Iraklion Begins

We took a Ferry from Pireus, technically part of Athens, to Iraklion on the island of Crete overnight from Thursday to friday. It was interesting but definitely my least preferred method of travel. We loaded the boat around 7:00 pm and it left at 8:30 pm, we had overnight cabins that were super tiny, but my roommate and I lucked out, being on the end of the alphabet and got a four person room to ourselves. The boat itself smelled disgusting; and it wasn't just one smell, but about 10 gross smells combined into one nasty ferry smell. I got a little jostled a few hours after we left and went to bed feeling dizzy! We woke up to a lady speaking in a Greek accent really loud over a radio in our cabin telling us we are about to land (land?) at the port. It was only 5:30 am! We weren't supposed to arrive for another hour! I was a little freaked out but we ended up staying past our welcome...people were coming around telling us to check out. We finally got off the boat and onto ANOTHER bus to our hotel. Hotel Castello is at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Iraklion...I don't know if this is true but it feels like it! The traffic is so noisy! We arrived around 8 am and they fed us breakfast right away..the most amazing breakfast we have had yet! They have so many sweets, I never know what to pick! Chocolate and regular pound cake, cookies, croissants, nutella and jam, the best bread ever, stuffed pastries, and a bunch of “normal foods” like eggs, cold cuts, cheese, and they have at least four different hot options that change every day! We are so spoiled J Back on the mainland we met up with a professor from Concordia named Olin Storvick, he is 82 years old and started teaching at Concordia in 1955, back when it was just 3 buildings! He basically started the Credo in Crete program, taking the first group over in 1972 and is an amazingly knowledgeable man…and funny too! He is also extremely agile for his age, he made his way up a rocky mountain path with us yesterday…slow but steady! He has taken us to some sites

So far we have looked at a lot of ruins of old palaces from the Minoan age. We have seen some mythological places too. There is a myth about Zeus trying to attract a mortal by turning into a bull, and we got to see the tree under which this all supposedly took place. We also got to see the cave where Zeus was supposedly born...it was awesome! We went to the beach on Saturday in a place called Matala. It was a ghost town! only one shop, one tavern, and a crepe shop were open in the whole town, which should not be surprsing because the population is 100 and it is the off-season.

We took a Ferry from Pireus, technically part of Athens, to Iraklion on the island of Crete overnight from Thursday to friday. It was interesting but definitely my least preferred method of travel. We loaded the boat around 7:00 pm and it left at 8:30 pm, we had overnight cabins that were super tiny, but my roommate and I lucked out, being on the end of the alphabet and got a four person room to ourselves. The boat itself smelled disgusting; and it wasn't just one smell, but about 10 gross smells combined into one nasty ferry smell. I got a little jostled a few hours after we left and went to bed feeling dizzy! We woke up to a lady speaking in a Greek accent really loud over a radio in our cabin telling us we are about to land (land?) at the port. It was only 5:30 am! We weren't supposed to arrive for another hour! I was a little freaked out but we ended up staying past our welcome...people were coming around telling us to check out. We finally got off the boat and onto ANOTHER bus to our hotel. Hotel Castello is at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in Iraklion...I don't know if this is true but it feels like it! The traffic is so noisy!

We arrived around 8 am and they fed us breakfast right away..the most amazing breakfast we have had yet! They have so many sweets, I never know what to pick! Chocolate and regular pound cake, cookies, croissants, nutella and jam, the best bread ever, stuffed pastries, and a bunch of “normal foods” like eggs, cold cuts, cheese, and they have at least four different hot options that change every day! We are so spoiled J Back on the mainland we met up with a professor from Concordia named Olin Storvick, he is 82 years old and started teaching at Concordia in 1955, back when it was just 3 buildings! He basically started the Credo in Crete program, taking the first group over in 1972 and is an amazingly knowledgeable man…and funny too! He is also extremely agile for his age, he made his way up a rocky mountain path with us yesterday…slow but steady! He has taken us to some sites...

So far we have looked at a lot of ruins of old palaces from the Minoan age. We have seen some mythological places too. There is a myth about Zeus trying to attract a mortal by turning into a bull, and we got to see the tree under which this all supposedly took place. We also got to see the cave where Zeus was supposedly born...it was awesome! We went to the beach on Saturday in a place called Matala. It was a ghost town! only one shop, one tavern, and a crepe shop were open in the whole town, which should not be surprsing because the population is 100 and it is the off-season. The cool thing about the town, and the reason we went there, is that there is a cliff with a bunch of caves dug into the sides be ancients and used over the years for various things. The romans made them into tombs and then more recently some hippies lived in them. Now they are just another tourist attraction, but as we were the only ones there, we had the place to ourselves! We climbed all over in the caves, and before we knew they were tombs we thought the little spaces carved in the walls of the caves were sleeping chambers...creepy! It was pretty nice out, but I still haven't started the tan I plan to bring back home with me

This week is Carnival here in Iraklion so yesterday we watched a bunch of people walk around in costumes...in the middle of the day, and they had a little festival in a grassy square right across from our hotel...it was pretty loud! I watched most from my balcony, there were some very interesting costumes, some people dressed up as donkeys and a farmer with a plow and everything! Today we went to a really cool museum. It was dedicated to the Venetian rule of Iraklion and had a huge model of ancient Iraklion as it was when the Venetians ruled. Around the display were buttons, pictures, and text describing a particular part of the city, and when you pushed the button, that part on the model would light up! There was also a temporary display about the author Nikos Kazantzakis, an author of one of the books we had to read for the trip. He is a very interesting man, and has traveled all around the world a bunch of times and interviewed some pretty famous people!

Last night we threw a little party for Olin as we are the LAST Credo in Crete group he will be teaching. I don’t even know him, but it was really sad, he is such a great teacher! Our travel agent, who has been working with the college for years, bought us all wine for the celebration! Tomorrow we are going to another museum, a church, AND…an aquarium! We were told it is the best aquarium in the Mediterranean so I am excited! We leave bright and early so I best be off to bed!