The word seeiri is used basically in Cretan dialect but you can also hear it in some ‘’rempetika’’ (traditional Greek music) songs. In Crete, seeiri, means, staring at something that gives you pleasure or makes me feel joy, for no certain reason. The word comes from Turkish ‘’seyir’’. 

Back in a time, where the entertainment was way different than now, to just staring the road and the passengers while drinking your afternoon coffee, was deffinately a form of entertainment & repose. It may seams weird to us to just look at ‘’nothing’’ for no certain reason, but if we give it a second thought, aren’t we already doing this? Aren’t social media and scrolling down the new ‘’seeiri’’?

Meraki is a word, difficult to describe, and that’s why it doesn’t explain an object or an activity. The word ‘’meraki’’ explains the emotion that someone feels while he’s doing something that he really love to do and he put a piece of his heart in his work. In Crete the word is used basically for handworks or anything handmade, like a food. We also use it, when we want to describe the deep desire of something. We say, for example, ‘’Dance is Antoni’s meraki’’.

Meraki comes from the Turkish word ‘’merak’’ and it is used in daily base, in Crete but also in Greece in general. 

For the Cretans, happiness is when you are able to make your meraki for living. We truly wish you the same.

The word raeti is used basically in Cretan dialect, and it seems to have plenty of different meanings given. Some of them are: graduity,  favoritism, a good meal or a treat. 

However, raeti comes from Arabic word riayat, which basically means favoritism. The word is still usable in Urdu. 

The common sense of all these different meanings, is the kindness & selflessness. And this is what we choose to keep from this word, with the hope that our hospitality creates you only good memories & warm feelings. 

The word filema is a Cretan word and it comes from the verb ‘’filevo’’ which means, offering food or sweet to make someone feels welcome.

As you may know, in Crete, hospitality is a matter of importance. For Cretans, to make someone feels welcome in their land, is not only a must-do thing, it is like a natural need. Their home is always open and their food is enough for everyone. Our grandmothers used to say ‘’A little food, can feed many people’’. 

What they may meant, is that someone doesn’t need many to treat a stranger and to open your home to him. 

The word filema is still usable in everyday life and we choose to relay it to you, in order to relive this primal love of Cretans for hospitality.