Clearing the air of tear gas

Today, my professor took my Ethnography class to see the demonstration/strike in downtown Athens. We went early (around 11), and one of the girls I was with commented that it "felt like a parade in the States". While this was not quite the case (usually USA parades don't have undercurrents of hostility and frustration), there were certain resemblances. The streets were filled with various groups marching, chanting, holding banners, etc and I thought that we would obviously stand out as gawkers, but it turns out that many Greeks come to sit/stand along the sidewalk to watch, and street vendors wheel out their little gyro stands to take advantage of the soon-to-be-hungry masses. After walking against the flow of marchers for about fifteen minutes, we turned around and walked back. I didn't feel threatened or unsafe at any point, and was very glad to have observed the event.

A few hours later, someone posted this on Facebook:

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/athens-strike-horror-as-anti-government-rally-1346149

I can only say that this is a gross overdramatizing of a bloodthirsty media. Later on in the day, these demonstrations do tend towards certain violent clashes between the radical anarchist groups and the police, and there were some molotov cocktails thrown and some tear gas sprayed--but this by no means was indicative of the demonstration as a whole. These groups were only a tiny portion of the people striking, and the violence only a tiny portion of the event.

Bif-teki-me-home

The great thing about the end of a vacation here (which Crete certainly felt like) is that I get to come back to Athens. It was good to see that the Acropolis was still standing, Grill and Pita still turning out mouthwatering gyro...Speaking of which, today was my first cooking class. It was with a handful of other students, taught by the woman who makes our lunch every day, and was an absolute (scrumptious) blast. We made bifteki (cross between hamburger and meatball, really) with lemony roasted potatoes, tzatziki and salad. It felt good to be cooking--abbreviated cooking though it was, with most of the process already done for us--and was great because not only did we learn how to make a classical Greek dish, we got to eat it together and then have the recipe so we can make it again.

 Good to have another option, in case I get tired of our fresh bread from the bakery + tzatziki + Greek salad go-to dinner.

(But I mean really, how good does that look!)

Crete-in' Day 4: Gorgeous gorges

Day 4, we woke up at 5:30 and headed off toward the Samaria Gorge. The bus dropped us off at the top, and then we hiked down to the Libyan sea. It was an absolutely stunning hike—topped off perfectly with a dive into the beautiful blue water.

Our guide was a Cretan man of few words, but at one point he turned around to us, stuck his stick/cane in the ground and said solemnly "We are lost." We thought he was joking, but turns out we actually were off the path for a few minutes.

And then, all too soon, we were back on the boat going home.

Crete-in' Day 3: Tomb[any] great si[gh]t[e]s

Day 3 we climbed up a hill to Archanes, a burial ground with Minoan and Mycenaean tombs...

 ...stopped by a Minoan “villa”, and then by the Arkadi Monastery, a Venetian baroque monastery known for its role in a great act of resistance against the Turks in 1866, during which the inhabitants of the monastery gathered in the powder room during a Turk invasion and blew it (and everyone nearby) to smithereens.

After the monastery, we drove for a good three hours, and while no one else seemed to feel that this was particularly noteworthy (choosing instead to sleep and, in some cases, pulling the curtains and obscuring my view!), I thought the bus ride was absolutely amazing, and spent it all sitting straight up staring almost hungrily out the windows, eating up the incredible landscapes that were flashing past us. The fact that I managed to stay awake, despite being as exhausted as I was and being conditioned to falling straight asleep on long drives, was testament to its beauty. Rolling hills like those in Napa, covered in olive groves and grape vines; then higher mountains with pine forest like the Pacific Northwest; then dramatic coastlines with jutting cliffs and brilliant, sparkling blue sea beneath. The bus ride ended up being an extra hour because of a forest fire on the side of the road, reminding me of home (in a depressing way).

We arrived in Xania and sat for the next hour as various people discussed with us every possible danger of our hike the next morning (we were actually told not to yell or whistle too loudly lest we cause loose rock to fall. We were also warned that falling rocks were a danger but that there was really no way to avoid them...so we should try not to take rests under cliffs, at least. But as you will notice from the pictures, once in the gorge, there was no area not under cliff). I found it funny that Pomona had happily sent me off to Yosemite to climb Half Dome with little to no information and preparation, but that we were getting an extensive briefing for a well-marked and smoothed down, not-very-strenuous downhill 10-mile hike.

We then had dinner along the harbor of Xania, and I had my first moussaka of the semester, which was absolutely delicious.

Crete-in' Day 2: Phaestos, the Bestest

Day 2 we went to Phaestos (another great Minoan palace). All in all it was a more subtly impressive site because it was left relatively unrestored in comparison to Knossos, but most of the walls remained somewhat intact and gave a better idea of the vast palace complex. I could ramble on with a lot of interesting architectural facts but instead I'll just show some pictures:

...then went on to Kommos (the remains of a Minoan village by the sea) which isn't open to the public but was opened up specially for us.

....and then spent a beautiful few hours at a beautiful beach (Matala), once a quite large hippy enclave and still something of one, clearly:

This was our lunch every day: three baby spoons, my precious peanut butter imported from the states (testament to how much I love Mary and Jenny that I was willing to share this with them), some jam, "toasts" (something I've never seen in the states, really...they're like a thicker version of Melba Toasts I suppose, and very tasty), some kind of fresh fruit (the nectarines here are absolutely luscious) and Danette. Best chocolate pudding I've ever had, blows the US "SnackWells" out of the water, and somewhat relieves my constant craving for chocolate here.  Not too shabbyAt this particular lunch, the owner of the cafe offered to give us our drinks on the house if we left Mary with him...selling her into slavery?...we declined.

Next stop, Gortyn, which had a Roman basilica and the longest surviving ancient Greek inscription and first publicly displayed law code in history.

The second night in Heraklion, four of us decided to get some very authentic food at the Mexican restaurant. No but actually, that's what it was called:

Mexican Pasta? "Pastry Foods Chili Con Carne"...I don't even know what that means.

But hey, the food really hit the spot!

Plus, there was sangria.

Crete-in' Day 1: Knossos, dontcha know-so

In the past five days, I've taken a ferry across the Aegean, driven up down and around Crete, wandered across Cretan countryside and the sites of the oldest European civilization, and hiked ten miles down a gorge to swim in the Libyan sea. 

Day 1 was Knossos, one of the greatest “palaces” of Minoan civilization.

And then a walk around Heraklion, the capital of Crete, which has a beautiful harbor:

 Mary and I decided to go all the way out to the end, which was quite the walk but quite rewarding

  

For dinner, I ate at a taverna with a group of kids from the programs and some of the professors, who took care of all of the ordering while we took care of the eating. Some dishes were standard Greek ones (fava, tzatziki, fries (a surprisingly popular Greek food), eggplant salad, Greek salad, blanched greens with lemon, Greek-style meatballs in a tomato sauce) and some were Cretan specialities: grilled octopus, which was a delicious flavor somewhere between scallop and lobster; anchovies in olive oil, lemon, and herbs; fried sardines; fresh steamed mussels in a white wine, onion, and tomato sauce; grilled wild mushrooms drizzled with balsamic; zucchini fritters, fried and stuffed with juicy goodness; and to top it off, some fried dough balls drenched in honey. A feast, by any account, and a delicious one at that.