My Journey to Crete
My journey began in April 2012 when I first visited the island, in the stunning region of Mount Psiloritis (Rethimno), and began to experience Crete’s delightful surprises, which await you at every corner - often in the most unexpected of places.
By accident, I found myself passing through the small village of Thronos on a sunny spring Sunday, hungry and ready for lunch. Shortly after I was sat by the owner of the taverna - being the only guest - eating traditional food, discovering local herbs, and falling in love with teas from the nearby mountain.
The magic of Crete was beginning to take hold. When I returned in 2015, I felt unable to resist it any longer and I longed for the warmth and all the different tastes of Crete; a month later I began to look for a house, with hardly any budget at all.
My Soul Home
With strict cash limitations and closed banks, it was hardly the best time to buy, and I was deeply afraid of misjudging the risks. I was on the verge of buying the first property in Neapoli, but the extensive renovation felt too risky: I was also completely new to Greece and had no idea how to manage such a large rebuilding project while living abroad.
I, therefore, decided to start from scratch and flew back in early January 2016 to look at 12 different properties on the Eastern side of Crete. I fell in love with one particular place straight away: a house in Kritsa, close to Agios Nikolas, renovated in 2008 and empty until I bought it in May 2016. It needed renovation and checking off everything in the house. I moved in 4 months later: it was then that I started the process of furnishing and making it my Soul home, until September 2016 when I finally moved in.
The Community
The beauty of buying a property a little bit off the beaten track lies in all those small wonders you experience while you start interacting with the people in your neighbourhood. All my Greek neighbours I shall never forget! I also met many wonderful international neighbours from Denmark, Norway, Ireland, United Kingdom and France.
When I purchased my home on Crete, I decided that I wanted to learn Greek in order not just to understand what was going on a bit better, but also to be able to interact with my local neighbours. Be it Katharina, an almost 90-year-old lady who has lived in the same house all her life; the lovely host Argyro, who runs a small guest house at the entrance to the village: I love her wide-open heart and her stunning Cretan food. Or Margarete, a German lady who married a Greek man from Kritsa and moved from Munich after her retirement.
These are only a few of those memorable encounters in Kritsa and around that, I would not want to miss for anything in my life.
Once you start this particular journey, there is no way back.