Written by Natalie & William
Greetings Carpe Diem enthusiasts,
Our group had an excellent second week in the mud houses in the mountains of Crete. The week was focused on further Greek exploration. We continued our Greek classes with our teacher, Maria. Our lessons focused on more common sayings and greetings which were useful on our trips to local towns. We even learned some traditional Cretan dances – made even better by the fact that it was on skirt day.
Our group also visited a local ceramics artist, Alex, who taught the group basics on ceramics. Over the two visits, we crafted and glazed our own ceramic pieces. Following a lecture visit from the resident archeologist Carly, she took us on a tour of two Minoan ruins. Before touring the first set of ruins at Gournias, we frolicked in a nearby field of wildflowers. Gournias was a residential town in the Bronze Age which contains a palace, graveyard, and an ancient pottery studio. Our tour of this site was made even better since our contact, Carly, worked on the site. The second ruins, Azoria, are on the top of a mountain with a gorgeous 360 view. Also the remains of a residential neighborhood, this site had almond trees, wildflowers, and even some goats. After a morning of archeology, we headed over to a nearby seaside town to stroll and stop at a cafe.
On Saturday, we spent the day in the capital of Crete, Heraklion. In the morning, we went to the Place on Knossos and the Heraklion Museum of Archeology. Our group learned lots about frescos, Roman statues, as well as Minoan jewelry and pottery. While in town, our contact Xeno took us to a fabulous lunch of gyro wraps and gelato and then we had the rest of the time to explore and shop.
On Sunday morning, we helped our wonderful chefs/hosts Viccili and Christina in their village garden. We planted seeds, and collected wild greens. After, our group received a demonstration on how to repair the mud houses from some local builders. Some even got to try it themselves before it started raining. While staying dry inside, we made some mint, honey lemonade from Xeno’s lemons. Before dinner we took a hike to a waterfall in the rain. The frequent creek crossings, bushwhacking, and rain made for some interesting terrain, and some of us even went for a swim once at the waterfall.
To start the next week, we visited an animal sanctuary. We got to play with puppies, pet horses, and see vultures, falcons, and dwarf deer. We ended the sanctuary visit split up between creating a horse manure roof for a falcon, and folding nets. Since Monday was the holiday of Clean Monday, our group went down to the beach to pick up trash and see the locals fly their kites. Some also participated in the first group haircut.
Finally, our group took a trip to a small local olive tree farm to help them prune the trees. This pruning helps the trees become stronger and makes it easier to harvest the olives. The group was at work hauling the cut branches and burning off the extra clippings in a glorious inferno.
Overall, the group had a great time getting to know each other better, and acquainting ourselves with the greek culture and environment.