Day Seven: Heraklion

It saddens me to be writing my final post today; this trip went WAY too quickly. But looking back on this experience, I have learned so much this past week about the ancient history of Greece, the culture and tradition of Crete, and even about myself. My first time in Europe was a complete success, and I can't wait to revisit Crete as soon as I can.

On our last day, we started out by going to Labyrinth park. It is a amusement park that has a huge labyrinth maze where you have to find your way through the maze to defeat the Minotaur. But before you find and defeat the Minotaur, You must find all of the rooms first.Our group split up into two teams of four people, and we had a little competition to see who could  find their way out first. We won, of course ;)

But after we finished the maze, we had a little bit of time to wander around the park before our next trip. This is where we found the petting zoo and I made friends with big horse name Madonna. She was wonderful.

After our trip to the Labyrinth Park, our next stop was the Nikos Kazantzakis museum. We visited his tomb where he was buried earlier in the week; so we learned a little bit about his life and his literary works then. But today, we got to see some of his real manuscripts, set designs, and other items from his career. I learned so much more about him as an author, and I can't wait to actually read some of this works! I'm doing my research paper for this class on the book to film adaption of this work Zorba the Greek, and I'm actually so excited to dive right in.

Before we left the museum, I bought a bracelet with one of his quotes on it that reads "Φτάσε όπου δεν μπορείς " which translates to "Reach where you cannot". I'm really excited about this bracelet, lol. The museum was also places in a really beautiful village, so we took some artsy pictures here before we left.

Our last stop was the Boutaris Winery Tour! We've all been looking forward to this trip for the whole week, so there was definitely some high expectations. But let me tell you, this tour and tasting exceeded all of my expectations.

The vineyard was absolutely stunning; it was on top of a huge mountain with farmland surrounding it. When we arrived, we were offered a first taste of one of their white wines first. What a nice way to welcome us! We then took a tour of the vineyard, the production area, and the wine cellars. Each stop we were informed on how they ran and what place they had in the production of wine. It was super interesting the whole time, I learned a couple fun facts! For example, in Crete, red wine is made out of the whole grape, including the skin. However white wine, is just made from the insides of grapes. The skin is what makes the color in each of the wines, so in order to make white wine white, they can't use the skins.

After the tour, we did a wine tasting of a white, red and dessert wine. These wines where accompanied by a "light lunch" in greek terms, but man was this lunch delicious and DEFINITELY filling. Overall, the winery tour was a great experience, and an awesome way to wrap up our program.

When we returned to the hotel, a couple of girls in the program and headed to the beach and soaked up our last moments by the crystal blue waters before returning for dinner and to pack up our things. This whole experience has been really humbling, and even though I've been blogging about my days here in Crete, words cannot adequately describe my experience here. All I know is that I am going to miss Crete terribly, and as soon as I'm not a broke college student, I will hop on the next flight to Heraklion.

But for now, this is my last post here is Kokkini Hani, Crete, Greece.

Some words I've picked up from today:
Vineyard - αμπέλι (ampéli)
Manuscript - χειρόγραφο (cheirógrafo)


and one last phrase.


Until next time,
μέχρι την επόμενη φορά (méchri tin epómeni forá)

Andrea Rose.

Day Six: Dikteon Andron and Agios Nikolaos Town

So told I rode a donkey up a mountain to the Cave where Zeus was born. It doesn't get more Greek than that.

To elaborate, we drove for about an hour and half up a huge mountain where the roads were looping up the very edge. Each turn gave you a different perspective of the mountain we were climbing up, and at one point I SWEAR we were in the clouds. We were so high up, the road seemed like it went on forever.

But eventually, we got to our stop. We climbed out of the van and walked up the mountainside a little more until we reached the point where the donkeys would meet us to carry us up the hill. Donkeys are still used today in Greece when they are building villages on steep hillsides, and the use of donkeys in this sort of area date back to the Minoan civilization. So the fact that we were about the climb this hillside on a donkey to the Cave of Zeus was unthinkable; something straight out of a movie.

Once we arrived at the Archaeological Site Dikteon Andron, the Cave where Zeus was said to have been born and raised, we were taken down about 7 flights of stairs. With each step descending into the cave it dropped like 1 degree lol. The once we got all the way down, it way absolutely FREEZING, the walls were soaking wet, and there was moss and stalagmites everywhere. If it wasn't so cold, I could have stayed there for hours just looking around. I've never been in a cave like that before. Back when the cave was used as a sanctuary, it is the central sanctuary of East Crete. The beauty of the cave speaks for itself.

After we climbed back down the mountain, we drove to the Agios Nikolaos Town. This is the town was surrounded by a lake and sea, and they connected underneath a bridge. There were tons of alleyways and shops along the harbor to explore at, but we only had an hour and half. So we got our daily dose of Greek Gyro, wandered around the shops, and then boarded the bus to our next adventure!

Our last stop on today's trip was a cooking class by two wonderful Greek cooks. They are very well known in Crete for cooking classes, and have actually won 4 gold medals in the 4 competitions they've entered so far. The cooking class was very interactive, we made Tzatziki, Cheese Pies, and Homemade pasta noodles! I've got to say, I can cook pretty well, but rolling and cutting dough it not my forte. All of my cheese pies looked like sausages lol.
But luckily, everyone else was pretty good at rolling them and we managed to make some kick butt pasta and cheese pies. When they brought this food out, they also brought other food they prepared for us like Gigantes, Greek Salad, Rice Pilaf, Beef Stew, and Zucchini Fritters. Its was a HUGE meal, needless to say the Greek continue to surprise and impress me with their cooking skills. And portion sizes.

We then arrived back at the hotel and we got our pottery pieces that we made a couple days prior, and I am SO hype about using my bowl. It looks pretty great, if I do say so myself :)

Today is our second to last night here and it's starting to set in that I'm leaving this paradise and I am NOT okay with it. But tonight is a girl in our program's 21st,(Shout out to Danielle!!!) so I'm gonna live it up while I'm still here and soak in every last second of it!

Here are some greek words I picked up on today :)

zucchini - κολοκύθι (kolokýthi)
egg - αυγά (avgá)
lentils -  φακές (fakés)
donkey - γάιδαρος (gáidaros)


Ttyl-
Andrea Rose

Day Five: Chania

Today started a little differently then normal. We left the hotel at 8am, and drove for about an hour and a half until we got to the City of Chania. We went to a spot on the mountain that overlooked the whole city, and we ate our breakfast there instead! This spot was near a high school and the Technical University of Crete, so we got to see both of those campuses.  A reporter came to visit Theodore, Maria's husband who was accompanying us for today's trip, and he interview myself and a few of the other girls on our trip to city how we liked our trip so far. That's was pretty cool, especially because we got to do it all with a gorgeous view! We took a picture of us also, starring one of the city's stray cats that was befriending Jess during our stay. He is part of the family now.

Next, we were off the the production site of Tera Creta. They pick and produce olive oil here along with a lot of other products like balsamic vinegar, marinated olives, etc. We got to go insides of the production rooms and were taken step by step through the process of making olive oil. After we went through the production room, we got to "professionally" taste the olive oil. And by "professionally" I mean one of managers taught us how to swirl the olive oil in our mouths and smell for quality... it was like a real taste testing! lol. We felt like little connoisseurs of olive oil They gave us a little goody bag with their olive oil and balsamic vinegar, so I'm very excited for that!

After that, we drove the Mannas Bakery where we got to walk through the production of Rusks. Rusks are twice baked bread, so it goes through the oven process twice. Do no confuse this with toast, because toast is always only baked once! Rusks are baked twice, until 95% of the humidity is out of the bread. They have a great crunch to them, and can be uses a variety of ways! We had to put on hair caps and shoe gloves along with a little lab coat when we went through the bakery, so you KNOW we had to take a picture!

Stylin.

At the end of that tour, we got a goody bag as well filled with numerous types of rusks and things they produced there. I'm super excited to have them, but I have a feeling all of these gifts along with the souvenirs I've bought are going to make my checked bag overweight....

Anyways. After getting all of our bread goody bags, we headed to Downtown Chania where we got to wander along the harbor and do some shopping. It's a beautiful little town with tons of pretty alleyways. We wandered in the city a little and then on the shore line, there was a huge stretch of brick walk way that led to a lighthouse, so we walked all the way to the lighthouse and back, The shore of Crete is incredible anywhere you go, but I have to say... This few was probably my favorite.

We wrapped our day up with a long(and bumpy) drive home and when we got to the hotel, they had personal pizzas ready for us. BOMB. It was awesome.

But today was pretty long, so I'm gonna head to bed early. Here are the words I learned today!

Lighthouse - φάρος (fáros)

Wheat - σιτάρι (sitári)

Gelato - παγωτο (pagotó)

Post card - καρτ ποστάλ (kart postál)

See ya! 

Andrea Rose 

Day Four: Kourna and Rethymno

Heyo, it's already Day Four of the program, and this is moving way way way way way WAY too quickly. I'm seeing all of the Welcome Week posts for Drexel and it's becoming real that I'm leaving this beautiful island sooner than later. WAH.

But today I got to explore more of the island of Crete, so here I am reporting back to y'all!

Today, we drove up to the Arkadi Holocaust Monastery, then to the Kournas Lake, and ended our day at Rethymno Old Town. Lots of traveling today and lots of knew knowledge!

 

First was the Arkadi Holocaust Monastery, which I learned about a whole new story of genocide that I never even knew existed. Keeping this lil history lesson short bc it's a blog post, in short, this monastery was the main port of attack during the Cretan Revolt of 1866. The Ottomans (Turks) arrived at the monastery with 15,000 soldiers and 30 cannons. Women and children were forced into the bathrooms and powder rooms while the Ottomans continued to massacre the monastery; creating hundreds of fatalities. The ones who were not killed were captured and tortured. So needless to say, arriving on this site what very surreal and eye-opening; learning about genocides that I never knew even existed and visiting the spot they occured really resonated with me.

 

Despite the site being absolutely stunning with it's architecture and art, it was a very somber visit that I learned a lot from and will always remember.

 

Also, all the doors in this place were very very short.... not sure why. But I didn't fit through them. Sad. #tallgirlproblems

On a lighter note, our next stop was the Kournas Lake where we got to go paddleboarding! It was a short little stop on our way to the Rethymno Old Town, but it was a nice break from driving. We got to swim and boat in the lake that was surrounded by beautiful hills and landscape, so that definitely was a good relaxing stop :)

 

Finally, we arrived at the Rethymno Old Town where we got some quality Pork and Chicken Gyro and got to souvenir shop. It was right on the ocean, so the sights were beautiful and walking around in the shops and seeing all the restaurants was a nice way to work off that incredible gyro lol.

Stopping at the Monastery is definitely a visit that meant the most to me this trip. This is a part of history Americans aren't exposed to as much, and being able to visit the site where it happened was an experience I will never forget.

On the restaurant strip of Rethymo, staff of each restaurant usually stands outside and trying to get your attention and lure your into eating at the restaurant. So to turn them down, I would need to respond with "I've already eaten" which is "Écho ídi fáei"(Έχω ήδη φάει). After leaving stores, I would want to wish them a good day as well, which I've learned is "na écheis mia kalí méra!" (να έχεις μια καλή μέρα!)


Ttyl, xoxo
Andrea Rose

Day Three: Heraklion, Anoplis, and Episkopi

Day Three in Crete was again, quite a success. Before I get into any of the details, I just wanna talk about the fact that I bought a pair of cool lace pants and a dress for 15 Euros today. I'm SO hype about it. Like, whenever anyone is like "omg i luv ur pants where did u get them" I can be like " o yea i got them in Greece haha sooo kewl". lol. But really, they're adorable. So I'm excited.

But today was a very very eventful day in the program. We started the day off at the Heraklion Farmer's Market, then traveled about an hour to Anopolis for a pottery workshop, then traveled another half hour or so to Episkopi to visit an Ostrich Farm, drove back toward Kokkini Hani and stopped at the Mediterranean Aquarium, and wrapped up the day back at the hotel for a Greek Dance Workshop! So lots and lots of stuff to report back on, but it was a boat load of fun so I'm excited to share it with you all :o)

First stop was the Farmer's Market, where they had tons and tons of fresh produce grown in Crete (obviously, lol). But other than all the fresh produce, there were rows of people selling anything from shoes and clothes to purses and fabrics and even kitchenware! All of the owners of the stands were yelling out barters in Greek, so it was very loud and hectic. But this is where I bought my pants and a dress for my mom and I got them for QUITE the steal. I can't complain.

Next to the Farmer's Market was a coffee place where Maria (our program director) insisted on treating us to authentic Greek coffee. And who can turn down free coffee? It came in small, brass like container with a handle where you poured the contents into a small teacup to drink.

 

It was a very small portion, but MAN was that stuff strong! And delicious. And after you are finished with your coffee, it is a fun little tradition to turn it over on to the coffee plate and let the leftover coffee grinds dry in the cup. Once it is dry, you turn the cup back over and look into it to see the designs that the grinds left in the cup. You look for pictures, and whatever you see in your coffee cup has a meaning in your life.  Click here! for a link to a page explaining what different pictures mean.
(my cup read that I have a very passionate love life that is facing major difficulties. lol. my life.)

Our next stop was Anopolis, where we attended a pottery workshop! We watched this guy make a huge vase in literally like 3 minutes, and then were able to make our own pottery (with major help from the main pottery guy).

 

After making my bowl, they put it in a kiln and we will get to bring them home! They sold a bunch of pottery in the building as well; the walls were stacked with beautiful vases, kitchen ware, decorations... you name it. So naturally I had to buy something. A Greek goddess shot glass and perfume. Nice.

Then we drove to Episkopi to visit an OSTRICH FARM. And yo. Let me tell you. Ostriches are freaking HUGE. Like ginormous. The main one we were hanging with took a sick selfie with us, but then trying to snap at us. He was looking for a fight.

 

There were also other farm animals like goats and mini horses and sheep. The farm overlooked this incredible hillside, so it was the perfect photo-op after visiting all the lil creatures.

 

We also ate lunch there and had.... ostrich. Oops? It tastes like a mix between beef and pulled pork. It was delicious, especially accompanied by stuffed zucchini flowers, eggplant omelette, and locally made wine. Even though his brother was probably 500 feet away from us :o

Our last stop on the trip was the Cretaquarium, which houses Mediterranean Sea Life. The fish in the Mediterranean are actually a lot smaller than the fish in the Atlantic; which was very surprising. Also, saw an octopus for the first time there! Oddly enough, we had octopus the night before for dinner, so this is becoming a little awkward.... first the ostrich sighting and eating, then the octopus.... lamb and sheep are common here too. So I'm seeing a lot of what I've been eating here. Oops. x2

Finally we returned from our long day of traveling and got to rest a little at the hotel before Maria came back and held a Greek dancing workshop before dinner. The steps were super fun, we learned traditional circle dancing and partner dancing. It was a little tricky to catch on to first because it is very footwork heavy, but I got it eventually! But, a little girl who is family to the workers at the hotel came in and showed us all up and I've gotta say, it was a little embarrassing what we looked like compared to her. Greek children learn these dances at feasts for the community and these feasts are held quite often! So they learn at a young age, and you could definitely tell that she knew what she was doing!

All in all, this day was jam packed and I loved every second of it.

Today, I learned that "Yes" is "Nai" (Ναι), "No" is "Ochi" ( Όχι), "Excuse me/Sorry" is "Sygnómi" (Συγνώμη) and "Ostrich" is "Strouthokámilos" (στρουθοκάμηλος)

Catch ya on the flip side!

Andrea Rose

Day Two: South Crete, Matala Bay

Hey hey! This is a day late, mainly because yesterday was exhausting and I passed out way before I even thought about my daily blog. But here I am ready to fill ya in!

So yesterday we got pretty adventurous, we traveled to the south part of Crete where we visited the Village and Church of the 10 Saints, the Gortyna Archaeological Site, and the Matala Bay Neolithic Caves and Beach. The bus ride was around 1 and 1/2 hours each way, so on the way back all of us basically passed out from all the wandering we did!

Our first stop was the Village of the 10 saints, where we got to walk through the village and see the small, beautiful houses it was made up of.

 

 

After walking for about 5 minutes through these small alleys and road filled with vines climbing up houses, we reached the church in which the 10 saints were executed. 

 

They were executed by the church because they were all Christian, and refused to worship the shrine of Decius as the god of Rome. At our visit, we got to go in and see inside of the church. Inside, I was able to get a picture of the Holy Marble in which the 10 Saints knelt down on when they were executed. There were big holes in the marble for their knees, and I thought that this was super surreal to see in person. 

 

The woman at the church was really wonderful, and gave us postcards from the church so that was super cute too!

We also got to visit the tombs in which they were buried. At the site, there were steps that led underneath ground level where the tombs were and we were able to see the them through a glass. There were pictures, candles, and other memorial items placed next to the glass; along with all around the site at ground level. The tombs and the church were nestled in a beautiful town with the outskirts flooded with agriculture. It was a great way to start off our day :)

 

Next, we visited the Gortyna Archaeological Site where we were able to learn a little more about Greek mythology and The Great Inscription. The Great Inscription was the Law Code of Gortyns that was inscribed on the circular wall of the Odeum. This wall stretched far and was locked behind a gate to insure that there would be no way of us tampering the remains. This was an incredible monument, and was inscribed to be read similar to t he shape of a snake, so left to right, right to left, and repeating that pattern until the last line.

 

Also at this site was the Odeion, a typical Roman Theatre of the 1 AD century. There was a huge stone stag facing a semi circle of audience rows. The performance space was huge, and it made me think about what it would have felt like as a performer to perform on that stage. That was an awesome experience; to stand on that stage and look out and see what Ancient Roman performers saw in 1 AD.

Finally, we visited the Matala Bay Neolithic Caves and Beach. Well... actually... just the beach.
The caves were nestled right against the beach, which we could see from the outside. However, this beach had incredible cliffs that hung out over the sea, and we couldn't help ourselves to not swim out and see what all this Cliff Jumping was about! By the time we were finished cliff jumping it was time to leave so we never got to see inside the caves :(

We swam out to the rocks that came out enough to climb on top of, and we climbed to the tip of one of the cliffs. There were already a few German boys there, seeming like they were trying to jump into the water. But, after standing up there for a while, we realized how badly they were stalling and that they were too chicken to go first. So, being the impatient and impulsive person I am, backed up, ran toward the edge, swerved around the boys and jumped right off the ledge. It was a long way down, but it was the most incredible feeling. When I finally hit the water it was so relieving and exciting at the same. My adrenline was still pumping. I had to do it again... especially for some cool Instagram photos. So after all of the rest of the girls I was with jumped, we swam to the rocks and jumped again; now with an underwater camera in hand ready for some prime photoshoot time.

It was so worth the anxiety and mini-freakout about the height of the jump and the rocks below, because the experience is something I will never forget. (Also, PSA, where we jumped was the safest, there were not shallow rocks there so no worries :))

The day was really exhausting, but the things I saw and experienced were irreplaceable.

And and AND... I learned some new Greek words, like I must for this trip lol.
To say "excuse me", you say "me synchoreíte" (με συγχωρείτε).
To say "delicious" - or very delicious in most cases with this Greek food UGH - is "polý nóstimo" (πολύ νόστιμο)

Will update y'all tomorrow as usual, so see ya then!

Andrea Rose

Day One: Heraklion

Howdy y'all! Tis me, reporting live from the Heraklion, Greece. The past two days before my program have been absolutely incredible. I've never seen nature or culture like there is here in Crete, and I can't wait to share my experiences with you all during this trip :)

So, just to brief what I've been up since arriving - before my program began, I got to relax at the beach, which is LITERALLY a 2 minute walk from my hotel. I woke up my first day here, read a book and had breakfast at the little restaurant in our hotel (which btw is incredibly hospitable and authentic, the family that owns this place is DARLING.) I then spent the entirety of the day reading, sleeping, and eating fresh doughnuts (sold by one of the locals on the beach) at the shoreline. I could go on and on about the beach, but I actually have to get to the scholarly academic part of this post, so I'm just gonna leave this picture here and let it speak for itself.

Yesterday, I spent the day in Downtown Heraklion shopping for souvenirs and making a complete embarrassment of myself as a tourist. This was also not part of the program yet, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this either, but the city of Heraklion was adorable - here are a two pictures from that as well :)

So that brings me to today: the first official day of my program! 

Today, we traveled with one of Maria's friends, a certified tour guide for Crete, and we visited the Minoan Palace of Knossos, the Archaeological Museum of Crete, and the Nikos Kazantzakis Tomb. Each were within about a 20 minute radius from where we are staying, so the bus ride wasn't too long.

Our first stop was the Minoan Palace of Knossos. This was the palace where King Minos, his wife, and few of this workers lived at the center of the Minoan civilization. The earliest traces of inhabitation of the palace dates all the way back to Neolithic Period; which was around 7000-3000 BC. So needless to say, this is one of the oldest traces of the oldest known civilization ever lol. Originally, this palace was destroyed in an earthquake, which archaeologists assume was around 1700 BC. The palace was then rebuilt and destroyed a couple of times after that, so obviously this site has been through some craziness!




On our tour, we were allowed to walk through the remains of the palace. We were even able to see the throne room; in which King Minos's throne still stands. This was one of my favorite parts of the tour!

Later in the day, we got to see many of the actual pots, paintings, and other historical items that once resided in this palace. Which brings me to our next stop; the Archaeological Museum of Crete!
There were so many things in the Archaeological Museum that I could show on here, but I only have so much time to write this before it's due, so I'm gonna narrow it down to one piece that might relate to some of the stuff we've been reading for this class.

One of the chapters that we've read this far was about the change from Homeric Poetry to Cretan Balladry in Greece. Originally, Cretan heroic poems were written in rhyming couplets, in distiches of two 15 iambic syllable lines.These historical narratives were typically sung by men and performed during special occasions or celebrations. Heroic Poetry was rooted deep in Greek culture, and these poems originally would be transcribed on to rocks or plates to be preserved. This leads me to one of the items I found in the Archaeological Museum.

This piece is the Phaistos Disc, which stands as the first and oldest piece of Greek writing in history. Researchers are still trying to figure out what exactly it says, but judging by the heavy influence of poetry and religious text during the Minoans time, my personal belief is that is is a piece of poetry or a song etched onto this plate. This disk would definitely not be big enough to fit a whole heroic poem like a talked about before, but I definitely think that it is some kind of creative or religious literature.

Our last stop on our itinerary was definitely my favorite for many reasons. This was the tomb of Nikos Kazantzakis. Nikos Kazantzakis was a Cretan writer and philosopher, famously known for his novels like Zobra the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ.  He was widely popular and highly celebrated on the island of Crete, but the Orthodox church did not support Kazantzakis because he commonly proved what he believed in through science and did not support religion. So when he passed, the church refused to bury him in their cemetery. However, because the people of Crete loved him so much, they decided to take matters into their own hands and bury him atop a hill in Martinengo Bastion, Heraklion. On his grave was inscribed "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." (Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα. Δε φοβούμαι τίποτα. Είμαι λέφτερος.)

This burial site speaks for itself, with a 360 view of North Crete and the Aegean sea in plain sight.

And it's an incredible photo-op, OBVIOUSLY 

So that experience was incredible, and it's only the first day! I'm also picking up some Greek words along the way (it's required for the class to log them, lol). So in the morning, to greet someone you say  "kaliméra"(kαλημέρα) which means "good morning!"

 Also, when thanking someone you say "efcharistó" (ευχαριστώ) which means thank you and they will respond with "parakaló" (Παρακαλώ) which means "you're welcome".

 I also learned the word for and ate one of my FAVORITE foods in the world tonight for dinner: Grape Leaves. 

It's rice flavored with spices, herbs, and olive oil wrapped in grape leaves and they are INCREDIBLE. Here, they are called "dolmathes" (ντολμαδες). And let me tell you, they are yummy in the United States, but I've never tasted them like I tasted them here. Authentic Greek food is out of this world. I am eatin' GUD here. 

So those were my adventures for today. I know this was really long but I had to explain a lot. I hope y'all enjoyed this and stay tuned for my day to day updates!

Καλό βράδυ!

Andrea Rose