the Cafes of Chania
Everything pretty well closes down around 2 p.m. each evening. Seista time is taken seriously throughout Greece. On Crete it 
seems even more special. About three hours later you will notice the smell of food begining to waft down the streets and cobbled alleyways of Chania as the restaurants and shops begin to reopen for the night.About an hour later the first music will be heard. Probably at first it will just be a guitar picking out a melody. When it quiets, another might be heard from farther away. Then other instruments and eventually voices will join in. A lot of the Greek music we heard in Chania seemed quietly passionate, with Zorba melodies creeping in and out all night long. Feet tap and heads bob, there is a lot of familarity to these rhytmns
We liked to drink a beer or wine in a place or two listening to the music and watching the musicians, and smelling the food. Then we would walk along the alleyways again to the next place.
2006.1019
Later we would enter a nice restaurant to eat. I always had a weakness for the kebobs, or gyros, either served as a sandwich or as a plate. And Greek salads with Greek dressing were matter of course. I had several pasta meals, covered mostly with tomato sauce rich in olive oil and tasting brightly of garlic, with broiled peppers, onions and feta cheese.
As the night deepened, the music would sometimes quieten into melodies that seemed to ride on the salt breezes from the Mediterranean or be coming from the fluffy, moon-lit clouds which drifted above the palm trees. About this time our waiter would always bring a small blue bottle of Ozou and a plate of creamy Greek yogurt dribbled through with a great dollop of blackberry syrup, or raspberry syrup or perhaps with honey
We liked the restaurant called Ela well enough to return. The food was almost startlingly good, and the music was provided by a young Greek woman with a face like those statues we had seen in the museums, those where their hair is always blown back by the strong sea wind. 
Two young men accompanied her on guitar and lute, but her voice was one that must have been familiar to the great philosophers of long ago.
© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved
All photographs made with Canon Elura 70 on SD card.
seems even more special. About three hours later you will notice the smell of food begining to waft down the streets and cobbled alleyways of Chania as the restaurants and shops begin to reopen for the night.About an hour later the first music will be heard. Probably at first it will just be a guitar picking out a melody. When it quiets, another might be heard from farther away. Then other instruments and eventually voices will join in. A lot of the Greek music we heard in Chania seemed quietly passionate, with Zorba melodies creeping in and out all night long. Feet tap and heads bob, there is a lot of familarity to these rhytmns
We liked to drink a beer or wine in a place or two listening to the music and watching the musicians, and smelling the food. Then we would walk along the alleyways again to the next place.
2006.1019
Later we would enter a nice restaurant to eat. I always had a weakness for the kebobs, or gyros, either served as a sandwich or as a plate. And Greek salads with Greek dressing were matter of course. I had several pasta meals, covered mostly with tomato sauce rich in olive oil and tasting brightly of garlic, with broiled peppers, onions and feta cheese.
As the night deepened, the music would sometimes quieten into melodies that seemed to ride on the salt breezes from the Mediterranean or be coming from the fluffy, moon-lit clouds which drifted above the palm trees. About this time our waiter would always bring a small blue bottle of Ozou and a plate of creamy Greek yogurt dribbled through with a great dollop of blackberry syrup, or raspberry syrup or perhaps with honey
We liked the restaurant called Ela well enough to return. The food was almost startlingly good, and the music was provided by a young Greek woman with a face like those statues we had seen in the museums, those where their hair is always blown back by the strong sea wind. 
Two young men accompanied her on guitar and lute, but her voice was one that must have been familiar to the great philosophers of long ago. © John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved
All photographs made with Canon Elura 70 on SD card.
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