• Gina Steiner
  • Gina Steiner

Crete 2023, Greece

A 30-day adventure by Gina Read more
  • Trip start
    November 4, 2023
  • The postcard is ready

    October 28, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 9 °C

    The last few days my friends contacted me that the postcard from Costa Rica arrived - way faster than the ones from Greece last time (they took over 3 months 🤣).

    So now the postcard for Crete is ready and printed out. Yesterday I contacted the guy from my apartment - his mum will be there when I arrive next sunday and I found out where the next greek tavern and the next farmers market is. One month Crete - yay!

    Mediterranean worcation, fish, ocean and sunset - I’m coming in a week ❤️.
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  • I‘m absolutely flashed…

    November 4, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    I have never experienced anything like it.

    It was agreed with Manolis that I would call as soon as I was “on the corner” - and that's what I did. Shortly afterwards his mom came around the corner waving and when she invited me in, I could hardly believe my eyes.

    Mom cooked dinner and filled the fridge. Not only is there all sorts of tea, coffee and breakfast items, but also bread and homemade biscuits to dip into the coffee. There is orange juice, cider and fresh eggs in the fridge and fruit and a carafe of red wine on the table. But that's not all: there are chocolates and a welcome gift on the bed...

    I have never experienced anything like it 😍❤️.
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  • My private beach

    November 5, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Tri Ekklisies is a very small coastal town in the south of Crete on the rugged mountains. ⛰️

    There is a tavern on the beach 🏖️ but the small supermarket is closed at this time of year.

    It's has still fantastic 27 degrees outside 🌞 and the sea 🌊 is still nice and warm. That will definitely change in the next 4 weeks.

    But now I'm fresh out of the water 🏊 and it's getting hot 😂. The beach is a 5-minute walk from my apartment. But I walked for 10 minutes because here is a completely deserted beach where I can go into the water without a bathing suit. Great!

    I'll test the tavern later. ❤️
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  • Taverna Vagelis

    November 5, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    There are two tavernas here on the beach, Vagelis and O Gialos. Since half of the village is sitting at Vagelis, I of course went there.

    Vagelis is a true Greek host. He bustles around the kitchen and prepares 1000 Greek specialties at the same time. There is chaos in the kitchen and Vagelis smokes while cooking. But since the kitchen is completely open at the front and back (to the street at the back, to the beach at the front) it doesn't matter. You're sitting outside anyway.

    My deal with Vagelis is to pay everything at once when I leave in 4 weeks. I already feel at home here 😍.
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  • Hazy coast

    November 6, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today I walked along the coast towards the west. The coast is rough and there was a fresh wind today.

    Again and again you come across lonely houses that are wonderfully built on the coast. Since it was a bit cloudy, there was a ghostly haze over the coast.

    At some point I passed a house where three men were busy working. I watched with great interest and at some point the landlady came out and invited me to a Greek coffee with a home-baked cake. I don't speak Greek except for three words and the lady didn't speak English or German, but we talked wonderfully with our hands and feet.

    The Greeks are truly hospitable people.
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  • My new remote office setup

    November 7, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    This time I once more optimized my remote office setup - a hub and an external travel monitor have been added.

    Until now I didn't have a hub with me, but worked with a small USB-C-A adapter, so two USB-A and two USB-C ports were enough. This saved space, but the adapter was fragile and wobbly. I now have a small 4-port USB-A hub, which makes a solid impression.

    I also got an external travel monitor from Dell from my company - that's 1000 times better, now I can have the video conference on one monitor and the screen share on the other - that's a quantum leap! Until now I had decided against an external travel monitor because I couldn't assess the quality. But my company had one in stock and after trying it out I was sold!

    The external travel monitor fits in my laptop bag, so I do not really need more space.
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  • A new daily routine?

    November 7, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Ha! THIS is a good daily routine: swimming in the morning! ❤️❤️❤️

  • My morning view

    November 8, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    This is my morning view, right before I prepare my tea 🍵.

    After that I go swimming 🏊 at my private beach 🏖️ and 2 hours later I'm ready for work 💻.

    That's 9 o'clock 🕒 here and 8 o'clock 🕑 in Germany - sounds perfect to me and I hope that I can continue that for another week 🗓️.

    But let's see how the weather 🌞 will develop...
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  • No Homo Sapiens so far..

    November 9, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    So now I walk to my little private bay every morning.

    By now I now know almost every stone since I walk this road 4 times a day 🥾. I know where it smells like thyme and where can I smell the goats. I know every puddle and observe how they dry out from day to day.

    No one is in sight and I am completely alone.

    Completely alone? That's not correct. By now I know at lot of insects that crawl between the stones and the butterflies that flutter along the beach on their morning journey. I know the birds that hop around between the stones and the goats that look for their breakfast on the steep face.

    There's a lot going on here in the morning, just no Homo Sapiens 🤪.
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  • Do I look hungry?

    November 9, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    I really don't know what happened today, but obviously two of the same things happened today.

    When I was down in the tavern on the beach 🏖️ and looked into the kitchen to see if the landlord was there, he came right around the corner and brought me some refreshment 🍹. But not only that, he went across the beach to his friend and got a portion of dolmades, half of which he put on my table. He asked if I liked dolmades - of course I like dolmades! I wasn't allowed to pay any of it today...

    But that wasn't enough - when I came back from swimming 🌊 after the lunch break, someone called down from the balcony: "Gina!" the dad of the house - the mom is currently in the other house. Then there was a rattle on the stairs and knock, knock, knock, dad was standing in front of the door. With a mountain of dolmades and three pitakia filled with spinach.

    What is happening? I certainly don’t look hungry! 🤣
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  • Weekend - shopping!

    November 10, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Today is Friday and since I more or less don't work on Fridays, I rushed along the serpentines to Pyrgos.

    What a beautiful coast! I will try to film the serpentines for you somewhen... 🌊⛰️🌞.

    So now I've already found the post office 📮 and I'm shocked because a postcard 📨 to Germany costs 2.-, the last time (half a year ago) it was 1.- 😱.

    I've also already been to the bakery 🍞 and felt like I bought half of the store empty - but it all looked so delicious!

    Now I'm sitting in Niki's Café, drinking freddo espresso ☕ and freshly squeezed orange juice 🍊 and eating tiropitakia. Ohm nom nom 😋.

    Well and then I'm going to go shopping groceries for the next week because it takes me over 30 minutes to get here, so I won't do that so often during working days.

    But first chill out at Niki‘s for a while 😊.
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  • On weekends the village wakes up

    November 11, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    On weekends the village wakes up.

    You can hear it from afar when the vegetable 🥕🥦🥒🍅 car comes whining down the serpentines. The loudspeaker 📢 is screaming loud and plays Greek music 🎶.

    On several corners it stops, so people don't have to go all the way to the beach and it is loaded with all kinds of vegetables. The scales ⚖️ are hanging at the back.

    On the beach it stands next to Vageli's tavern, at whose tables the entire village community 👬👫👭🧑‍🤝‍🧑 sits and eats lunch. Everyone except the village women who swim in the sea 🌊 and exchange the latest village gossip. This can be heard from far away 🔊 but understood only if you speak Greek 🤣.

    And finally the blaring vegetable car falls silent because the vegetable man has sat down at the village community table for an ouzo 🥤.

    And I'm sitting in the middle, observing everything 🤣.
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  • Good morning sun

    November 14, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Today I try out another thing before I go swimming… It’s seven o’clock when the sun rises (6 o’clock German time) - but I can’t see it from my balcony since there is a tree, so I normally drink my tea 🫖 in the bed.

    But today I took my tea and went two stairs down to the beach to sit at the tables of the tavern to watch the sun rising 🌞. What a good idea this was ❤️.
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  • Mires farmers market

    November 18, 2023 in Greece ⋅ 🌬 21 °C

    Every Saturday the main street of Mires is transformed into a huge market square - it is the largest street market in southern Crete!

    You can get almost everything here: In addition to fruit, vegetables, plants and groceries, you can also find clothing, shoes, laundry and electronics (cell phones are very popular!) and if you get hungry or thirsty in between, you can buy grilled souvlaki or ice-cold cannellada (Cinnamon lemonade – definitely try it!).Read more