I Think I Can Decode Modern Greek…

However my comprehension of what I read is equivalent to that of my seven-month-old nephew would get.
Oh, and there would be a lot more pictures here, but the computer was slow uploading...

It’s been a busy (take your definition of busy and multiply by 100 and add in scorching heat) couple of days. 

On Sunday (or at least what the group decided to call Sunday) we woke up bright and early and headed down to the museum in Chania.  Along the way we stopped in the only synagogue on Crete and a rabbi spoke to us about the history of the Jewish community on the island (it was pretty interesting).  Then we made it to the museum where we got to see a whole bunch of things that my brain has decided to store away in a secret place for now.

Then we headed to a Minoan cemetery in Armeni.  There are roughly 273 tombs at the site, but archaeologists have yet to discover the town connected to the burials.   We also got to go down into the tombs.  

Then we went to the town of Spili for lunch (I had some delicious rabbit!) and some shopping.  (I’m pretty sure we did about 3 more things somewhere in there, but I honestly cannot piece the day together now)  After that we headed to Matala for the evening.  We went to the beach for awhile and got to enjoy the amazing sunset.  Matala is known for its dwellings built into the side of the cliffs during the Neolithic era AND for hippies deciding to live in these dwellings in the 1960’s.

Today (Monday) we woke up bright and early to get on the bus by 7:50 to head to Phaistos.  I’m so tired right now that I’m just going to make a list of what we did…

1.     Phaistos

2.     Gortyn and the Gortyn Law Code

3.     Vathypetro (which was closed… but some people decided to scale the fence!)

4.     Fourni (we hiked up a really steep hill…. And this was all before lunch): more burial sites

5.     Lunch on a bus in 15 minutes (pb and j)

6.     Knossos  (which was awesome… but really, really, really hot) We received a tour by the curator at Knossos (it’s been so great to have some of the top people in these fields take the time to speak to us!)

Knossos is where the story of Theseus and the Minotaur is suppose to have taken place…

Theseus (the link is kind of cheesy): http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/theseus/theseus01.html

Finally we headed to Heraklion for the night.  Our hotel has AMAZING air conditioning and a rooftop pool (which I didn’t actually get to go in).  For dinner I had some grilled octopus which was delicious!!

Okay, bedtime!!!!