Crete pt. 1

At 6 this morning, I returned from Crete on an overnight ferry, exiting it in the pouring Athenian rain (it never rains in Athens, so of course it will rain me when I'm with all my luggage). I slept in my apartment bed for hours after that.
The trip, a school-sponsered "study-trip", was from Monday evening (where much Bananagram fun was had on the ferry)
until this morning.

We arrived Tuesday in the main city and capital of Crete, Heraklion, visiting that day the tomb of Kazantzakis (famed Creten author of Zorba the Greek), the Venetian fortifications, the Archaeological Musuem which was sadly being refurbished and had only a limited exhibition, mostly of Minoan stuff. Then we had lunch in a small, charming Creten village that day, before returning to Heraklion.

Heraklion wasn't exactly charming. In fact, it has the same bland, repetative, "hurry, let's urbanize as cheaply and quickly as possible" look that Athens has. Thankfully, all of the cities are flanked by the Mediterranean on the one side and mountains on the otherside.



The drivers are just as frightening as in Athens, the only difference is that Crete has less of them.
 I didn't see anyone hit at least.

I saw Knossos on Tuesday, too. Sadly, it was very tourist-y, and there wasn't anything close to the peacefulness I was hoping for. They also removed everything they found at the sight to put in museums, which is understandable. The ruins are old and cool, though.

On Wednesday, we visited the Monastary of Arkadi. Arkadi is up in the mountains, and the monastary has a rather Alamo like history. During (one of the many) Creten revolts against the Ottomans, one thousand Cretens, (600 women and children, 300 fighting men) holed themselves up in the fortress-like compound rather than surrender, and fought it out with 14,000 Ottoman soldiers for three days.

The Ottomans fought for three days before finally entering the compound, at which point the surviving Cretens holed up in the powder house and, rather than be captured, blew up all of the gunpowder, killing everyone inside, destroying a good portion of the compound, and taking many Ottoman soldiers with them.

After the morning at the Monastery, we arrived in our second town of the trip, Rethymno. The hotel had what they call in the business a "kick-ass view." I took a swim at the beach, and found the Mediterranean to be the saltier than the Atlantic and what I remember of the Pacific.

Decimus enjoyed the view and beaches. Also, the weather in Rethymno is much cooler (temperature) than Heraklion.



I also learned about the history of the Jewish and Muslim populations on Crete. Currently, there is no Muslim population on Crete, despite there being a majority Muslim population during Ottoman times. When Crete united with Greece at the start of the 20th century, Turkey and Greece had an exchange of populations, basically sending all of the Turkish Christians to Greece and all the Greek Muslims to Turkey. Crete had an unbroken Jewish population from the time of Alexander the Great to World War II, where they all died after a British submarine sank the boat that was carrying them to Auschwitz.

Finally, we ended up in Chania (or Xania with a "H" sound). Decimus found a high place so that he could "look tall and imposing against the landscape of these conquered climes."

 The view was pretty astounding. The town also had some other pretty neat looking spots, including the lighthouse, lit up at night, at the end of the Venetian walls guarding the port.

View Larger Map
Finally, a map of my travels! The last part, down south, is an archaeological site we hiked to on the last day. I'll write about that soon.

Drunkards (edited)

There was a group of 20-40 drunk Croatian men right outside of DIKEMES' building, singing and shouting "hey, American girl, come here!" to everyone. They had spread throughout the neighborhood, so we couldn't get away from them for at least two blocks. One of them ruffled my hair, which was really unpleasant. I went to a bookstore with two other students, and we decided to take the bus so that they could avoid the sexual harrassment. The bus passed by DIKEMES' building, and we saw a police bus rounding up dozens of people. My roommate told me that they had started brawling. They were all gone by the time we got back, but there were beer cans and bottles everywhere.
This would be a result of the soccer match that went on. I also found out that a couple of the drunk bastards poured beer on the dog of the barber downstairs, provoking the barber and then beating him up before getting arrested. Europe? Really?

Mediterranean dinner

Yesterday, for dinner, I had a glass of red wine, a pear, a slice of freshly baked bread with feta cheese and olive oil. The only possible improvement to this situation would have been if I was on a beach, watching the sun set. You can't have everything, right?


There are beaches around here. I can totally make this happen.

Aegina Trip / The Annals of Decimus volume III: Decimus' Day Out

Decimus, some students and myself took a trip to the nearby island of Aegina on Saturday. First we had to take the subway to the port of Pereas, about 12 km from my apartment.

My criteria for judging new places can be summed up into two questions: how are the bookstores, and how is the public transit? I can answer the second question by saying that the subway system is pretty nifty. Clean, not too loud, and easy to navigate.

From Pereas, we took a ferry to Aegina. The ride lasted about 1 hour to cover the 35 kms, and costed 16 euro.

The ride was comfy, and most of us got coffee. Decimus had trouble with his, although he was surprised by "how big their triremes are."

The water had an unreal look to it, looking like pleated liquid metal. It only became "wine-dark", to use the Homeric phrase, in the evening.

We arrived at the island's port and spent some time in the market before splitting up.

Then it began to rain, but that wasn't enough to dampen our spirits. After telling Zeus to "bugger off", we high-tailed it to a cafe and sipped super-strong Greek coffee while discussing poetry and how exceptionally "European" it felt to sip super-strong Greek coffee while discussing poetry.

We explored after that, and I only wish I didn't have to worry about using up my camera battery (hopefully the charger will ship within the next few weeks), because the island was filled with all sorts of cute buildings and alleys...

 As well as cats, including this fat fluffer who kept begging food off of us at dinner.






The last ferry left at 7:30, so we had to head back. Not, however, without seeing some pretty spectacular views.

Computer problems

My battery charger broke for my Macbook, and this thing doesn't work unless it is plugged in, so until I get my replacement shipped to me, this will be less frequently updated.
Decimus says that this proves the superiority of clay tablets to computers.

A tithe to Athens

The prices here are weird. A frappe, which is a neat little fancy coffee drink that everyone here drinks, costs 1.50 (all prices in Euros) if you take it to-go, but 2.50 if you sit down with it. A three month supply of shaving cream? As much as a 12 ounce soda. Earlier today, I had the following conversation at a bakery:
Me: How much is the sesame seed loaf of bread?
Her: 50 cents.
Me: No, the loaf.
Her: 50 cents.
Me: The entire thing, how much is it?
Her: 50 cents.
Me: Oh.

But the cheese that goes with it? Much pricer. Oh, so much pricer.
Generally, everything is much more expensive, but thankfully, the Acropolis and the museum are free, because I'm a student. I'm thinking about doing some homework up there once the weather gets a bit cooler.

The Annals of Decimus volume II

Decimus is acclimating himself to his new environment. He finds the currency to be very fashionable.

We've been trying to spend as little money as possible, which is difficult considering how expensive everything here is. Decimus doesn't seem to quite understand that we don't have the "coffers of Imperial Rome at our beck and call." Except for the second night, where the school took us out to a Taverna, which are cute restaurants with outdoor seating and delicious Greek food, we've had nothing but pasta for dinner.

As today was the first weekend of the semester, Decimus went adventuring, surveying this Greek province of his.

We encountered one of the regal creatures that prowl the neighborhood. The stray cats and dogs are everywhere, and people put out food and water to take care of them. They're very friendly, and the city keeps them rabies free.

Decimus enjoyed surveying Athens from the Acropolis, and embarrased me by how much of a tourist he acted like. Thankfully, his Playmobile body couldn't contort into the pouty-lip and peace-sign pose everyone does for photos.

I couldn't capture how the Parthenon looks in photos. It is big, huge, mind-blowing. I was litterally giddy going up to see it.

On the way back, we went through Athens national gardens, where we encountered some beasties.

Decimus was certain that he could "pull an Aeneas and whup these strutting, winged monsters!"

Do you recall those stray dogs I mentioned? Alas, Decimus' heroics were cut short when suddenly...
"Cerberus!" cried Decimus.

 

Oh No!

What will Decimus do?

How will he vanquish this foe?

Well, so much for that famed Roman composure. Hey, even Aeneas ran from a fight, right?