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