http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Greece , Crete en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:15:55 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:15:55 +0000 I have always wanted to visit Greece. When I have always been fascinated by Greece mythology and the history of one of the oldest civilizations on earth. When I lived in Europe as a child Greece was on the restricted travel list of Americans so we could never go but I finally had the chance to visit there a week or so ago. My Schedule didn't allow much time for sight seeing but what I did see http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-445282.html In December of 2008 there were huge riots in every major city in Greece with frustrated protesters taking to the streets and pillaging public property. Living under the shadow of the glorious ancient past that most of the world still associates with this Mediterranean nation the modern urban Greek lives on an average of a mere 500 Euros a month in a nation where costs of living are soaring in a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-435795.html Location Aghios Nikolaos and Knossos Weather Sunny 27 CLast tender trip into town for the cruise it is nice to arrive in port by a boat rather than just walking down a gang way adds some excitement to the process. Aghios Nikolaos is a pretty port town the shops circle the port and boy did I do some shopping All throughout the cruise I have looked at the jewellery in the various ports vi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Knossos/blog-434419.html Location Cruising in General Weather Sunny 2734CCruising is the best way to travel All the different locations without having to pack my bags and move onto a new location every night. The facilities on the ship are fantastic the food is exceptional without being too much in terms of amount. I have noticed that the trend is to have more than one entreedinnerdessert but I am very good at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-434417.html The Republic of Crete This is the biggest of all Greek islands and Heraklion is the capital. From the port it is just a few minutes to the city center where protests or rallies seem to be the order of the day. Our guide warned us about it while at the same time telling us that we would be heading straight for the Palace of the Knossos before coming back to explore the rest of the capital. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-433480.html Hi EveryoneMy trip through the Greek Islands was planned to take 9 days. I have heard great things about all the islands. While I was in Athens people would show up in at the hostel raving about what a great time it was on the Islands. The hard part was choosing which islands to see. I chose Crete Santorini and Mykonos. I chose Crete because it had several archeology sites as well as natura http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Rethymno/blog-433288.html Nonni nyt on sitten en muutama piv jljell tt tyharjottelua. T ilta ja huominen piv en tit ja sitten vikat kaks piv vapaata nin ainakin pitis olla tolla pomolla on vaan tapana muuttaa suunnitelmia ihan viime hetkellhellip. Oon kyl ihan valmis jttmn tn kahelin hotellin Taidan olla eka joka lhtee sen takii ett sopimus loppuu muut aiemmin lhteneet lhti muista s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-431070.html Crete is over 60 mountains and there are more than 3000 recorded caves on the island. With that in mind we thought it would be fairly easy to find these caves and explore them. We thought wrong but we were determined so we spent the past two days looking for the perfect cave. We pushed our little rolling box to the limits encouraging it to go up steep inclines to that gap over there in the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-429689.html Day 485After a hot night it the tent we started the day with a swim in the pool. Refreshed we set off on our tour towards Agios Nikolos with a switch of driver and navigator and advice and directions from our camp site and the petrol station attendant we hit the road. We took the scenic route first single lane windy mountain roads fortunately not too much on coming traffic past the tiny vil http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Heraklion/blog-429456.html Today was our day to visit the northeastern end of Crete situated around the main city in the region Sitia sihteeah. The Rolling Box again encountered rugged mountain terrain and while we were a little bit green from the hairpin turns we made it in short order. Sitia is a busy oceanside city that caters to tourists farmers from the surrounding countryside industrial entrepeneurs vacati http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-429280.html Today's blog actually starts last night with an evening briefing with our hotel owner here in Crete Vassilis. He is a wizened old Greek man who manages the hotel during season and spends the offseason in Ft. Lauderdale so his English is very good. He spread out a map of the island and gave Rickelle and I a twenty minute lecture about the various places we could reach for day trips including http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Knossos/blog-428714.html We arrived in Crete yesterday afternoon. Our island hopping jet landed right on the shore by Heraklion. It was difficult trying to decide if we should go to the terminal or straight to the shore but logic prevailed and we went to the tiny airport terminal which reminded me a lot of Georgetown. After getting our rental car and a new map with more squiggly unnamed lines we headed off to find th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-428320.html Oho siit onkin jo vhn aikaa kun viimeksi kirjottelin tnne. Aika on menny ihan hirmusen nopeesti ja kohta t harjottelu on jo ohi 12 viikkoa takana ja 5 en edess Mutta joo en haluu ajatella kotiinlht viel vaan kerron mieluummin mit tll on tapahtunu viimesen kuukauden aikana Keskuun puolessavliss tlt tosiaan lhti 10 harjottelijaa koska ne ei vaan kestny en olla tll http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-421987.html It took a few days to get rolling but taking over as supervisor or PittBoss as the undergrads I have been working with prefer to call me of trench 4400 has been entirely worth it. At first however I was totally and completely lost. Last Monday morning at 645 AM I found myself flipping through the trench notebook and being completely baffled as to what was going on elevation measur http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-416536.html As I write tonight I'm sitting out on the back porch of Georgou's pronounced Yourgo taverna enjoying a cold Mythos the local Greek beer and watching the sun set over Mirabello bay. It's hard to believe I've been in Mochlos for over a week now. I arrived in Mochlos last Monday after my spelunking adventure at Skoteino and I was on a boat out to Mochlos island and the archaeological site a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-414488.html In rather characteristic fashion this week started off slow sensing a pattern here. Last Monday I was slated to help Kroni the Center's professional photographer take pictures of the Minoan site of Petras Petrahs. Petras is a major Bronze Age site with evidence for human occupation from the Neolithic through Late Bronze Age and it features a Late Bronze Age administrative complex a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-411921.html A picture is worth a thousand words http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Rethymno/blog-410889.html Day 78Today after Emma and Lauren had left I went on over to the travel agent to buy myself a ticket to Crete. While I was there I also managed to find out that Plykias the place I was heading too I would not be able to reach that day due to the bus times. I was then lucky enough to have the lady find me some accommodation in Heraklion where the ferry was due to dock.While I was waiting for the bu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-409435.html We had lsquocompulsory readingrsquo of John Keatsrsquo poem lsquoIsabellarsquo a.k.a lsquoA Pot of Basilrsquo in college.When young girls and boys go to the college in India generally speaking they are facing coeducation for the first time because before that they have been strictly segregated. Perhaps they start having romantic thoughts about the opposite sex.Our college author http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/Knossos/blog-409305.html This week started off rather slowly. Monday and Tuesday featured me sitting at the center checking my email 4000 times reading up on the world news and doing some research in the library here at INSTAP. I shouldn't complain really since I've had time to catch up on some work. Then I spent my evenings making friends with a local taverna owner named Manoles and by default practicing my Greek http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Crete/blog-408463.html