I think I'll continue on the topic of food. So, about the restaurant. I've already written about the opening hours, so I'll get straight to the food and all that. First of all, the system is like this: breakfast doesn't have all that much and tastes so-so, lunch is bigger and tastier, and dinner is just really good.
Naturally, it's the “smorgasbord” system, known in the entire civilized world as a “buffet”. You walk around with a plate, pile it on, then sit down at a table, and the cutlery is already there. Moreover, for dinner there's an extra, small-sized knife and fork. I was told what for, but I forgot. By the way, dinner has another feature — there's a special chef plating the dish of the day. From what I remember — fried shrimp, lamb (lamb — that's right, isn't it, lamb?), pork. And also for dinner there were soups, different ones every day. On the first day there was my sister's favorite tomato soup, but I somehow walked past it, which I regretted later. A couple of days later I got to the soups, but by then there were others — for example, today’s soup. That, my dear fans of English, is quite a mystery. Why do they usually write what kind of soup it is, but a couple of times it was just written exactly like that — “today’s soup”. Either it actually means something else (my money's on pea), or the Cretans were just too lazy to write down exactly what kind of liquid it was.
As for the food in general, there was all sorts of stuff. Salads, all kinds of meat and fish in sauce, vegetables with and without sauce, pasta and sauce for it separately. Overall — I pigged out for all my money's worth, though not to the point of feeling sick afterwards. So, I guess this kind of thing is dangerous for me — the temptation is too great. I didn't eat the pasta until the very last day, though, which was a mistake — with the sauce, it was amazing.
Speaking of desserts, there were those national overly-sweet, twisted-transparent micro-things, creamy yogurt cakes, and simple pastries. As for fruit — watermelons. As well as melons and peaches, albeit a bit green. Overall — nothing to complain about, everything was very tasty. But if you take some absolute mega-scale of super-food, it scored somewhere in the middle. Tanya, being an experienced traveler, informed me that in Egypt and Turkey everything is just as tasty, and the selection is several times bigger. But over there the staff is super clingy — they won't leave you alone until you give them money. So you always have to choose the lesser of two evils.
Don't get me wrong — the food was indeed wonderful, not to be compared with canteens or even our restaurants, even though I've hardly been to them. I should mention that the hotel had some sort of event for our entertainment every evening, and I'll write about that separately. But one evening there was a really cool thing: evening dinner outside. The tables were set up outside, they were grilling barbecue meat right there and making fresh gyros. The latter is a wrap, which I've already written about, but Greek-style. That is, usually with sour cream and a thick flatbread, unlike the thin Mexican one for burritos. Anyway, that evening everything was simply wonderful, the barbecue meat — especially. Tanya talked me into eating a gyro, but I was already full, and I don't really like them anyway. Despite that, I enjoyed it. But I still prefer burritos.
I already wrote about the drinks in the last post, but nevertheless. Wine is brought in a half-liter vessel with a neck that widens at the top of the bottle. I chugged one of these almost every day, because it tastes better than soda, and plain water on Crete is just so-so. Once my companions ordered it and then spat it out big time, saying it was nothing but bleach. I don't want to offend anyone, but they clearly don't drink water very often, otherwise they'd be better at distinguishing the degrees of nastiness. It wasn't bleach, just a strong mineral aftertaste, it even smelled a bit like sulfur. Apparently, it's hard to get better water on Crete, except maybe in bottles from the Samaria Gorge, but, as we know, bottled water is evil. I even drank from the tap in my room when I was parched. And it's fine, I haven't died yet.
By the way, the restaurant had air conditioning, even though the doors were always open — since half the restaurant is under an awning outside. When there were absolutely no seats left (rarely, during peak hours), some patrons sat in the sun — and I don't envy them one bit. The heat on Crete is pretty hellish after all, especially in the sun, although it rarely gets above 34 degrees Celsius in the shade.
By the way, forgot to mention: there were also buns, bread, and sweet sponge cakes for breakfast, as well as the jam, cream, and butter to go with them. They tasted alright, I think, but I hardly ate any of it.
The waiters in the restaurant were dressed to the nines, friendly, and one even laughed at the print on my famous t-shirt, although he tried not to show it. I also watched a waiter carry a huge tray of empty dishes on one arm, just like in the movies — and what do you know, he made it successfully. By the way, during lunch you could periodically see the manager, the one I had asked for directions to the village. Apparently, he was monitoring the quality of service. Which I had absolutely no complaints about, and I even wanted to leave some money in the special tipping bowl, but my dough, to my regret, completely ran out on the last day of my stay on the island. I spent my last 4 euros on fresh-squeezed orange juice in an Indian tavern above Lake Kournas, but it was worth it — it was magical there, like in a fairy tale.
But you'll only find out about that at the end of the series. So stay tuned.