Day 25: Thursday July 26th

Today is the last trip :'(

Its all ending far tooo soon!

Today we went to the Heraklion Farmer's Market, Vonni-Agia Marina, and Cretaquarium

The Farmers market was so cool! I got a pair of sandals for only 3 euro and a bag oof delicious fresh grapes!

this is where we hung out until the group was all together

I don't know if you guys were already aware..... but i'm kind of adorable...
















The aquarium was small very cute! I got loads of cool pictures!

 moon jellyfish!

DORI AND NEMO!











This was a great last trip day!

its so sad that everything's ending so quickly but Greece has brought me peace

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 24: Wednesday July 25

Usually Wednesdays are class days....but since it's the last week they decided to shake things up.

Instead of sitting in a classroom, today we went to the owner of the hotel we are staying at's house and had a Cretan lunch.

My professor Maria's mother joined us and taught us all how to make Tzatziki and  Strapatsada. So i will dazzle you all with my newfound cooking skills! :)

 Spanakopita (spinich pie)

 Strapatsada

Tzatziki

US AT LUNCH (i'm taking the pic)

YUM!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 23: Tuesday July 24

This is our second to last trip day :-(  NOOO!

Today we went to: the monastery of Arkadi, Kournas Lake, Rethymno, and Fodele


Arkadi was a monastery that is known for the monks who, in 1866, lit themselves on fire while in the gunpowder room.
Freedom or death was not just a revolutionary saying to these monks. Once they were surrounded by the Turks, they gathered together to commit suicide.

this is where the monks committed suicide:

It was very intense and sad to realize that so many people died where we were standing...


on a happier note the next stop was Kournas Lake


it was beautiful...but i forgot to take pictures :(

we rented water bikes and biked all around the lake. We all took turns diving and jumping of the bike into the lake, it was pretty cool!

it was the cleanest and clearest lake i have ever swam in! you could see almost all the way to the bottom!

I think that was my favorite stop of the day!


My second favorite would be Fodele, the village where El Greco was born.

Everyone was very hospitable and we had delicious orange juice. We also were shown an original olive oil press (powered by horses) that is still solid and standing 250 years later. The gentleman who showed it to us used to work on it when he was younger as part of the family business.

I also saw the biggest hollow trunked tree ever..........

naturally i had to have a picture IN it.....

it was a fantastic day!



~ αγαπώ ~

Day 22: Monday July 23

The weekend at Samaria Gorge was amazing....but thats another post for another time.....

today was back to the grindstone with classes. This beautiful country makes it very hard to concentrate on work :/

Today, I learned one of my new favorite Greek words:


          χορόσ                                 it means the dance
(pronounced chorόs)      


We also had a guest speaker today. She is a friend of my professor's and a practicing lawyer in Crete.
She specializes in Minoan law!

She told us that the law code of Gortyna  (i have pictures of this in earlier posts) was the most advanced law code of its day.  The code outlined very specific rights, rules, and regulations for the community.

Her influence for going into law was this law code of Gortyna and she has continued her studies of Minoan law. She says she can see how the ancient law code of Gortyna and its creation is still relevant to today's laws.

Although I'm not interested in law or becoming a lawyer it was really interesting to see how the influence of an ancient civilization can still be relevant today.

Well done you smart Minoans you. :-)

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 19: Friday July 20th

Today we had a guest speaker!

It was my professor Maria's aunt. She's an english teacher in Greek schools!

She explained a lot about the unique forms of Greek education! I was really interested to learn that it is required for Greek students to take English and one other foreign language! In the states we only have to take 1 and in some schools that is not even required for all years!

It was also interesting to learn that the majority of schools in Crete are public. There are very few private schools!

She also told us that most people do not use outside resources such as tutoring for difficult subjects. teh schools provide this extra help free of charge. Only very wealthy families will use outside tutoring, however, even then its not common.

In Greece the English class levels are A B and C. C class denotes a high level of proficiency in the language... C is the highest level.

She handed out example papers of what the students will need to complete as an exercise. It was your everyday vocabulary, reading, and reading comprehension exercise; but it was very cool to see an exercise that is actually used in the classroom!

Overall her presentation was very educational and very interesting! I find educational systems and differences in classrooms around the world very cool!

Today was one of my favorite classes!


~ αγαπώ ~

Day 18: Thursday July 19th

Trip day today!

We went to Thrapsano, visited Ross Daly, and Kazantzakis Museum, and the Boutaris winery.

In Thrapsano we got to see the traditional way to make pottery!

They turn the wheel with their foot instead of using the pedals like we have. It was amazing to watch him create beautiful piece after beautiful piece in front of us and watch as the clay molded so easily in his hands!

You can really see the foot wheel well in these two pics!




















This guy showed us how to do it from start to finish......

 The beginning....just a lump of clay

woah! i see something starting here....

how'd you do that??

hm....a vase?

 How'd it get that big so easily?

 getting fancy with the neck of the vase eh?

The beautiful end product!

....is it just me or does he seem pretty pleased with himself? :-)














After giving us a show he offered to let some of us try! of course I volunteered!!!

first time doing pottery!!!!!
















it came out pretty decent actually! I will put up a picture of it when its dry....it's coming home with me!

Next we went to visit Ross Daly: the music legend!

He has a school where he teaches young artists who want to learn to play traditional greek/cretan instruments like the Lira.

He played a mini concert for us on his lawn. no big deal..... !!!!!

...he's a pretty cool dude!

Then we went to the Boutaris Winery.

we learned a lot about how white wine vs. red wine is made and got to see where its all stored

(ps. in case you didn't know red wine gets its color from the skins of the grape)

Kotsifali is the local cretan grape that is used in many of their wines!

                          These are the tanks where the red and white wine are processed!        

Super cool picture of the cellar!

The cellar is supposed to be low light, cool, and not often entered in order to allow the wine to "sleep" as they say.















I went home with two bottles...one red and one sweet white. Delicious!



Today was jam-packed with really cool activities!


~ αγαπώ ~

Day 17: Wednesday July 18

Today we had classes again.

We also got some :( news. We are unable to go to wedding this trip! :(

I have never been to a wedding so I was especially excited, but unfortunately it is not a possibility. So instead we will be going to two village feasts instead which should be very interesting also.

Today we talked about Cretan music.

• When you listen to cretan music one can hear the influences of those cultures who left their traces on the island. For example: arabic, Italian, and byzantine. 

• Music has always been a part of Greek culture! Music and dance have even been found depicted in minoan artifacts!

The main genre of music on Crete is poetry.

• Mandinadas are Cretan poems set to music
• they consist of a rhyming couplet of 15 syllables
• it is usually said in iambic meter

Mandinadas are an important part of Greek and especially Cretan culture. Most men are able to improvise mandinadas, even while around a table as a form of socializing.

The Lira, Violin and Lute are often used in Cretan music.

• Lira-- shows connection of greeks to aniecnt Greece
• Violin-- shows connection of greeks to Italy
• Lute-- used only as rhythmic instrument

next time I hear greek music I'll be looking for these influences!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 16: Tuesday July 17

Its trip day again today!

We went to Dikteon Cave, Elouda, and St. Nicolas


My favorite of the three (all though all of the places were beautiful) was the Cave.

This cave is said to be the birthplace of Zeus and where he was kept hidden from his father Kronos who wanted to eat the child. The myth suggests that the cretan dances and music we can still see today were developed as a way to drown out the cries of baby Zeus.

The cave is situated high in the mountain so its quite a hike to get up to it. Once you reach the top you are hot and sweaty.....luckily the cave is really nice and cool ( in both senses of the term)

pictures are worth a thousand words so heres a few to say what I just can't do justice in words:

Here you can see how deep this cave is!



















There were formations and stalagmites and stalactites everywhere!

These ones kind of looked like faces!

Overall this was the coolest of all the stops!!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 15: Monday July 16

After a relaxing weekend of doing nothing.......

We learned some interesting things today.

1. Greek orthodox is the oldest form of christianity

2. Greeks believe Tuesdays are unlucky

• this is because constantinople fell to turks on a tuesday

3. The Evil Eye

• if you have the evil eye you will have a headache, or feel sick in some way
• caused by someone talking about you or jealousy
• to ward off
• the eye bead seen on bracelets and other jewelry is a form of protection
• can carry garlic
• putting ash behind your ears
• spit three times or perform a hand motion behind your back 3 times

I have an evil eye bracelet that i bought while here and an evil eye anklet; i should be safe...I hope!

We also learned that greek last names mean "son/daughter of ____ "

For example: Constantine Papadakis

• this would mean Constantine the son of papadakis who was once a priest (papa means priest)

My professor is Maria Hnaraki

• Maria daughter of Hnaraki who was once a tailor (Hnar means trace--the way tialor trace with chalk the outline of the clothing)

very cool!

Day 12: Friday July 13

This morning we got on a day cruise to Gramvousa and Balos.

First stop was Gramvousa which was BEAUTIFUL!

We hiked up to this fortress on the mountain!

(fun fact: today was approx. 110 degrees.....yes we hiked that in this heat)

The sea was this amazing turquoise-blue color and we were so high we had a gorgeous view

        See how high we were!

After the hike we went for a swim in the beautiful sea which was the most amazingly refreshing feeling ever.

We met this little old man who is the only inhabitant of the island so everyone called him the "mayor"! he was very sweet and tried to convince the girls on our trip to stay on the island with him! lol

before we left we were given a bag of salt that was collected from the sea surrounding the island.....I have salt from the sea I  swam in !!!!!!! :D

Next was Balos which had a super cool shallow water lagoon thing and then a beach and on the other side of the beach is the sea.

It was gorgeous! We got VIP treatment and the CEO of the cruise company took us in a private boat around for a while and showed us the cockpit and engine room of the cruise ship.

it was a lot of fun and really a gorgeous place!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 11: Thursday July 12

Today begins the overnight trip we are taking to other side of the island.We are going to the hometown of one of my professors called Chania.
Since its such a far drive we had to be on the bus at 8AM! obviously I fell asleep on the bus ride but once we arrived it was beautiful!


this is Chania's port:

so cute!

Chania is filled with tons of little side streets filled with shops and cafes! we also visited an indoor farmers market of sorts.

It was pretty cool and i bought some sweet honey bread there which was delicious!

Then we headed out to Terra Creta the olive oil company.

fun fact: most olive oil you buy is a mixture of olives from all around the world--Terra Creta's is natural cretan olive oil from the Kolymvari region which has approx. 30 million trees!!


we learned about the process of retrieving the oil from the olives!

from taking them from the trees:

to the processes that test the olive for its acidity etc, the juicing, the sifting, etc:

all the way to the bottling

I learned a lot about olive oil and what the color should be for a good oil: golden with a slight green tinge.

Overall it was pretty cool to see and of course i am going home with a bottle for my father the chef :-)

we also visited a rusk making bakery company. It was really cool to see how they make the rusks and get to taste their many different versions.

We spent the night at a hotel in Kastelli-Kissamou whose owners our professor is familiar with. They were incredibly hospitable and the food was plentiful and delicious--especially the dessert which was made for us by the owner.....she's a mighty good cook :-)

tomorrow we are off on a day cruise---can't wait!
Now it is time to sleep......

καληνύχτα  (pronounced: kali̱nýchta and means goodnight)

~ αγαπώ ~