Last Days of Crete

February 7, 2007

Agios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

Even after going to bed the earliest I have all trip, dragging myself out of bed this morning was pretty difficult. It was not until about halfway through the morning that I was able to overcome my very sleepy feeling.

The first site we visited today was the small town of Gournia, which is riddled with tons of stone walls and staircase, at the center of which, of course, is an open court. The views were perhaps not as impressive as they were yesterday, but the weather was just warm enough to be fine in a long sleeve t shirt in the sun, and the ruins were dotted with these pretty little yellow flowers. Walking around a larger site like this gave me an appreciation for the complexity of life that these ancient peoples must have had. According to Jarrett this city, in addition to employing orthogonal planning, also had an extensive drainage system and a complex of houses and administration centers. At the apex of the hill was a building that resembled the Minoan palace structures, which contained most of the features except an archive.

It just boggled my mind that these stone walls had been sitting there for 4,000 years. We think we may know something about what went on inside of them due to their similarity to other sites and to the pieces of pottery that we find there—but to contemplate these knee height stone mazes as whole cities is still difficult for me to do. Mostly I stand and take in the ruins as they are, open to the elements and laying like a giant jigsawed mystery on the ground. To imagine people living in this complex place must require either more imagination or more knowledge.

The second site we visited was another Minoan Palace type, called Mallia. This is one of the best preserved of the palaces that we visited. I finally felt like I could understand the rationale behind the planning and the placement of the structures that I found there—they were clearly dileniated in the stone walls. Everything looks like it has been cut off at the knees, unlike other sites which appear to have been broken down and then scattered to the wind. A cat with a hurt arm wandered with us through the ruins.

We stopped for lunch at a small beach, which unlike most of the waterfronts in Crete, actually contains a sandy beach in addition to the craggy sandcolored cliffs that usually just crash down into the water. We walked along the rocks and the beach, and settled down to snack in a little depression in the rocks that faced into the sun, by which we could watch the pounding of the waves. If I can find myself a job that will let me eat my lunches by rocky beaches in Crete, I am going to try to find it. I have seen more scenes of beauty in these few weeks than I can remember, and everyday I am more thankful of the opportunity to see these places I have seen. Sitting in the sun on a beach in Crete. Dosen’t get much better than that.

Tonight we board an overnight ferry bound for Athens.