If you stop to ask for directions formation when passing through a village of Amari, you will definitely be invited to drink a glass of "raki" (local strong alcoholic drink). Georgis Sarris, from Kouroutes village, is a blacksmith. His shop is on the public road and when a traveler stops to ask him something, Georgis always insists of treating him to something from the nearby coffeehouse. The café owner has placed a bench on the sidewalk, where the blacksmith and his friends sit and gaze at the tops of Ida mountain, which is there, right in front of them.

They warm themselves up with the furnace

Georgis doesn't see his occupation as a profession anymore, but mostly as a hobby, since he is now retired. During the cold winter days, he turns on the furnace and his friends gather around it to enjoy the heat. Just so the café owner doesn't think that he's stealing his clients, Georgis urges him to deliver the coffees at the shop. When Nick Tyrokomakis, a theologist from the village Apodoulou, offered to pay for the raki that Georgis had ordered, he denied, saying: "Panagia mou" which means "Oh my goodness". Both of them are authentic examples of Amari's people. The first one as a scholar and magical narrator and the other one as a real Cretan giant but with the kindness and the smile of a little child.

He learned his art by force

"I was forced to learn this art by my father, then the forge kept me here and I didn't get to study anything. I really wanted to. There hadn't been a single time when I opened the shop that I didn't think of school. But my father answered my cries by saying: 'We have a lot of work, we cannot send you to school'. When we were working using the sledgehammer and I accidentally misused it, he used to say: 'You fool'… But he wasn't very strict with me. The other blacksmiths, who had apprentices working for them, would even slap them when they were working, but my father never smacked me".

During the German Occupation Georgis's family used to repair some old tools for a living. Instead of money, they accepted beans and fava beans as payment. The shop did not have a chimney, to protect the clothes from getting dirty.Georgis inhaled all the charcoal, which came out of his nose for three days after that. He used to smoke fanatically as well. Anyway, he felt younger when he quit smoking 14 years ago.

He has visited Ida mountain several times in order to hunt "zourides", that's how ferrets are called in Crete. He could exchange a ferret's fur to get a sack of flour, which used to be very important back then. Georgis is very passionate about Ida and he answers the question about how much he loves it by saying: "Panagia mou" (Oh my goodness).
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

ΠΕΡΙΣΣΟΤΕΡΕΣ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΕΣ 

The western side of Ida mountain, imposingly standing above Kouroutes village.

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