Heraklion is Thavma!

Nicos is the bus driver on the left, and George is my teacher on the right.

Taste Testing

Inside a Minoan tomb. The Hispanic tourists over here are always posing like this. 

Demetrius and James. They love Lada GaGa too but they call her Lady Gag.

Loukas inside a Minoan tomb.

View from Rethymnon.

Girlies

Lato Boutique Hotel

This morning we had breakfast and checked out of our hotel in Chania. A small truck came to pick up our luggage so we wouldn't have to carry it through town to where our bus was waiting. A man named Nicos has been our bus driver throughout our stay in Crete and he's been driving the U of A's study abroad groups for years. He is a nice looking older man to be a bus driver and today we noticed he was wearing a Burberry shirt. Our first stop was a local olive oil factory, but on the way Nicos stopped at some of his farmland to hand pick some oranges for us. He also farms olives and grapes. The olive oil factory is a cooperative for all of the local farmers. From November to February there are men working in the factory twenty four hours a day to produce the oil. Nicos explained the process of how they make the oil with the heavy machinery, and also introduced us to the two brothers that own the factory. Nicos spoke in very fast Greek and our teachers translated it. All of the oil made there is sold locally but they hope to expand one day. I was particularly interested during this visit because I will be doing a report on Greek olive oil in just a couple days. Outside of the warehouse they had a little shop where you could purchase the oil and all kinds of lotions and other cosmetic products. I bought some of the body milk for me and two other special people. It smells and feels divine! They also had some of the oil and bread set up so we could taste it. 

After the olive oil experience we drove a little ways to view a field of oak trees that was filled with Minoan tombs. At first I wasn't very interested but once I saw them I was pretty fascinated. We walked down very slippery, rock stairs into these very small caves. Some were big enough for us to stand up in and others we had to crouch down. A woman named Jenny came to share with us the history of this site. She was very endearing but at the same time she had this creepy, sweet voice that almost seemed like it should be on Desperate Housewives. From there we went to Rethymnon, a Venetian fortress city on the Northern coast of Crete. The fort was still mostly intact and this was the place that Mary Louise and Kristen gave their first sight reports on the population exchange of Greece and Turkey and the Greek minority in Turkey. We "scampered" around the fort for about fifteen minutes before walking along the water to find a restaurant for lunch. The teachers call it scampering when they let us wander around and take pictures. Also in Rethymnon, we went to an archaeological museum but I don't believe it's worth talking about.

After lunch, which by the way was at 3:15, Nicos drove us to another large city in Crete called Heraklion. The drive was about an hour and a half, and I was all excited because I knew we were staying at a boutique hotel. That just means it's really nice, modern, and usually decorated really well. On the way into the city we saw tons of ritzy night clubs, but it's funny because in Greece these clubs are even crowded in the afternoon for cocktails at outdoor tables. Every time we go to a different hotel we have different roommates. There's always one girl that has a single room because right before the trip one of the girls dropped out. I was thrilled to find out that I was the lucky one with the single room at our cute little boutique hotel. I even hugged my teacher. After I unpacked and got comfortable, Mary Louise, Kirby and I watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. Austin was ready to leave right then to go exploring, but we just told him to chill and that we would meet up with him later. He came back to the hotel to get us and told us he had found a restaurant with free wine and dessert. We said, "Of course you did Austin!" He already had everyone a table and even knew where there was a gelato place close by. When we got to the restaurant one of the waiters was calling Austin "the real playboy!" Wheeze and I were just laughing because all of the girls on this trip have the hots for him. It's pretty funny to watch the flirtation. Austin also told us that some of the people on the trip think that Mary Louise and I should have our own reality show. Tomorrow we don't have to meet with our teachers until 9:00 a.m., and we only have to go to two museums! I can't wait to see more of Heraklion. The cities just keep getting better.

XOXO,

Elizabeth