Crete

We slept in on Saturday morning. The daylight was proof that my intuition that my aunt’s house had a beautiful view was accurate. Standing on the front porch, we gazed out at the city of Heraklion. The juxtaposition of nature and city life caught my attention. The busy city buzzed with life, but it was bordered by rocky, brown mountains, blue seas, and small, quiet villages. 

For breakfast, we had freshly squeezed orange juice and Greek yogurt with granola (mueseli) and honey (meli). I had filter coffee for the first time in a week and, even though I had been enjoying the endless Frappes, I realized how much I missed hot filter coffee.

We hopped in the yellow Hyundai and drove a short distance to nearby trails where my aunt walks each of the three dogs she rescued (Jasper, Cookie, and Danny) every morning. Each dog gets his or her own individual walk with my aunt. The woods and paths looked similar to the ones back home, and there were even pine trees. One slight difference: we were walking amongst an ancient Minoan cemetery. We trekked until we arrived at Fourni, the archaeological site of the cemetery. We arrived at the gates of the cemetery and found that the guard was absent from his post even though he was supposed to be on duty, letting visitors enter. We traveled all this way to see the site and did not want to leave without doing so. I made an exception to what I would do in normal circumstances, and Eric and I climbed and jumped over the tall, but manageable, fence. We walked down to the site and I was surprised at how well preserved the area was considering some of the tombs are from the 14^th century BC. The cemetery is believed to have been used over a 1,000 year period. The backdrop of the cemetery was scenic with Mount Juktas looming in the sky, overlooking the countryside and homes.

After the cemetery, we stopped at an ancient amphitheater, where they still hold concerts and events to this day. 

Later, we explored kato and ano Arhanes. The village is so simple and quaint, yet contains everything you would ever need. Afterwards, we headed into Heraklion to go to the Saturday market, similar to a farmer’s market in the United States, but much larger. You could do all of your shopping in this one spot and my aunt said, especially after the economy started suffering in Greece, many people do all of their shopping here, as it is relatively inexpensive. There was fruit, vegetables, fish, honey, spices, clothing, sunglasses, wallets, shoes and everything imaginable. I purchased a pair of Oakley sunglasses for 2 euros (clearly faux) and a pair of flowing pants that made me feel like I would look more legitimately Greek (ignore the pale skin and American accent, please).

We visited the ancient Palace of Knossos next, which is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and is considered to be the oldest city in Europe. The palace was a city within a city, and served as the center of Minoan civilization. It contained living quarters, storage rooms, and workrooms. Impressively, the palace contained intricate drainage systems and even had bathtubs and showers. We also saw several altars where animal sacrifices were made to honor the Gods. 

Our tour guide was a reddish-haired, blue-eyed Swedish woman named Carin who immigrated to Crete thirty-seven years ago with her young son in tow. She was an interesting character: passionately knowledgeable about her area of expertise, but blunt and somewhat combative all at the same time. She provided us with an extensive history leading up to the Minoan civilization to give us context before entering the palace ruins. She mentioned several times how lucky she is to have a job she loves so deeply, since most people do not enjoy such a luxury. At one point, she said something interesting that remained with me. She said everyone believes in something. Even if you don’t believe in anything, you still believe that you don’t believe.

We entered the massive palace and toured the remains for about two hours. It was astounding how advanced such an ancient civilization was. Carin said history is cyclical, often repeating itself. The knowledge of mankind is cyclical as well. Over the history of the world, man has learned and forgotten, only to have to relearn it all over again. Carin said it is impossible to know for sure, but as many as 8,000 people could have resided in this palace at a given time.

Perhaps the most well known resident of the palace was the legendary King Minos, who is mentioned often in Greek mythology. King Minos prayed for a snow-white bull that he was supposed to sacrifice to Poseidon, the god of the sea. The bull was so beautiful that Minos decided to keep it and sacrifice another one of his bulls instead. Poseidon punished Minos by making his wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. They bore a hideous monster, known as the Minotaur, which was half man half bull. The name is derived from Minos (Mino) and bull (Taurus or Taur). Minos asked the architect Daedalus and his son Icaras to build a labyrinth to house the Minotaur, who was eventually slain by the Athenian hero Theseus.

Daedalus also built a dancing floor for Minos’s daughter, Queen Ariadne. Depictions of these events are illustrated in colorful depictions that still line the walls of the ancient palace.

After our tour, we traveled around the island and ended up in a place called Bali, where we had a quiet dinner on the water. Full from our meal, we relaxed on lawn chairs, watching the sun set over the Mediterranean Sea, a cool breeze gently lulling us to sleep.