Greece: Athens and Crete

Hey everyone! Sorry to take so long to update–expect there to be a number of updates over the next few days with all of my Spring Break travels! First up is the trip that my housemates Megan, Miranda, James and I took to Greece. Sadly, because of the way flights worked out, I didn’t get the chance to catch the folks from Providence who were there on their Spring Break, but it was a great trip nevertheless!

Feeling like a real world traveler, I didn’t sleep between between getting in from Italy and getting on the plane to Greece, but I managed to snooze on the flight and arrived in Athens for a beautiful first day! Enjoying the sun, we walked around the city quite a bit and found ourselves in the Roman Agora, featuring the breathtaking Tower of the Winds, which features (among other things) some beautiful stonework and a very interesting set of timepieces. The rest of the Agora was just as beautiful, and we enjoyed wandering among the columns and imagining the Greeks who must have walked there before us. We walked up through the streets of Athens to find ourselves at a museum dedicated to Melina Mercouri, famous as a singer, actor, and political activist in Greece during the 20th century. It was very interesting to read her story, and learn a bit more about Greek history–I was surprised to find out that the country had been under a military junta as recently as the 1960s and ’70s. It was difficult for me to read about her activity in getting several British museums to restore famous Greek artifacts to their homeland after British archaeologists had wrongfully taken them, and added a whole different dimension to my idea of International Relations.

We left the museum, which was relatively small, and took the walk all the way up the Acropolis to the everfamous Parthenon. Both were absolutely breathtaking, and it would be difficult to capture them with words. On our way up, and back down, we also enjoyed a look at some other amazing sights, including the Erectheum, another beautiful ancient Greek temple up on the top of the Acropolis, as well as the Odeon of Herodes Atticus and the beautiful Theater of Dionysus. I was obviously in heaven imagining just what amazing theater must have gone on on these stages, and was recalling favorite scenes from plays by Aristophanes (Lysistrata anyone?) and Sophocles. We ended up back down at the bottom of the hill, and heading out back into the city, we took a walk over to the Panathenaic Stadium, which was reconstructed from an ancient Greek stadium and hosted the first modern Olympic games back in the late 19th century.

The Stadium was incredible–and surprisingly empty! Except for a small group of Americans who left as we were arriving, we were alone except for our audio guide, who was absolutely hilarious. We enjoyed strolling at our own pace, being sure to take a seat in different parts of the stadium, run the track, and pose for photos. As our Audio Guide said, we were sure to “Walk in the footsteps, feel the pulse, and hear the breath” of the famous athletes who had gone before us into the stadium.

Finally leaving it behind, we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags to head over to the port and catch our ferry. Surprised? Don’t be! We we’re just catching our overnight ferry to the famous island of Crete!

I’ve traveled on almost every type of transportation for long hours–planes, trains and automobiles at least. But an overnight ferry was my first real long-time boating experience, outside of being in a sailboat a number of years ago at camp. The results: disastrous. Luckily this voyage went much smoother, and tearing myself away from a hat ala the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island, we disembarked, rubbing our eyes in the very early morning light and arriving in Heraklion, Crete.

We took our first day easy, content to stroll around the town and check out the beach. We had arrived about a week before the major tourist season, which meant that the beach was not exactly cleaned up and ready yet, and that shop keepers were all too ready to pounce and offer us discounts on their wares. James and I were more than prepared after our experience in Istanbul, but it was still tough to tear myself away from buying too many souvenirs! The next day we got an early(ish) start, heading out to beautiful Knossos, an immense Bronze age palace and labyrinth, considered to be a veritable hub and center for the Minoan civilization.

The city was amazing to walk around, especially since parts of it had been restored, thereby allowing us to see the old and the new right next to each other and really see the contrast. It was also relatively empty, and (as had been our constant mantra throughout the trip!), all the curators and museum guides said “England? Free!” Apparently it was only the Italians who wouldn’t consider us EU under-25 students with our Oxford University student cards and long-term stay visas! We ended our day with a late lunch and a lazy afternoon in front of the beautiful Morosini Fountain in what is commonly known as the Lion’s Square.

We took dinner back closer to our hotel, and turned in for the night.

Our last day in Crete was spent being very lazy, and not particularly tourist-y. We sat around in a number of cafes, chatting with each other, reading our respective books (several about Islam for yours truly, in preparing for my upcoming tutorial in Trinity term!), and just soaking up the sun. We ended such a productive day with another overnight ferry, this time back to Athens.

We started one of our last days in Athens with a visit to Hadrian’s Library, another beautiful archaeological site in the city, and one I can highly recommend as something that isn’t particularly busy, but still very ‘on the beaten path’ as they say. We then headed over the Greek Agora, since we hadn’t spent too much time strolling around on our first time up to the Parthenon. Favorite sites of mine include the converted Church of the Holy Apostles, and the beautiful Temple to Hephaestos. Obviously, my love of Greek mythology, which had been rearing its head all week, went into overdrive.

I, however, had not remained well hydrated enough, so decided to sit in the shade while my traveling companions headed in to see the museum located in the Agora, which they said was quite enjoyable. We ended the day with another delicious Greek meal–have I not been mentioning the food? It was all amazing! Very different from Italy, but just as enjoyable–personal favorites included Dolmadakia (grape leaves stuffed with various vegetables, spices, and rice), as well as all of the different meat dishes, including Mousaka (ground beef and eggplant casserole), and the famous Tzatziki sauce on top of everything, including the world-famous Greek gyro. It was all delicious (and Greek!) to me!

We spent our last day in Athens visiting Hadrian’s Arch, the famous Temple to Olympian Zeus, and the surrounding ancient bath houses, various other temples, and other remains in that area of Athens. Our last day was as beautiful weather-wise as all the others had been, so it was that much tougher to get back on the plane to head back to Oxford which had not yet sprung into the new season. But, all was not lost, since I only had one day before I was heading off for a beautiful week in Paris France! Look for more on that coming soon, but I hope everyone is well!