!!

Passed a pet shop and saw these beautiful Conures

We continue our walk around and since we have missed the 2pm bus back home we will have to take a bus going to Souda and get off at our turnoff which is a 2 km walk. No problems - bought a spanakopita to take along and Dwayne bought a huge donut :)  When we get off the bus and walk along the street there are lots of orange trees and we pick a couple of oranges and eat them along the way - boy did they taste good :) 

The next few days will just be spent around here and until we get the car on Monday there wont be much more I can write about.  So until we do some sightseeing with the car - andio! :)