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 ~

Day 10: Wednesday July 11

Classes today was pretty economic and business intense.
I don't know how people are business majors or econ majors.....my brain is mush after trying to wrap my mind around the information.
Of all the loads of information we learned today, here are some of the topics i learned and kind of think I understand.

1. I have never really heard of the terms GDP or GNP before.

• GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product. This means the products are local
• GNP stands for Gross National Product. This means the products are imported from other areas and therefore are not local

2. How to measure inflation

• Measure the prices of products that are considered to be necessary for survival at the cost level
• it's the difference between the household budget from year -to -year

(p.s. approx 20% of a household's income is "disposable")

3. VAT

• VAT stands for Value Added Tax 

(fun fact: VAT is already included in any prices whereas in a America VAT is added after the price when you check out)

interesting stuff!

now when i shop ill think about all these acronyms :)

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 9: Tuesday July 10

Field Trip time!

Today we visited:

• Selinari (St. George)
• the monastery of Toplou
• Vai

First stop was Selinari (St. George)

 This is the entrance

This is the church! It's beautiful!

Fun fact: My friend Lauren, who is also on the study abroad, knows someone who was baptized here!

It was up in the mountain and had gorgeous views!!

We even saw some Cri Cri (Cretan Mountain Goats) clinging to the sides! That was very cool!

Next was the monastery of Toplou

The courtyards we beautiful and spacious!

Apparently monks of this monastery fought against the turks during the rebellion! You could see the canon holes in the walls that were preserved and inside was a museum of many religious items and weapons used during the rebellion. 

It was strange to have to wear towel to cover my shorts and then see weapons in a religious center!

Our last stop but the most beautiful one was Via.

 

It is home to

• the hottest part of Europe besides Cyprus
• a beautiful palm tree forest
• what was once the biggest banana plantations on the island
• a gorgeous beach

Mr. Toulinos owns the plantation and taught us about how he grows his bananas. His bananas are grown a lot slower than most and stay on the tree longer. Most other countries will pick the bananas early and then ripen them off the tree where as Mr. Toulinos leaves them on the tree to ripen. This makes them much sweeter than the ones at home!

Also these bananas are Bright Yellow !

I swear these are not edited even a little!

They're also a lot smaller than the bananas at home:

Just look how little it looks in mike's hand!

Being able to talk to Mr. Toulinos and taste these unique bananas was such an awesome experience!

Our last stop was the beach at via.

It was beautiful!

We swam out to those rocks and climbed them!

 there are in close up here:

Overall it was an amazing day!

~ αγαπώ ~

Day 8: Monday July 9th

After a whirlwind of a weekend in Santorini its back to the grind with classes......

Today I we talked a lot about Crete in an overall sense. For example, I learned that it is the 5th largest island in the mediterranean. The others include Sicily, Sardinia, Corsika, and Cyprus.

Crete produces a wide variety of products. The main product of the island is olive oil. There are approx. 30 million trees on the island.... they're everywhere!  What is really cool is that after collecting the oil form the olive, the pit is kept and used as a form of fuel by burning it! Other products include citrus fruits, pomegranates, grapes (including wine from the juice and the greek alcoholic drink raki from the skins), figs, vegetables (the tomatoes are delicious), wheat, barley, fish, meat including lamb, cheeses, eggs (always very fresh!), botany including herbs, and honey. 

There are few flowers and pine trees so the honey is produced more commonly from herbs. This means the honey here is thicker, sweeter, and darker. There is still flower honey but the herb honey is most common.

The major source of income on the island is tourism with Russians as the largest tourist population, followed by Israelis and then Northern Europeans. This is not a surprise, but the reason why people always come back is not only for the beauty but also for the people. Cretan hospitality is famous and is a unique experience. When a Cretan meets someone they like to share what they have, this includes food and gifts. They say this is how they were "raised" by their ancestors.
Stemming from this hospitality the architecture on the island reflects the need for community. Every house has porch for socializing and every apartment will have a balcony. This allows for easy communication between neighbors. There is also always a religious center near common socialization centers because this is an important part of the community and are seen as centers of hospitality.

Other interesting aspects of the architecture include the very flat roofs, at home every house has peaks. Crete can have these because their houses are not burdened by the large amounts of rain and snow we receive each year. Their roofs are also always light colors. This is because they want to attract as much sunlight as possible because many houses now run on solar energy! So cool!

We also learned that "Crete is a crossroads for all people". Through their tumultuous past, Greece's arts and culture have been influenced. For example, since Crete was under the ottomans, Greeks have some influences that have marked their culture. For example, the coffee I have grown a minor addiction to was introduced through Turkey. But you should NEVER say its turkish Coffee when in Greece, nor should you say its GReek coffee when in Turkey.  This is because the two countries have a long history of animosity especially during the occupation of Greece. 

today was very enlightening!!

now out to the sun!

~ αγαπώ ~