African wind

On the last day of January a strong Southern wind hit the island. It brought tons of African dust and very tall waves.

We drove to Sfinari for some fun. The waves were amazing, perfectly formed and huge. We had the company of some guys trying to surf. We later discovered they were Erasmus students in Chania, and surfing beginners. This much we could tell. There were 5 of them, not one managed to ride a single wave! And only two managed to get past the break for a go. On the other hand, out of 2 surf boards they came with, one came back in two pieces.

We spent most of our time playing ‘catch me if you can’ with the waves on the shore, which is Giugiu’s favourite game, and hunting for driftwood, Fiona’s great pastime. After we finished, we had to put the seat down in the car, so full was the boot with the most beautiful pieces of driftwood. Big logs, long forks, red roots, holey branches, a brilliant yoke, you name it.

Snow in Crete

Snow on Rodopou mountains

Snow on Rodopou mountains

With the new year the air turned cold. Icy cold.

After an especially cold night, as we got up it looked like it was snowing. It must have been an illusion, because we rubbed our eyes, took a second look and it was just plain ol’ rain.

The morning was kind of sunny, the air was crisp. We had a drive around. As soon as the mountains of Rodopo peninsula were in sight, the white shine hit us. A light snow cover. We resolved on the spot to hit the road North towards the mountains.

Snowy Elos

Snowy Elos

We got out boots, gloves and mittens, hats and we drove towards Elos. We could see snowcapped peaks on both sides in the distance. We got to Elos and there was a good cover of fresh, perfectly soft snow. After some grey clouds, the sun peered out again as we started throwing snowballs around. Sofia needed help making balls, while Giugiu just threw whatever shaped block she happened to extract from the snow. Fiona was busy testing slow-mo parabolic trajectories, while I just hit randomly whoever was around.

Then we built an Olafaki, that is, a “Frozen” inspired snowman. Alas no picture, but Fiona’s engineering skills were put to better use in this case so it looked pretty good.

We had a quick walk around, still long enough for Giulia and Sofia to fall down in the slippery snow.

Then we thought it best to abandon the playing field before numbing our extremities to the core.

Giulia and Sofia were still asking for more. We left saying ’till next week’.

Snowball fight!

Snowball fight!