Laiki, the street market in Greece

The “Laiki” (“popular market”) is a large Greek street market. When the traditional weekly village market came to town it became a street market. Today no village, town or city in Greece is without its street market, held at least once a week. In the larger towns the market is set up in a different neighbourhood every day, to cater to the inhabitants without them having to travel far.
Market traders include both middlemen who sell products bought from farmers, and the farmers themselves, who sell their goods direct to increase their profits.
Behind the pretty picture of rows of stalls with goods neatly set out lie many hours of effort, starting long before the first customers reach the market. Traders and farmers set out in the early hours of the morning in order to reach the market area before sunrise and find a good spot for their stalls. They also need time to set out their wares in an attractive way.
The municipal cleaners have the hard task of cleaning up after the last customers have left and the stalls have been removed.

Every street market in Greece is a feast for the senses:
1. Sight. Your gaze will wander from stall to stall, enjoying the rainbow of colours from fresh fruit and veg to multicoloured cloth and carpets.
2. Hearing. Deep, melodious voices with village or Gypsy accents, joking and teasing, are raised in a huge hubbub as traders cry their wares and proclaim their final offers.
3. Taste. You can try before you buy. The traders themselves encourage you to try their fruit, to prove it’s the best in the market.
4. Smell. The mouth-watering smell of souvlakia grilling in the catering vans mingles with the fake Yves Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabanna perfumes.
5. Touch. Your hands will stroke soft textiles, embroidered tablecloths and runners of the kind you’ll see in every Greek house decorating the kitchen table, the television, the DVD and even the washing machine.

Street market quality
Food. Many Greeks prefer to buy their fruit and vegetables from the street market because there’s more choice than at a neighbourhood grocer’s or a supermarket, and the goods are usually fresher and cheaper. Of course there’s no actual rule; sometimes the opposite may be true. But there’s certainly greater variety and lots of people enjoy a bit of bargaining, as they feel they’ve gained a few euros from the weekly shop.
If you’re not sure of the flavour of the fruit you want to buy, ask the trader for a bit to try if he hasn’t already suggested it himself. He’ll gladly offer you a tangerine or a slice of melon or watermelon, in an attempt to prove his fruit is better than that of the stall next door, even if it’s run by his best friend or a relative. At that moment both are traders and the sale is all.
Herbs. In the street market you’ll find the famous Cretan dittany, chamomile, spearmint, sage, oregano and every other kind of herb packaged in clear plastic bags. Usually the sellers have gathered the herbs in the mountains and packaged them themselves. They can tell you how to use each one. Be aware, however, that some herbs such as dittany are cultivated, so what you’re getting isn’t the wild mountain type that’s very hard to gather.
Clothing. The street market is also full of clothes for sale. Theseare usually cheap and cheerful tracksuits, tops and pyjamas, and more rarely suits and better-quality dresses. They’re cheaper than in the shops shoes in laiki greek street marketbecause the traders don’t have high rents and staff costs to cover. So you can find great clothes in the market if you’re prepared to fight your way to the stalls and sort through the assortment on offer along with everyone else.
Remember that if you want to try something on, you can usually ask the trader to let you use the van parked behind the stall.
Shoes. You can also find shoes and slippers here, often identical to those sold in the shops. Look carefully and if you can’t find your size now, better luck next time.
Textiles and embroidery. If you find the perfect curtain material, be careful. In some cases unscrupulous traders have been known to use their own shorter wooden tape measures, stealing a few inches in order to pocket a few extra euros. The solution is simple: bring your own tape measure and insist on measuring the cloth yourself.
As for embroidered goods, today China makes whatever the market demands, so why not Greek-style traditional embroidered tablecloths? Of course one shouldn’t generalise, and I wouldn’t want to wrong any honest tradesmen who may truly have bought them from village gypsies selling carpets in laiki street market in greecewomen wanting to supplement their family income with their needlework. Just be wary about anything that looks like the bargain of the century.
Perfumes. Don’t get too excited at the Christian Dior, Armani or Dolce Vita labels. They’re just cheap fakes which you can buy as a present for your wonderful girlfriend, whom you missed so much on your dull and boring holiday in the sun.
Carpets. Many people are dubious about the quality of the carpets sold in the street market. It’s hard to be definite on the subject. The truth is that they generally look just like the ones in the shops, at a temptingly cheaper price which can be driven even lower by a bit of hard bargaining.
Pedlars. In a street market, outside a supermarket or even in the town centre, you may be approached by a street pedlar who sidles up to offer you watches, leather goods, video cameras or other expensive items at rock-bottom prices. It’s usually a real steal, so be very careful if you don’t want to regret it later.


Source: explorecrete.com

The people of Crete

Best vacations are made by the good company of friends, and not by the luxuries afforded by a place. Good friends, and the Cretan landscape is a combination guaranteed to create eternal memories. Any discussion of Crete, without mentioning its people would be incomplete, and while I cannot speak of the people as a whole, I can relay our experience which can serve as a point of reference for more generalized conclusions regarding hospitality of the inhabitants of Crete.

We traveled to Crete following Manolis, who had just built a beautiful house right outside Sitia, in Kato Episkopi.. He lives and works in Athens and every August he travels with his family to his home land to spend some time with his elderly parents and his brother Giannis who owns a house adjacent to Manolis' and works as a Policeman in Palekastro. We had booked an apartment nearby for two weeks, and the two brothers went out of their way to make certain that we experience how special a place is the island of Crete.

We followed Manolis and Anita who led our caravan from the port of Heraklion all the way to Sitia, where we arrived there about 8:30 AM. Our first stop was at his elderly parent's modest home in Piskokefalo and we all gathered in the tiny courtyard and I knew this was going to be a special vacation the moment Manolis said "let's have some raki to regain our strength". True, we were a bit dazed from the overnight trip on the ferry and from the almost three hour drive from Heraklion, but raki at 8:30? Within a few minutes Mrs. Paragios rested a small tray on our table with a half liter bottle of raki, enough shot glasses for everyone, and a plate full of succulent cucumber slices she just harvested from her garden.

Manolis was right. The raki worked miracles and within minutes we were as exuberant as ever and ready to conquer the whole island. It helped that in the next hour we consumed another liter of raki when we arrived at Giannis' home. Raki is a clear alcoholic drink that I think contains more alcohol than drink - or something like that - and it is made by just about everyone on the island. In fact, much of August in Crete is dedicated to harvesting the grapes and processing them to make enough white wine and raki to supply the family and friends for the whole year.

In the next couple of weeks we had a chance to have raki before lunch to "enhance our appetite", after lunch to "aid the digestion", in the afternoon to "fight the August heat", and of course at night when we sat around the table to socialize. In fact, it became a kind of a joke looking for off-the-wall reasons to have raki. The kind of raki Manolis and Giannis distill has a smooth taste, cool texture, and is light on the head. It is a tribute to its lightness that not once did we get drunk during our visit. While raki was always served when we visited friends, it was always a background issue. Cretans, like most Greeks love to get together to strengthen family bonds, to make new friends, to discuss soccer and politics, and for the children to immerse in play with their extended family.

The people of Crete spend every afternoon in the company of friends, and during our entire visit we spent our evenings in the Paragios yard. It seemed like every day there was a gathering of one sort or another. Very often, other relatives stopped by as a matter of habit to share a few words over some Greek coffee and a few cigarettes. Distant cousins from the village, relatives visiting from Athens, or friends from the town, all stopped by casually to say "yassou" and to spend a few hours together.

The legend of the Cretan hospitality was well justified in our eyes as we watched Giannis and Manolis, and their wives Despo and Anita -- who did most of the work cooking and cleaning afterwards -- making sure that everyone who set foot in their house was treated like royalty. During one afternoon when I was explaining to Giannis that this web site might be read by people who want to visit Sitia, his eyes lit-up and he exclaimed: "tell them all to stop by our house"! Giannis Paragios is a man who loves his land, and takes immense pleasure from other people's discovery of this wonderful place, so if you run into him roaming around Palekastro in his police cruiser, mention this web site to him, and who knows, it might even help if he were about to give you a traffic ticket.

Everyone we met in our nightly get-togethers exhibited the firm belief that their land was the best possible one, with its fertile soil and sea providing enough for everyone so they did not have to rely on volatile industries like tourism. In fact, during out conversations many seemed weary that their place might be overrun by tourists like so many other towns of Crete, and for this reason, while they love visitors, they all seem aware of the effects it can have on the physical and cultural landscape. I must admit it is not without a certain dose of guilt that I write about Eastern Crete. It would be a shame to spoil such a tranquil place where everyone takes pride in their history, culture, and natural beauty.

Family ties are very important in this part of the world, and the people we met in Crete cherished the opportunity to share a plate of food and a glass of raki either in formal or informal settings. One of our last days on the island we were invited to a family get-together and we followed a long motorcade through a maze of ascending dirt roads easily traversed only by 4x4 trucks. Our little Skoda managed to reach the top of the hill just as the sun was dipping into the horizon beyond Sitia below our feet. The view was just incredible with the colorful sky above and the dwindling lights of the town at the edge of the silver surface of the sea.

The informal get-together turned out to be a gathering of more than thirty friends and relatives along with their kids which soon escalated into full blown dance party with music blaring out of a boom box on the wall, people dancing, children playing, raki flowing, and an incredible array of dishes prepared by everyone in attendance. There were so many loud conversations around the table that we carried from one to the next without much effort, and within an hour there was nothing but joy in the air of this shed next to the tiny exoklesi of Panagia Trapezounta where the famous author of "Erotokritos" Vitsenzos Kornaros was born.

As the wine and raki flowed we realized what the secret of life is. The people of Crete know it, and were all eager to share it with us. Life is best lived among others. Under the night sky, the sweet music notes and the laughter weaved a mantle of delight which permiated everyone's being.

To all our friends from Crete who opened their hearts and homes to us, we extend our heart felt gratitude. The people of Crete are the main reason that Crete will live in our memories for ever.

Source: greeklandscapes.com
Photo: villagelifeholidays.com

Themes of the Byzantine churches of Crete

Some of the themes that are still easily recognizable in the Byzantine churches of Crete are:

1. Punishment of the Damned is not hard to recognize as they usually involve grotesque scenes of torture and, as mentioned, are on the back wall.

2. Lazarus rising from the dead is recognized by the bound figure of Lazarus in an upright coffin, giving the appearance that he is standing.

3. The Nativity, characterized by the presence of an animal (ox or ass), a cradle and child and the reclining Virgin Mary.

4. The Last Supper.

5. Christ's Baptism, characterized by Christ in the river Jordan surrounded by fish and the impressive figure of John the Baptist.

6. The Dormition of the Virgin depicts Mary lying serene and beautiful in death surrounded by saints with Christ behind her, cradling her soul (a baby) in his arms.

7. The donor and his family can be recognized as they are on the back wall and do not have a halo, as do not any other lay people represented.

8. Haloed Saints (on the lower part of the church) are usually flat two-dimensional characters that face forwards with dangling feet, as if they are floating. These saints are always fabulously dressed being as they were thought of as courtiers of God.

9. The Crucifixion. The early Byzantine frescoes represented Christ as a spiritual figure, whereas the later frescoes shows a suffering Christ and an agonising Mary.

Many of the frescoes' painters are unknown and although some frescoes may be signed, little is known about the painters themselves. An exception to this is Ioannis Pagomenos, who painted many churches in the Chania prefecture. He is buried in the chapel of Agios Nikolaos in Maza and is known to be one of the more humanitarian painters of this era. Many of his works can be appreciated in the Selino area (southeast of Chania). Another known painter is Manuel Fokas who painted in the Pediada area of Iraklion.