Aghios Nikolaos, Crete

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Aghios Nikolaos is named after the 7th century Byzantine chapel of St. Nikolas. We had hoped to walk there for a viewing, but were discouraged by a local hospitality guide. Instead we walked around the Voulismenti Lake in the city center. According to mythology, the goddess Athena would bathe in this lake. The ancient myth also claimed it was bottomless, but we now know it is 64m deep. We found another large Orthodox church and enjoyed the frescos and icons all around. I learned quite a bit about the Orthodox tradition from a blackjack dealer named Andrea the night before. She is from Romania and is Russian Orthodox. She explained that fire and candlelight is very important in her tradition. She described to me how orthodox priests travel to Jerusalem every year for Easter and then bring "the light" back to their individual churches around the world. Fascinating. We toured a folklore museum and saw many cretain instruments, weavings, holy books, tools, clothes, very old icons, and a holy bread stamp. (Note: we were told that for communion the priests cuts out the center square of bread, mixes it with the wine, and then serves it to the people.) We also shopped for a while, , almost bought an icon and bread stamp, bought some wine instead, and twp "futbol" shirts for our favorite soccer player back home. Janine enjoyed some delicious sushi before dinner and the rest of the evening was rather quite. It was not a very impressive day, but we did get some nice shopping done. "I always seem to feel better after I buy gifts for the people I love." - CDW. Thank you God for St. Nikolas, St. George, and St. Demitri - servants of Christ. Amen.

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