Greek Islands

Friday May 29, 2009

On Friday our boat did not leave until 5:45 in the evening so we spent the day in the town of Fira which was about a 20 minute bus ride away from Kamari, the town our hotel was in. Fira is the capital of Santorini and hosts a fantastic view of the caldera of the volcano that blew up the island some time between 1620 and 1520 BC. This event is what supposedly led to the myth of Atlantis.

Here is what one of the guide books I bought has to say about the Myth of Atlantis:
“One of the greatest and most fascinating enigmas of ancient history is the abrupt decline of the Minoan civilization which seems to have disappeared quite suddenly while at the height of its splendor.

In the 1930s the Greek archaeologist, Spyridon Marinatos, suggested the theory that at the end of the Minoan civilization was brought about by the tremendous eruption of Thira which, according to geologists and vulcanologists, occurred sometime between 1600 and 1520 BC.

Thira, 120 kilometers away from Crete, had already been the center of an earlier volcanic eruption 25,000 years ago, and the ashes had fallen throughout the southern part of the Mediterranean. The eruption of the second catastrophe was followed by a gigantic tsunami wave that devastated the Aegean coast, destroying cities and crops. It had been calculated that this eruption was four times more powerful than that of Krakatoa in 1883 when the sun was obscured by ash for three days and the roar of the explosion was heard at a distance of 300 miles.

In the 1970s the technique of radiocarbon dating enabled scientists to date a tree trunk found under the volcanic ash on Thira to 1470 BC The dating supported the theory of the Greek geologist and seismologist Angelo Galanopoulos who had linked the destruction of Thira to that of Atlantis, the mythical lost continent what he identified as being the Minoan civilization...it is now almost certain that the collapse of the Minoan civilization was brought about by the devastating effects of the eruption and subsequent tidal wave that destroyed Thira.

The view from Fira was beautiful! The town itself was very touristy with lots of shops so it wasn't all that impressive. We went to the archaeological museum there which was interesting – very similar to the one we went to in Athens but on a much smaller scale. I still can't get over how advanced the civilization was so long ago. It really does beg the question of what happened??

We took a different type of boat from Santorini to Crete – it only took about 2 hours. The boat was big but very fast. It was kind of like a catamaran – it ran on two skids. We arrived in Heriklion, Crete around 7:45 in the evening and our hotel was very close to the port. It was a really cute boutique hotel but Jason didn't really like it because he thought the air conditioner smelled like cheese. I didn't really smell this. It had a cute rooftop restaurant that we ate it (overpriced) and our room had a huge balcony with a nice view of the port.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

On Saturday we went to The Palace of Knossos. What a stinker of a site! This ancient Minoan site was absolutely ruined (in my opinion – and that of others, I found) by some crackpot “archaeologist” named Arthur Evans who “restored” the site from 1900-1932. This Evans character was a really wealthy guy who decided, for some reason, he was an archaeologist and that his legacy was going to be to excavate the site of Knossos. What he actually did was “restore” it with lots and lots of cement, made up really weird scenarios of what he thought the different areas of the site were and did things like reconstruct the columns and paint them, place frescoes on the walls, etc. According to the book I bought at the site “Much has been written about the restoration that Evans carried out on the ruins that he was excavating and he was much criticized by many authorities who considered his technique arbitrary and unorthodox...During the work of restoration, largely financed from Evans' own private income, modern materials such as cement, bricks, and steel were used to consolidate and rebuild parts of the structure...”

Jason and I were both pretty disappointed with the Palace of Knossos. After spending our morning and early afternoon at this place, we picked our luggage up from the hotel and took a 3 hour bus trip across Crete to the city of Chania.

The bus trip was actually pretty nice. We drove along the coast and the view in many places was very nice. Crete is much greener than Santorini and Athens. It also had mountains and pine trees – it actually looked a lot lot like Colorado in some areas. We arrived in Chania around 5:00 PM and we took off from the bus station to try to find our hotel. We walked down about two blocks and were standing at an intersection trying to figure out where we were when we finally witnessed what we are surprised we hadn't witnessed before...a car crash.

One of the first things we noticed in Athens was how crazy the drivers were – and Crete was no exception. We were waiting for the walk signal at an intersection and we saw the light turn and a black car started to go and this white car came speeding down the street and crashed right into the side of the black car which had just started to drive through the intersection. It was so close that I put my arms up to shield myself from flying debris. The impact sent the black car flying backwards into the side of a building where it finally stopped. A few seconds after it happened, it was totally silent, then suddenly, all these people came out of seemingly nowhere. Which was actually a good thing for us because we were able to ask for directions to our hotel.

Our hotel in Chania was fantastic! It was in the “old port” area, right in front of the marina and surrounded by the historic buildings and an old wall that was built by the Byzantines who took over the area in 961 AD. The area is so interesting because it looks like a Venetian city but has actually been occupied by the Romans who took over in 69 BC, and it was chosen as a “Seat of the Bishop” as Christianity appeared there in the first century AD up to the 9th century AD. From 821-961 AD Chania fell into the hands of the Arabs who were ousted by the Byzantines in 961. In the first half of the 13th century, the Venetians took over who further built up the fortifying wall around the city and from where the look of the area today came from. In 1645 the Turks seized Chania and the Catholic churches in the area were all turned into mosques. In 1913 Crete was unified with Greece.

Our hotel was really nice. Our room had a balcony that was right over the water. The view especially in the evening at sunset was absolutely amazing!

Because we wasted our time at that stinker of a site in Heriklion, we only had an evening and a full day in Chania.. We spent the first evening wandering up and down the waterfront and we had a nice dinner at a (what else?) Greek restaurant with a nice waterfront view. Then we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the night sitting on our balcony and listening to the traditional Greek folk music some musicians were playing on the street below.

The next day we went to the maritime museum which was really fascinating. A large part of the museum was dedicated to Crete's involvement in World War II. We had no idea that there were huge battles fought right there in Chania during World War II – and there were lots of pictures and and actual items from the German soldiers that invaded the island in the museum. Things like German guns and their mess kits, boots and medals, etc. We also didn't realize how close Crete is to Egypt – which is where they evacuated many of the civilians living on the island during the war. It was really interesting.

After the museum, we went on a boat ride out to some small rocky islands off the coast of Crete. The first one we went by was tiny – just a bunch of rocks really. This was the place where they made lepers and sick people go way back when. It seemed really sad as it was so small and rocky and I can't imagine how anyone could survive there. We both hoped that they at least built the people they put there a little house or something. The second island was a bit bigger and it is a nature preserve. It supposedly had goats on it but we didn't see any. We stopped at this one to see a crashed German war plane that is under the water and to snorkel. I just could not believe how incredibly clear and blue the water was! Jason convinced me to get into the water and I was going to try to snorkel – but it was just way too cold so I spent a total of about 2 minutes in the water before I wussed out and climbed back up onto the boat where I sat and shivered until we got back to Chania.

Our last night in Chania was as nice as the first. We spent most of the evening sitting on the balcony and watching the sun set. We really enjoyed this little town in Crete.