Crete

Today's episode is brought to you by Angela, Erica, and Emma!

Angela and Erica

Our first full day in Crete was filled with stunning views, ancient ruins, and surprising discoveries. To start off the day, we visited the traditional Cretean village of Arolithos. There, we were taught the recipes for four traditional Greek dishes. Extra virgin olive oil was a very important ingredient of all the dishes, so they used A LOT.

Replica of Palace of Knossos, which has been
called Europe's oldest city. The palace is
associated with the myth of the Minotaur who
lived below the palace in a dark labyrinth.

After enjoying a delicious homemade lunch, we met up with Thalia, our tour guide for the day.

She first led us through the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, which held many restored frescos and artifacts. Some prominent features included how the women were portrayed with white skin while the men were designed with red skin in all the frescos, and the large wooden replica of the ancient Palace of Knossos.

                                                                                              

In addition, we discovered that originally, when a small fresco was found, archaeologists thought it was a boy until they also dug up (a piece of the fresco with a drawing of) a monkey muzzle. The fact that there was a fresco of monkeys and other evidence, led archaeologists to the conclusions that the Minoans sailed, the cause of their power. 

Original restored fresco where the center
piece was thought to be that of a boy.

The second attempt at restoring this fresco. The piece containing the muzzle of the monkey. You can see the faint outline of the piece containing the painting of the monkey's muzzle. Monkey is on the left.    

We were also taught the decline of the Minoans: in Santorini, or Thera in Greek, there was a volcano eruption and half of the island sunk into the ocean. At that time, they didn't know about volcanoes, so they thought that the gods and goddesses were angry with them, so they stopped sailing, which indirectly caused the decline of their power. The Mycenaeans took advantage of this and attacked. Since the Minoans were peaceful and didn't know how to fight they became scared and fled into the mountains of Crete. In the mountains, their traces gradually vanished. 

                                                                                       

Fun Fact: The Minoans had bathtubs made out of clay. 

North Entrance with charging bull fresco (and a peacock!)

Afterwards, we explored the ruins of the Palace of Knossos. In the palace, only the parts made of wood were restored since they were destroyed in a fire right before the Minoans ran and hid in the mountains. The ruins also had many peacocks. The myth of the labyrinth and the Minotaur were derived from the original name of the Knossos palace. During the ancient times, it was called the house of the double axe. Back then, double axe translated into labyrinth. Also, the palace is five stories high and gigantic so that also adds to the labyrinth aspect.
The Minotaur part translates into the Bull of Minos (the legendary king of Crete). The bull of Minos comes from the bull leaping competitions that happened within the palace, and there is also a bull fresco.

Emma

Since the food today was exceptional, I thought it was only appropriate to write a little more about it for our blog. This morning, we visited a small village to make some Greek food that would be our lunch. Each table split into pairs and began one step of the process to making a dish, and our guides then put everything together and cooked it while we moved on. In total, we made a full meal, including stuffed vine leaves, tzatziki, sarikopites (cheese pies), and bread. Luckily, the food cooked fast, and everyone sat down and had what was one of our best meals. The vine leaves had incredible flavor, leaving us fighting for the last ones, and our cheese pies, served with honey, were great despite the odd flavor combination. We left, stuffed, and saw some more of the wonderful sights Greece has to offer. However, we had more meals coming. Dinner was good, though it didn't compare to our lunch. More stuffed vine leaves, Greek salad, and meatballs. Dessert though, was definitely a favorite of our groups. Light, fluffy pastry (a bit like a beneigt) served with scoops of chocolate ice cream had the group wishing for more after it was gone. Though we haven't had a bad meal yet in Greece, today's food was some of the best we've tasted yet, and we can't wait for more tomorrow!