The Palace of Phaestos is quite magnificent itself. Though it's not as well known as Knossos, it's a much better archaeological site to visit, in my opinion, because most of it has been left the way it was found where as much of Knossos has been reconstructed. The problem with reconstruction is that most of archaeology is all based on guessing. Modern archaeologists have now determined that much of Sir Arthur Evans' reconstruction work on Knossos is inaccurate and, at times, kind of ridiculous.
In my opinion, I prefer as little reconstruction as possible. In some areas, where we are certain what something would have looked like, and the archaeological evidence is quite abundant and clear, than sure, why not, for the sake of providing to the public a better visual of what an ancient construction would have looked like in its time. Otherwise, I think reconstruction can oftentimes do more damage than good (especially in Sir Evans' case).
The dating of the Palace of Phaestos is pretty much identical to Knossos. Like Knossos, and every traditional Minoan palace, it has a main entrance way in the west, a large central courtyard, storage rooms, residences, king and queen chambers, shrines, a theater... the works. This was probably my favorite site we've been to thus far because you could pretty much walk around the entire site and touch everything where as in Knossos a lot of it was sectioned off with rope (probably because it's the most popular archaeological site to visit on Crete).
That same day, we also visited a Roman basilica in Gortyn which was also quite fantastic. The basilica included a Roman odeum around the back of it (basically a small theater) carved out of stone. It was so beautiful. All of these sites have such a haunting presence to them.
Afterwards, we had lunch at a local taverna in a town called Vorri. It was pretty much the only taverna in the entire town. It was family owned (like most tavernas here) and it was attached to the family's home. The food was extremely fresh and the people were very nice. I think we were their only customers that day.
At times, eating here can be a little difficult for me. I try to plan ahead as best as I can, though there have been times where I am not able to eat as much as the rest of the group. This was a 10 euro lunch and so we only had five options to choose from; fish was not one of them, thus I basically just had cooked green beans stewed with tomatoes and olive oil, and a small side salad of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, black olives (the traditional Greek salate). Crete was a little difficult in terms of food only because we were staying in a hotel and didn't have the option of preparing our own meals like we do at our apartments in Athens. One night though, a group of us went out to dinner and had red fish soup. The fish was absolutely delicious. Overall, I've found the local food in Crete to be fantastic.
Our third day in Crete, we visited the Arkadi monastery in Arhanes, Crete. Although the monastery is out of context compared to what we are currently learning; it is a very well-known site and worth visiting if you are ever in Crete. The monastery is famous because in the early 19th century, when Crete was trying to gain independence from the Turks, the people of Arhanes found refuge in the monastery while the Ottomans were attacking the town and enslaving the Cretans. Legend says that 600 Cretans lodged themselves into one small section in the back of the monastery and had with them barrels of black powder, while the Turks were trying to break through the church gates. When the Turks finally reached the area in which the Cretans were hiding, the people set fire to the barrels, killing themselves and taking as many Turks with them as they could. Their skulls are kept in a glass case across the street from the monastery in a museum.
On a lighter note, there was the CUTEST, SOFTEST, FRIENDLIEST kitty at the monastery. He must have only been a year or two old because he was still quite small, and so playful. We named him Marshmellow ('shmellow for short). He followed us everywhere and kept rubbing up against our legs, begging for attention. Made me miss Crackers :'(
Afterwards, we had some free time at a coastal city in the northwest of Crete (I forget the name) about an hour from Arhanes. It was exactly what you imagine a Greek town to be like- beautiful, BLUE sea; small, white and neutral-colored adobe buildings with blue doors and windowpanes; narrow, stone-paved streets weaving throughout the middle of the town... I could go on. It was so charming and beautiful. We got coffee and sat on the pier and just looked out into the Aegean. Some (not myself) actually went for a swim (it was a little too cold for that in my opinion).
We've pretty much all have come to the consensus that if we ever were to live in Greece, we would all choose to live in Crete. We were sad to leave. It's much more picturesque than Athens. Nevertheless, we have some exciting excursions this week, including the Acropolis!
I just took a five-hour nap (after not really sleeping much on the 9 hour ferry ride from Crete back to Athens) and went for a two-hour run. It's raining a bit here. I'm pretty much spent but the plan is to go out to Gazi tonight (In Greece, Sunday is considered a party night; I told you Greeks were social beings). I could use a cup of FILTERED coffee though. Oh Starbucks, how I do miss your half-decaf, half-regular grande soy lates...
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