The Land of Awesome.

This past week has been so absolutely amazing. Crete was more incredible than I could have ever expected. And the best part? It was part of my school’s program. They organized everuthign from the buses, ferries and hotels. They really did a great job too. Every place we went to was nice, clean and in the center of everything going on. To begin our trip, we explored Heraklio- the port our ferry dropped us in. It was so beautiful. We began with a walking tour followed by a visit to the site of Gortyn. Here we saw some pretty insane ruins. Everything is just crazy to look at and think about all the history that exists in one spot. The people of Crete are pretty amazing-past and present.  Our next stop was Phaestos. Talk about huge. This was the oldest site we went to during out entire visit. I felt so cool being in the same spot where Greek civilization started and continues to hold an enormous amount of importance in the Cretan community. I feel so blessed. 

right off the ferry at 7 a.m.

Heraklio port.

Beginning of tour.

love the buildings!

church of Ayios Titos.

colors!

Morozini Fountain.

fresh errrryday.

ew, rabbit.

center of town.

view from end of tour.

little town we took a stop at.

one of oldest Cretan churches. 

rockin' the scarf as a belt ;D

brian and i snagged some fresh grapes, sshhh!

Gortyn.

Entrance to Phaistos.

Views all around.

ruins.

After learning all about the Minoan communities that lived in the area, we had a free afternoon to explore Matala Beach . This beach is Hippie Central. I loved it. Everything was so colorful and you could feel the carefree atmosphere from a single conversation with the storeowners. We had lunch and enjoyed the beautiful water. I bought my bffl Jesse a knife from there that is SO cool, I thought about keeping it for myself. Alas we made our way to Olympic hotel for our first night’s stay. The day was long, but everything we saw and got to do was more than words can describe.

Day Two started with a HUGE site- Knossos. Now this is the mamma jamma of Crete history. It was the palace to the Minoans who while not the official first Greeks were the community that existed before the first Greeks called Mycenaeans. IT IS MASSIVE. Even more incredible is how much of the site is still holding up. It’s interesting comparing it to the buildings we live in today that can’t stand earthquakes, but here we have thousand year old palaces still holding up. Ha, I think it’s kind of funny when we think about it. Anyways, the site was extremely busy so it was difficult to maneuver the area in a slower pace. Again I was filled with happiness knowing I was standing in the presence of remarkable history.

After Knossos, we went to Heraklio Museum that houses most of the artifacts found at Knossos. It was small in size but large in importance. Seeing everything in the hard form made everything that I was learning in class come together. I appreciate the way that I am getting a genuine first hand encounter with the lessons being taught in the classroom. It’s one of the greatest things about the CYA program. Once we finished there and grabbed lunch, we began our trip to Rethymno. Here we did a walking tour and enjoyed the ocean’s beauty. The following day we visited the Rethymno Museum followed by a visit to another site by the name of Aptera. The weather started to get nasty, but this meant insanely awesome clouds. [see below]

 To conclude our day we made out way to what was my FAVORITE town out of everywhere we had been on the trip- Chania. A walking tour of the old town had me smitten and I had fallen in love. The Venetian style architecture took my breath away as well as the generosity of the people in the town, and all over Crete for that matter.  We were supposed to hike Samaria Gorge the next day, but since it rained and made it unsafe, we had an extra day to fill with other activities. So on Friday we went to another site near a wonderful beach. It was a quick site review and an afternoon in the water. I love the beaches here. It was warm, but because of the wind it seemed a lot cooler than usual. Either way, it was a beautiful way to end out trip. Soon after the beach, we hung around Chania a couple more hours then started our treck back to Athens. I really really love Crete and suggest everyone to go there one day. 

I am not currently planning my Thanksgiving break- Cairo. I’m going to do it. I found a small group of people from my program who I'm going to travel with. I can't wait. This is too awesome.