The Adventures of the CreteTravel.com team: No 2

Snail's pace

So you like snails? Not as pets, or as those things with the big appetite who happen to share a liking for your favourite plants in the garden. As a delicacy!

Well this is a subject that causes a clear division of opinion - you either like "escargots" or hate the very thought of them.

When you are sitting in the sun opposite an old church, admiring the view from a village, perched above a twisting road on the way to Zaros - one of the splendid drives of Crete… continue reading - alternating sips of a strong Elliniko (Greek coffee) with a pure and clear Raki, the offer of a snack feels good, it is genuine hospitality in the midst of conversations about locally grown herbs.

The snack that is glowingly presented to us, is a bowl of snails. These snails look a little to close to the way they might be presented to school students, in a biology class. Chewing becomes a labour. Having professed we like snails (we were thinking of wonderfully prepared "escargots" floated in a garlic butter sauce) it is not on the cards to refuse the grizzly items. A few chews more, at least!

What we discover during the process of this minor discomfort, is a marvellous source of herbs, grown locally, bagged in this village - many stacks of them are drying on the roof of the cafe in the certain heat of the sun.

We always keep a lookout for sources of the best Cretan products, food or otherwise and though we will one day offer many of the wonderful herbs - herbs of flavour, Basil, Oregano, Thyme and herbs of healing: Diktamo (dittany), mountain teas, we do not plan to offer these now-famous snails to our websites interested visitors to buy in regular, kitchen-friendly shipments.

So this dream trip - the owner of the Kafeneio made us truly welcome, the sun was warm, a trip to the ancient church on the hill - accompanied by the priest was rewarding, our visitors whom we were hoping to provide with a few of these "spontaneous-moments-in-a-Cretan-village" - delivered us a moment of weirdness, but a wealth of happy memories. 

Nivritos - the village where you may not always be able to eat snails, but can always enjoy a visit to the old church, the Kafeneio, buy some herbs to take home, wonder its streets and always have that view - is the third village you will come to after the turn off the Heraklion-Agia Varvara/Moires road, the turn for Gergeri and Zaros.

In case you missed it... here is Adventure No 1