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Published: March 2nd 2008
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Gortyna
This is the unrestored church at Gortyna. Yesterday we saw more Minoan palaces. They were pretty neat, but they kinda looked the same. One great thing about them was that they hadn't been restored at all, so they were exactly how the archaeologists found them. I thought that was so cool! It was great seeing Knossos the other day though because they had restored a lot of that, so it was nice to be able to have a picture in my mind of how these other sites were supposed to look. The two that we went to were Gortyna and Festos. One really cool thing at Gortyna was the Law Code of Gortyna. It was a huge wall that had a lot of writing on it... It had laws ranging from marriage to divorce to adoption. The really neat thing about this was how it was written.. It was in the "ox-yoke" form which means that one line was written left to right and then the next was left to right and the letters were mirror image, and that kept going for many lines. Olin said that this was very rare, but since it was exactly backwards and mirror images, there was no trouble deciphering what it said.
This is surprisingly in amazing shape... I have pics that I'll put up soon. At this site there was also a very old church... Most of the structure was gone, but near the alter was still standing pretty well. Again, it hadn't been restored at all, but since we have been to so many churches, we know the shape that they are supposed to be in and what everything is supposed to look like. After Gortyna we went to Festos. This was one of my favorite sites. Again, it was just a lot of ruins, but we got to climb around a lot of them and nothing was restored. It was so cool to see all these different palaces that all the royalty lived in almost 4,000 years ago. And the fact that they know so much about the sites and the people that were there. For Knossos, Gortyna, and Festos, they know that those were the names of the kings that were there. For the one that we went to today, Malia, they don't know the names though, so someone else just came up with Malia. That was one today was ok, nothing too great, but again, not restored
at all, so a lot of ruins, but really cool. Anyways, yesterday, after seeing those ruins in the morning, we went to Metala. That's where all the hippies lived in caves along the coast in the 60s. Many famous musicians from then were there then. It was about 60 and sunny, so as Minnesotans, we were in our swimsuits on the beach. The locals thought we were crazy. It was a lot of fun though. We also go to climb around in the caves that people lived in in the 60s. That was really neat. There were a few hippies that were there yesterday too, just kinda hanging out on the beach. The town seemed really deserted and I don't know if it's just because it's not tourist season, or if the town isn't as popular anymore. But it was still lots of fun just hanging out on the beach. Then we came back to Heraklion and walked around town for a while. Nothing was open because it was Saturday afternoon... The shops here have very weird hours... They are open from like 10-2 and 5-10 M-F and then Sat only from like 10-2 and then nothing is open on
A tree
This is where Zeus and Europa supposedly "mingled." Sunday. Anyways, then we just came back to the hotel for dinner and homework. Then today, we got another early start @ 8am and went Malia and then went to a plateau where there were a lot of windmills... Over 5,000 and they were built a long time ago (not sure how long, but I think it's over 1,000 years) there are a few that are used today, but not many... But the coolest thing there was a cave... It is supposedly where Zeus was born. We got to climb down into it a ways, which was really neat. Olin was with us all day today too, which was great. He knows so much! And he's a lot of fun to listen to... And I can't believe how good of shape he's in for 82 years old... It was like a 15 min hike uphill to the entrance for the cave and then at least 100 steps down into the cave, and he did just fine. I wish he was going to be with us more.. He is so knowledgeable about this area... He lived in Crete for a few years and has taken many Concordia students to here. He's
gonna be with us for a few more days though, so that will be great. Anyways, then this evening we came back to the hotel and right outside the hotel was a celebration for Carnival. Lots of costumes and people on the streets. There is a field type thing close to the hotel and there was music there (it was American though) and lots of people dancing and stuff. So we went over there for a little while before dinner, so that was fun. Then, when I was sitting in the hotel doing homework, we could hear fireworks, so we went up to the roof and they were shooting off fireworks about 100 yards from the hotel. They didn't last very long, but it was pretty cool. Well I have a paper to write tonight, so I need to work on that! I'll get pictures up soon, here!
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