Almost Springtime in Crete

It’s really hard to find the motivation to keep the blog, particularly since we haven’t been moving around as much, and there’s not all that much to write about. Still, I have recently learned that there are actually people out there who read this – and I might want to someday – so I’m going to try my best to keep it up to date.

We are back in Crete now after a whirlwind visit to the U.S. We went to Florida to visit my parents and pay our taxes. We also drove my parents’ van back up north, which turned out to be really nice. We took secondary roads, avoiding the highway for most of the trip, taking a longer route through Georgia, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania. We passed lots of small villages (some depressingly empty) and nice scenery, which we could imagine would have been much lovelier in spring or fall – particularly the routes through Georgia and Virginia. We stopped to visit family (Lou, Laurene and Josh) in Maryland, and Jennifer and Brenda in D.C. – that was great. But, unfortunately, it didn’t leave us enough time in NY to call on old friends. But we did get to see family (Sue, Dexter, Harry and Charlene) as well as some friends (Stu, Harold, Andrew, Matt and Dean) in NYC. Basically, we got to see everyone who came to visit us over the past year. Next time we’ll plan the trip better.

Did I just write two full paragraphs without mentioning food? Well, we sure got our fill of good ole’ American food – steaks, ribs, burgers, diner food, etc. We were a bit disappointed, however, during our drive from Florida to NY because the only restaurants we could seem to find were chains. And, although we were looking forward to some authentic BBQ in Georgia, we couldn’t even manage to get a beer there (it was Sunday!) We more than made up for it, though, during our two weeks in Florida.

Though it was sad to say goodbye to friends and family, it’s great to be back in Pitsidia. I’m sure I mentioned that it’s a small town with lots of expats (mostly German and British) and that everyone seems to know everyone. When we got back, everyone welcomed us, even people I’ve never spoke to before seemed to know that we were gone. Our involvement in the community also keeps growing. Since our return, I’ve been to a friend’s apartment for dinner, another for tea, and we joined in an effort to help people move into new apartments. And, one night at the pub, I lost spectacularly at Yatzee. Fortunately, there was no money involved.
Now I’m sad to be leaving here in just about two weeks. People say that the place grows on you, and that people always come back. I suppose we will someday.

But I’m excited about the next stage of our travels. We are going to ride our bikes (as much as we can) back to Germany, taking the ferry from Patras, Greece, to Venice and following the Via Claudia Augusta bicycle route over the Alps. Of course, it might be too cold (or steep!) in late April for parts of the journey, but there seems to be good train connections most of the way, and I’m not too proud to hop on when I need to! Once back in Germany (probably the middle of May) we’ll make use of our health insurance by getting check-ups and make plans to go back to Asia. We’re thinking of going to China for 6 months to one year – Matthias wants to learn some Chinese cooking techniques and I hope to be able to teach English there. But enough about that for now – anyone who knows us knows that our plans change about as much as Matthias changes sweaters (although Matthias hasn’t stopped wearing this particular sweater for about six months, so maybe that means we’re becoming more decisive!)