Only a few days left - Happy New Year Everyone!

Time is running out on our 2 months on Crete.  It's been a great! The last 2 days have been sunny so of course that always makes it better! Also allows me to get 5 loads of laundry done because I have to hang them outside - and when it is raining well........   Remember this is a small washer so probably only 3 loads, but wanting to get things washed before heading to Honduras.

Also need to start getting the place back in order - the way is was before we got here and made it comfy for us :)  Really going to miss the visits from the kitties, they are funny to watch when playing in the boxes and chasing each other around.  Oh course I like them because no cat box comes with the fun of having the kitties inside!!

Fluffy Jack AKA Buddy

Yesterday we met up with Vivien and Chris to have lunch at a very nice beach area in Marathi.  Beautiful sandy shallow water.  There were a few people in the water, but unfortunately no restaurant was open.  Guess some will reopen after New Years on Jan 7th.  We also went to the village of Stravos, which is where the 1964 file Zorba the Greek was filmed.

Snow capped mountains behind our place look so beautiful in the sunshine!

Beach sea and mountains - Marathi Beach

Area Zorba the Greek movie was filmed

We end up stopping at a small cafe along the way and had sandwiches for lunch along with coffee since no wine was available!!  After lunch we go our separate ways and will meet up again on our last day for lunch. They will be spending New Years at home and like Vivien said "probably in bed by 8!" and I said we would probably be up until 10 LOL!!! She doesnt think there is a fireworks show in the harbour at midnight on New Years.  We'll just spend a quite evening at home and have some wine and tapas and watch a movie :)

The day before we drove inland again and went thru many small villages. At one spot there was a sign showing a hiking path. So we drove in and parked.  Didnt go very far before the path (road) was closed off by a fence to keep the sheep in!  But it was a nice walk.

The hiking path 

Love his/her's black stockings! :)

Plants along the walk

Such cool looking leaves

I know this one is Lamb's Ear

View to the sea

This is the smallest church we've seen

Lots of sheep here - want to drive to the snowy tops!

We then kept on driving inland and I was trying to find roads that would lead us up to the higher mountains and snow!  But it wasn't happening - think we have to take a main road heading south to get near the snow :)  It was a nice drive trying though going thru villages and winding roads up and down the mountain.  We also found a restaurant that we were looking for the first time we had the rental car - but thought it was closed.  This time the outdoor cooking fires were flaming and pots cooking :)  Once we got inside they had a nice fire going which we quickly moved to and snagged a table right infront. So cozy! The owner comes over and explains that everything is organic, grown on their farm from animals to vegetables!  He asked what we liked and we said everything LOL!!  Ok he will bring us a salad, pork, lamb and rice wrapped in cabbage leaves - Ok all that sounds good!! Another typical Cretan meal.

Lamb cooked in parchment

The pork was cooked outside in one of these pots 

It was finished off with chocolate cake - but no raki.  We also did not order wine or beer, just his "mountain tea" which tasted quite similar to moringa tea - a healthy tea.  It was a great meal for 20E and the atmosphere was so cozy :)

Just a couple more of baby lambs :)

They are all SOOOOO cute!!

Time to get the sheep home and milked

That evening I went to get my hair cut here in the village.  Sophia did a great job for only 10E!! She said that I should grow the front out to one length and comb it to the side but keep the rest really short like I have it.  Sure why not - I like trying different styles :) It will take awhile before it will be one length though since I just cut the top 2 weeks ago.  Guess I should have gone to Sophia when we first got here!  Then I told her I would like to put a temporary plum color in!! SURE!! She said that would look great.  So it took her 3 tries of mixing the toner to actually change the color of my hair :)  I've tried it once myself but didn't make much of a difference - so I know what she's talking about! But she finally got it to a nice shade - love it! 30E :)  It will wash out in about 5 weeks :)  And she said she wouldn't forget my name because it's also her mom's name!  Sophia is originally from Germany and moved to Crete when she was 18.  She's probably about 40 now.

It doesn't look very plum in the picture but it is :)

Before and After


















Talking with Nikki the other day on FB messenger and had the same problem ending our call - just got different funny pics for our faces! LOL!!!  Don't think I'll get pink hair though!

Guess I'm a rockstar and Nikki is having a relaxing facial LOL!!! Crazy stuff😁

So the next few days we will be making short trips around as long as the weather stays nice. Need to start packing and hoping we don't go over the 50lb limit since we have no weigh scale here and neither do the neighbours or Vivien :(  Guess we will find out at the airport and if we are over, we'll have to unpack some stuff and put into our backpacks!  Hate not knowing before we get to the airport.

We leave Chania airport at 6:45am! I know - crappy time because it means we have to be at the airport by 5:45am!  But only flight out to Athens.  Then we start our 26 hr journey to Honduras!  We do have layovers of 3 hrs in Rome and 5 hours in Madrid - both not enough time to do anything!  We then arrive in Honduras at 6:30AM Thurs so that is good since it gives us the whole day to get some shopping done, get the internet hooked up before heading the our house and arriving when it is still light!! Nice change since we normally don't arrive until it's dark - even though it may only be 6pm!!

January will be our 10th Anniversary of being in our house!  First house we've had for this long! LOL!!  But then not by choice, because if we could sell it we would.  It still ties us down because we need to be there at least every other year, plus the expense.  Which isn't much but still an anchor!  There are so many places to visit during our 6 months of winter travel!!

When we first arrived at the house Jan 3 2009! Not quite finished but it was in 2 weeks :) 

Hope everyone has a wonderful safe healthy enjoyable 2019🎉🍻  Happy New Year! Eftychisméno to néo étos  🎉🍻🍻