Lilith Zoï
SOUR SWEET LEMONS
Welcome,
Sour sweet lemons is a personal blog about my extraordinary life in Crete, the island I fell in love with almost two decades ago. Originally I am from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where I was born mid-century. You can’t say I am a girl anymore. Nevertheless I am still alive and kicking at least.
I did not leave Holland because I was fed up with the country. I just witnessed that life can be lived in another way than I was used to. And, oh dear, that I have known.
Get out of your comfort zone they often say. Please let me be, I prefer to stay in it for a while.
The first time I set foot in the village I have lived in on and off for the past several years, I got goose bumps, wondering: What is this place? What’s happening? After another three holidays I knew I wanted to stay. My future is on Crete. How did I know what might happen?
The reality of living here isn’t quite the paradise portrayed in the holiday brochures. Nevertheless I don’t want to leave. Crete offers me, notwithstanding the price I had to pay, the peace of mind and balance I have always been looking for. For sure, I swapped the vivid tourist village at the seaside for a remote, deserted and ramshackle mountain village, with just a handful of residents. My house overlooks the valley and the village where I used to live, down by the sea.
Over the years, quite a few people have told me to write down my story. Well, there’s no time like the present, is there? So let’s start. What can you expect? Vivid stories about the present interspersed with the past, humour, food and music. Yes a lot of music too.
To ‘protect’ the people that are dear to me and who are or were a part of my life, I shall use pseudonyms.
Greetings from the heart,
Lilith Zoï
Latest blog is the one on top
Winter 2020/2021
According to my friends and fellow villagers, I am turning into a hermit.
“You’ll never improve your Greek if you never come for coffee.” says one villager.
“What do you do inside all day?” the other asks.
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Follow up on Getting alive
He sits down and smiles at me with an almost toothless mouth. I have noticed more often that the older Greeks do not have the best cared for teeth. Is that a question of poverty or pathological fear of the dentist?
“Hi, are you the Dutch lady who wants to have sailing lessons?”
May 2002
It is only 7 o’clock when I order my coffee outside at the hotel in the main street. The restaurant has just opened. I think it’s a wonderful place to sit. I see the village come alive.
Pfff. For three weeks I have been tossing and turning in my bed. I really want to stay here on Crete. Life here seems to suit me better. More spontaneous, less regulated, freer, more humane.
I love the nature, the sea, the mountains. Clean air, a clear blue sky and when I look out over the sea, the past is literally behind me, in the north.
Like every morning, I turn on the radio first. ♫ All I want for Christmas is you ♫ from Mariah Carey is the first thing I hear. Shit already? The melancholy hits like a bomb. Gosh, three more weeks of imposed cheerfulness to go.
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HANNIBAL HEKTOR
The door to the psychiatric ward looks like the door to the vault of the national bank.
I am thinking of Hannibal Lector.
I ring the bell and a voice answers “Oriste*?”
“I am here to visit Hektor.”
SOCIALISING
In exceptional cases, I go to church. Although raised as a Catholic, I do not like the church institution.
During my life here on Crete, I have been to church more often than I would like. Not as a tourist attraction, but to the funerals |
love the internet
Every morning she makes her rounds through the village. She takes care of the cats in the village. Not everyone appreciates that.
Especially the Greeks who come in the summer, they don’t like it and many cats have died as a result. However, the village needs cats against animals that you would rather not have in and around the house, such as mice and rats.
