Day 6/7: Saturday July 7th/ Sunday July 8th

Santorini here we come!

This morning Emily, Kostas, and I woke up very very early and made our way to the port in Heraklion in order to board our ferry to Santorini!
Since it was so early we all fell asleep on the way there only to wake up just as we were docking.

As soon as we arrived there was nothing but beautiful views everywhere!

After checking in at our adorable hotel....

we rented 2 ATVs and started our busy day!

The first stop was the Red Beach....

Its a really amazing place!

They weren't kidding about the Red!

Then we went to the Black Beaches: Kamari and Perissa

The water at both beaches was amazing!!!

Then we went to Oia for the sunset:

(i apologize for the massive amounts of pics)

The next day we headed to the volcano and hot springs!

I'm on a volcano!

the brownish water is the type of water that fills the hot springs we swam in! its all sulfury and supposed to be really good for your skin!

















To get down to the boat that took us to the volcano i took the cable car you can see here. next to it are 600 steps to the bottom/top. Hence why i took the cable car down.

How did we get back up?

by donkey!

See! proof I really rode one!

This is my donkey (the one who carried me to the top) :)






















Overall this was an amazing weekend!

<3

Day 5: Friday July 6th

Its FRIDAY!
This means last day of classes for the week, and Santorini tomorrow for the weekend!
Before my mind can race away with my Santorini plans, we had classes this morning to pay attention to!
Today's class was actually pretty fun because we went over some ancient greek myths and legends...

Yesterday we visited the site of Zeus and Europe's tryst that resulted in King Minos.
So today we discussed one of Minos' stories.

Minos becomes king and takes Pasiphae as his queen, with whom he has several children including his daughter Ariadne.

• Pasiphae was a daughter of the sun who can see all that happens below. One day the sun saw Aphrodite (who was very unhappy in her marriage to Hephaestus--the god of the forge) sleeping with Aros the god of war. Pasiphae's father tells her what happened and she tells Hephaestus. Aphrodite wants to punish the sun but she cannot so instead she punishes Pasiphae. Aphrodite sends Cupid to make Pasiphae blindly in love with a bull. Pasiphae eventually sleeps with the bull and give birth to a monster.
• Minos knows his wife was bewitched by aphrodite and forgives his wife for her adultery. He knows that he cannot kill his wife's child, even though it is a monster, and therefore hires and engineer (Daedalus) to create the labyrinth in order to protect what is known as the Minotaur.
• Every month a boat of young people form athens was sent into the labyrinth. If they could find their way out they were free but if they could not they would become a meal for the Minotaur.
• One day Theseus, Prince of Athens and son of King Aegeas offers himself to go into the labyrinth because he wants to slay the Minotaur. Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and devises a plan so he can escape. She sends him in the labyrinth with a thread so he can find his way back to the entrance after slaying the Minotaur. Theseus slays the Minotaur and escapes and marries Ariadne. 
• Upon his return to Athens he falls in love with another woman and abandons Ariadne. As he makes is way back home Theseus forgets that his father said to change the sails from black to white if he is alive otherwise if he is dead for the ship to remain with black sails. When the ship is close to Athens, his father King Aegeas sees the black sails and commits suicide. He threw himself of a cliff and into the sea below, giving its name the Aegean Sea. 

I love ancient Greek Myths and Legends! they're all like mini soap operas and very dramatic! But they also are really cool in that there is a story for everything!

We also learned a few new greek words!

May favorite is    έτσι κι  έτσι, it is pronounced etsi-ketsi. It means so-so and is used as a response when someone asks you "how are you".

It's a lot of fun to say and when I was out with some of my roommate Lauren's friends I used it and was told that I sounded truly Greek in the way i pronounce it! YAY! lol 

Thats all for today! 

Tomorrow is the beginning of Santorini so stay tuned for pictures!!!!!!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 4: Thursday July 5th

~On the road again!~

Today was our second trip day!
On today's itinerary was:

• Agii Deka
• Gortyna
• Matala
• Lake Zaros

The first stop of the day was The Church of Agii Deka.  Its name refers to the Holy Ten Martyrs who were decapitated there during the Roman emperor Decius' persecution of the Christians in 250 AD. 

 These are pictures of the Church itself....

   This is the remnants of a stone column outside the Church. This was the site where the 10 Martyrs were tortured often before their eventual decapitation.

Inside the church is the cut-out of the stone where the 10 Martyrs kneeled for their decapitation. The imprint of their knees are clearly visible.

Just a little further away is the site where the 10 Martyrs' bodies were found. 

This is a picture of the underground tomb. 

When the bodies were discovered a small church and memorial was built just above the tomb in their honor.

Just outside this small church are the names of the martyrs.

This place was really cool and beautiful! It was also a little creepy due to its violent history...... 

Next stop was the Archaelogical Site of Gortyna

The first cool thing we saw here was the mythologically famous plane tree seen on the right.
According to the myth, Zeus fell in love with the Egyptian Princess Europe and transformed himself into a cow with wings to catch Europe's attention. Europe flew on the back of the amazing cow and they landed at this site. When Zeus changed back into his God form, Europe was so impressed by his power that they slept beneath this tree and she later gave birth to King Minos (the father from the story of the Minotaur). Because of this, this spot has been called the birthplace of European civilization.
It is believed that this plane tree is the tree in the story because plane trees shed their leaves every year, but this particular plane tree does not need to go through this process and instead keeps its leaves. (obviously it has something magical about it ;-) )

The second cool thing we got to see was the original Law Code of Gortyn. It's also known as the Great Code and was the civil law of the ancient city-state of Gortyn. The code is inscribed in the wall of what was some sort of public civic building of the time.

The brown building behind this amphitheater is where the current partial reconstruction of the code is housed. It is inscribed on the walls.

The code is written in a  ~~~~~>   manner when one reads. 

                                       <~~~~~

                                       ~~~~~~>    

It is written in ancient Greek (probably the Dorian Dialect). 

This is a close up of the inscription that shows the language used.

The entire code was inscribed onto blocks like these that created the long wall.

The Great Code covered many aspects including such surprising topics as rape, adultery, marriage, and divorce rights.

The last big part of this site was the church. 

This is the first church of Christianity (fun fact: it was built on Roman grounds)

The student Titus of the apostle Paul was born here in Gortyn in 12 AD.  Titus studied under Paul and he was eventually appointed by Paul as the 1st bishop of the cretan Church.

Everything here was really interesting and i enjoyed the fact that this land had experienced not only mythological ancient greek culture but also Christianity.

After driving for so long we made our way to amazing beach of Matala.

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Here is found the Roman Cemetery. However, today it is no longer a cemetery instead its just a super cool hiking spot!

Fun Fact: in the 60s/70s hippies made the caves their homes and still today there is a hippie festival that occurs every year

It a gorgeous spot! the water is so blue and clear and the rocks were a lot of fun to climb!
Yes, I climbed.
Oh, you want proof? 

 HERE'S THE PROOF! :)

We were so high that we had a gorgeous view of the whole beach and sea.

On our way home we made a quick stop at Lake Zaros. 

We had an ice cream stop and break from the car with a beautiful view of a picturesque landscape. Of course I took a picture with it!  The colors were phenomenal!!!

It was a long but awesome day! 

That's all for now!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 3: Wednesday July 4th

Its very strange not being home for the 4th! There is absolutely no hint here that today is one of America's biggest holidays! I wish I was at the lake with my family watching fireworks, but instead I am in a gorgeous country and going to class......so tough :-P

Today we went over all the really cool things we saw yesterday and went in depth about the Minoan civilization.
we learned:

• There are a commonalities among all Minoan palaces
• Center Court (a picture of this is in yesterday's post)
• West Court
• Religious Rooms
• There are specific entrances for visitors
• When you visit Knossos the entrance you use is the ancient Visitor's entrance
• At these entrances there are paintings depicting people carrying gifts into the palace to remind visitors they must present gifts when seeing the royalty
• In Minoan paintings that depict people the men are Red where as the women are White  
• the Prince is a pinkish color because he is considered to be above the common men 
•  The Minoan Civilization in Greece was around between 2000-1380 BC 
• it is one of two palatial civilations in Greece
• The Minoan Civilization of Greece remnants are found on the island of Crete (Knossos Palace for example)
• The Minoan Palaces had many roles in society
• economic uses
• administrative uses
• they were religious centers
• served as the residences of the powerful elites

We also went over the type of governmental systems found in Greece versus the US. As we all know, the US has a Presidential System of government. Greece, however, has a Parliamentary Multi-party Democracy. In the Presidential System of the US our leader is, obviously, the President; whereas in Greece it is the Prime Minister. Our teacher also pointed out that in Greece the natural physical, cultural, and transactional environment effects the public administration of Greece.

After all this information my head is spinning with knowledge, and am very ready for a nap.

Tomorrow we have another field trip so be prepared for pictures!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 2: Tuesday July 3

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we have classes while on tuesdays and thursdays we have all-day field trips.

As today was Tuesday....we had a packed day of exploring ahead of us...

Our stops included:

• Knossos Palace
• The Archaeological Museum
• Center city Heraklion/ Heraklion town hall
• Historical Museum of Crete
• Nikos Kazantzakis' Tomb

Our first stop was Knossos Palace

• This is a Minoan palace in Heraklion, Crete, Greece
• The main excavator was Sir Arthur Evans
• There is a big conflict over his restoration of the palace as he painted the columns red because he believed that is what they looked like; many believe he should've left them as they were found: white 

This is the palace's center court. A center court can always be found in a Minoan Palace.

My nickname? Stairway to Heaven :-P

This is a picture of the Minoan Throne Room. The stone chair attached to the wall is the throne and the large round stone basin was used for purifying oneself. This purifying was both a religious and a hygienic concept that was done before meeting royalty.









The Minoan Civilization was also pretty advanced for its day.

This is a picture of the Minoan sewage system. throughout the Palace there were stone "toilets" which led to stone gutters/pathways like this one which got rid of the waste.

 The Minoans also developed a form of AC. Holes in the walls like this one here allowed for air to circulate throughout the rooms in the palace.

 This hole in the ground is actually an early civilization's refrigerator called a "magazine".
The Minoans would preserve food and other things such as honey in huge jars and bury them under the ground in these "magazines" to stay cool and fresh. Below is a picture of the jars that were used.

This is one of the types of jars that would be buried underground. These jars are enormous! Just look at the height in comparison to me! They were even larger than the tallest guy on our trip and he's 6 foot!












The Archaeological Museum held a lot of the original items found at Knossos Palace.

Next we had the unique opportunity of seeing the Heraklion Town Hall and meeting the mayor!

This is the view from the second floor of three

This is the room where all the important decisions are made!



















Next was the Historical Museum of Crete

• They had a lot of interesting exhibits portraying the wide ethnicities represented in Crete, as well as exhibits on various periods in Crete's History

This is a picture from a memorial for the "Orphans of Crete 1941-1945".

It is a WWII memorial for all those soldiers that died and are buried at the Allied War Cemetery but whose families were never identified--they are the Orphans of Crete







Across the road from the museums was one of the best views of the day:

This is the view of the fort that protected Crete from occupation for approx. 100 years






Our last stop was a visit to Nikos Kazantzakis' Tomb

• Greek writer famous for "Zorba the Greek"
• Born in Heraklion
• Won Nobel Prize for Literature

This is a picture of the memorial and tomb of Kazantzakis.

This is what the headstone reads:
          "I hope for nothing
            I fear nothing
            I am Free"






It was beautiful memorial and had a gorgeous view of the ocean, the mountains, and the town.

This is a picture of my friend and roommate, Lauren Herb. You might not believe it but this is 100% candid and just shows that Kazantzakis' memorial is a very relaxing and beautiful place







Thats all for today!


~ αγαπώ ~

Day 1: Monday July 2

After a relaxing day on the beach yesterday, today we started our first day of classes...

In the words of my dear Eminem...."Back to reality"

Todays classes were much more personally inclined. We talked about what each of us has experienced of greece so far; if we had any culture shock etc.

My big woah moment was getting out of the taxi when I reached to give a tip and remembered that is not something that is done here in Greece. Here, when leaving a "tip" Greeks just round up the bill to the next euro or two...a 15% or 10% tip is unheard of. Its great because goodness knows i probably couldn't afford a 15% tip in euros anyway, but still very strange and hard to get used to.


Language wise, today we learned:

αγαπώ              this is the lowercase version

      -also seen as-                                                     both are translated as  to love

ΑΓΑΠΩ           this is the uppercase version


This word contains the Alpha and the Omega (the beginning and the end) because love is the beginning and the end of life

           I absolutely LOVE this idea of life. (pun intended)

similarly we learned :

αγάπη       which is translated to  the love


I also found out that all of American Greek Life mispronounces the Greek Alphabet.......good to know.

It has been an enlightening day.

‎"and thus the thing began"......

so what if that's a Shakespeare quote...I did stop in london at one point........

21 hours later I have arrived in Greece.

Once I was all checked in and escorted to the gorgeous room I am sharing with 2 other girls, I hit the shower and then went to sleep.

I had the worlds best night's sleep! Maybe it was the Cretan air, or maybe it was just because it was the first flat surface I was able to sleep on. Either way, it was fabulous.

Today we met up with our Program Coordinator Maria and had a recuperation day on the beach.

It was so nice and relaxing! Too bad we have to start classes tomorrow......

Tonight we will be having "family dinner" as a group.

Then we will watching the Euro Cup. I'm rooting for Italy since Spain always dives and therefore don't even play O:-)

Thats pretty much it for today....I probably wont be able to make daily posts but ill be on as often as possible :)


<3