We left Heraklion yesterday on a bus ride we were told would take an hour and a half but were pleasantly surprised to find it only took half an hour to arrive at our next stay of five nights in the beautiful Katalagari Country Suites. Katalagari is a very small town sitting on a hillside of a big valley with large mountains in the distance. The actual hotel building is very small, and we were greeted by a bunch of cute women and fresh cherry juice which was amazing! We were then escorted to our rooms, which we assumed would be tiny, but very cute. We were super surpised to find the exact opposite, the rooms are in separate buildings, like duplex resort houses and each one is like its own small apartment! They are fabulous, my three roommates and I have a small kitchen, table and chairs, living room, flat screen tv, separate bedroom and enormous bathroom with a jaccuzi! We also have a yard separated from others by very nicely trimmed hedges. They also have a large outdoor pool, which is beautiful, but super cold. We will probably jump in later today after tanning for hours! All this is so fabulous, but we do have homework as well. I am trying to write a paper right now but it is so hard to concentrate! I got the best night of sleep since Areopoli last night because it is SO quiet and relaxing here, nothing like Heraklion. We get to stay for five nights, and this will be the place I will hate to leave the most, including Athens, which was until now my favorite hotel. The ladies who are running this place are absolutely amazing, so welcoming and smiley all the time…who wouldn’t be living in a place like this?
Yesterday our only activity was cooking classes, and they were so wonderful. We started by meeting with a lady who brought us along the road to find wild greens we would be using for our pie and salad. We learned all sorts of different weeds are good for so many things! I cannot remember the names of any of the greens now, but its ok because most of them don’t grow in the U.S. She did use dandelion leaves however, they are bitter but good in salad. We went to her house and were able to clean and cut the greens for the pie and salad. I got to help with the pie, which was like spanakopita but using different greens. We got to role out the phyllo dough, which was super thick but she said it was supposed to be. We made two pies and still had tons of greens left over, its amazing how inexpensive this pie was, the only thing that costs money was the cheese! While the pie was baking, we learned about Cretan diet, which was recently named along with the Mediterranean diet in general, the healthiest in the world! I totally understand this. In the past, they would only eat meat three times a year; for Christmas, Easter, and a holiday celebrated in the Orthodox Church: Dormition of the Virgin in August. It commemorates the day the Virgin Mary died. We ate our fill and then headed out to enjoy the beautiful day! We went to the market, which was one of the tiniest shops yet, and got ideas for making lunch since we have a kitchen! We will definitely be cooking something out of Ingrid’s Cretan cookbook, one of which I will be buying soon!
Dinner last night was great. We were all crammed in this little room, the size of a normal dining room, and started with appetizers of stuffed vine leaves and meatballs. The vine leaves were so delicious, unlike those we ate in Athens. They were mildly flavored with rice and some crazy herbs inside. The meatballs were a combination of pork and beef, very good as well. We also got three different kind of bread and tzatziki, which I have yet to be disappointed with. The salad was just like the one we made at lunch, very flavorful and all it had was wild greens and olive oil! My favorite salad is still Greek salad of course, with big chunks of tomato, cucumber, onions, and feta…delicious. For the main course we had pork and potatoes, both amazing. The potatoes were in wedges without skins and extremely tender. After dinner we had to watch a movie for class, and like always, I fell asleep… We went to bed shortly after and woke up to a beautiful sunny morning! We went to breakfast right away where the women said there would be a special surprise! Over half the table was filled with different kinds of bread, I couldn’t even try them all! They also had three different kinds of cereal, one of which was big crunchy flakes with shavings of chocolate! The also had some natural jams and cold milk! I miss milk very much.
After breakfast I got to test the shower/Jacuzzi…it is gigantic! Today we are having a picnic and hiking up a mountain to a castle…I think. After that, it’s the edge of the pool for me! The kids went swimming in it yesterday, I seriously think they have no perception of hot and cold because they stayed in for a while. One of our girls went for a swim this morning and said it was so cold she could not put her face in the water! Now I must get back to my paper…
