Small Island, Big History
Wednesday November 16th, 2022
Road trip to the capital Heraklion today. It's a 2+ hour drive from Chania but most of it follows the coastline, providing exceptional views of the sea almost the entire way. Road rules are a bit wacky here and so it's great that we have drivers because it's very much a free for all in many places. Our driver Nikos provided lots of history and interesting information about the island on the way.
We're heading to the capital primarily to see the Knossos Palace, 4000 year old ruins of an enormous Minoan palace that housed approx. 2000 people inside its walls and over 30,000 in the surrounding area. The Knossos Palace is the 2nd most visited archeological site in all of Greece after the Acropolis. Because it is from a pre-historic time, there are no written records and so much of the history can only be assumed or inferred. A symbol of a double-headed ax is found in the stone throughout the palace and again, they can only guess what that represented but know it had to be very important as it is found everywhere.
Once we arrive at the palace we have a private guide, George who takes us through the entire palace and explains that is was destroyed twice by earthquakes and so most of the ruins that we do see are from the 2nd palace dating back to about 1750 BC. The palace was 4 to 5 stories high. The 1st palace dates back to about 2000 BC and there are still some ruins visible from that period. The 2nd earthquake around 1400 BC destroyed the 2nd palace and they simply didn't rebuild it. This eventually led to the invasion of the island by the Greeks and the eventual eradication of the Minoan people.
The guide could not believe how quiet it was there. He has never provided a tour when there are no people. We were able to get up close and see everything because there were no crowds competing to see things. There might have been 10 people on site including us whilst we were there - it was great! The palace is most famous for the story of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth because the palace was exactly that, a giant maze. They revered the bull and so through time stories and legends grew about a creature, half man, half bull, that lived in the palace (labyrinth) and ate anyone who crossed it's path.
The most impressive part of the entire palace is the infrastructure that they had. They had 3 individual water systems flowing through the palace. They had underground clay piping for clean drinking water, they had sewage and waste water drainage and they had just regular water all flowing separately to ensure nothing got contaminated. They also figured out air conditioning by creating light wells that flowed air in such a way that rooms stayed cool all year round. It really does make you wonder if there is something to those Ancient Aliens stories... it's wild to think that 4000 years ago, they had the knowledge and understanding to build such sophisticated systems.
They assume the palace was for a royal family but again, because it predates any written record and the scripts they have found cannot be deciphered they can only guess. There is a throne room where it's assumed rituals were held. It was in an air-conditioned space. The oldest theatre in the world is also here on this site. Alot of frescos adorned the palace and they've recreated them on site - men are always painted red and women are white. There is also a very famous fresco of the bull and the olive tree which overlooked the central court. The original fragments are all housed at the museum in Heraklion which is where we headed next.
At the museum, George took us through all of the various periods and pointed out all of the things we seen on site and then tied it to the artifacts in the museum. Some exceptionally impressive jewelery and pottery with so much detail that it's almost impossible to imagine how they did it. Some of the jewelery was so small and how such fine details that he took photos with his phone so he could zoom in to show us how small the detail actually is. The pottery from the 1st palacial period looks like cups and carafes we would use today.
The oldest printed tablet in the world is found in the museum. It cannot be deciphered. It is circular and was stamped rather than etched. It had symbols on both sides. It dates back they believe 7000 years. Other artifacts from the various Minoan periods such as statues depicting bull leaping, sarcophigi, bathtubs, more double-headed axes and the frescos. Most interesting part of the frescoes is how few pieces exist for some and how the depiction of what the fresco originally was is purely speculation. A perfect example is the last image of a blue man picking olives or grapes. This was the original interpretation based on the pieces found. But Minoans never painted people in blue. And so years later it was discovered that they painted monkeys in blue and so a new "recreation" of the fresco, using the same pieces is displayed next to it. It really highlights how much interpretation and guessing is involved and how things can change when new information surfaces.
After the museum we spent an hour or so visiting the city centre. Heraklion was hit hard during WW2 and so does not have the same old town structure as most of it was destroyed. But it still has lots of alley ways and shops and leads directly to the port. It does not have the same charm as Chania but definitely more of a city vibe. Even found a Christmas store! Of course a church with a spectacular wooden chandalier, the local market and of course a quick visit to the port. Heraklion population is about 170,000.
Nikos then met us and took us back to Chania. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring more of the town going further down the waterfront. We settled for dinner at a restaurant by the water. The portions here are insane. I ordered a cretan salad and a meal and when the salad arrived it was so big I knew I wouldn't be able to finish it all. The food is so good - so fresh. But I still don't know how they eat so much. Now I know though... if you order a salad. Just order a salad.
Thursday November 17th, 2022
Our last day in Chania was supposed to be a group tour of various towns around Chania and tasting different local foods. Turned out, it was just us again. So another private tour, this time with Jannis (Yannis). This tour took us to 5 or 6 different towns to see and taste different things.
Our first stop was at an olive oil factory. With 40 million olive trees on Crete, there is no shortage of olive oil. And olives used for olive oil are not used for eating, they are very small and when you squish them with your fingers, they are unsurprisignly, very oily. They grow some edible olives but 90%+ is for oil. And every part of the olive is used. The oil is obvious, the leaves are used to feed the animals, the pits are dried and used for fuel to heat homes. Nothing is wasted. At the factory farmers from the region bring their olives, they are all stored in burlap sacks or bins and all identified by farmer. The factory then takes the olives, sorts and cleans them, processes them and presses them to create the olive oil. It's quite the process. We got to taste it coming out of the machine, it doesn't get any fresher! It's SO GREEN! Almost looks like toxic sludge haha! But wow, what a difference from what we get back home. It's so flavourful and this particular one had a peppery taste. They then test it for acidity and based on the acidity level assign it a grade (virgin, extra virgin etc...). The lower the acidity, the better the quality. The factory takes a percentage (up to 13%) of the oil as payment.
Our next stop was this charming little town to visit a folklore museum in an old family house. In the museum we seen how Cretans from the 19th century lived and learned about how they worked. Traditional methods of creating silk, cutting limestone by hand and stitching. Also learned that they had open space under their beds for the wine grapes so they could stomp them and then had a spout at the bottom of the bed where the juice ran out so they could fill jugs and create their wine.
We then headed to a cheese factory where we tasted goat and sheep cheese as well as fresh daily yogurt. No cattle on Crete and so all of the dairy produced here is either sheep or goat. From there we headed up to the mountains to visit two chapels. Now, I have been in a fair number of churches and chapels in my day... but today was a first! These chapels were built in the side of the mountain and in a cave! Spectacular! Very small but unbelievable to see how it was still so well preserved (dating back to the 16th century). The cave chapel was also used as a secret school during the Ottoman occupation where priests would teach children the greek language and culture which was at the time forbidden. There was also a really nice amphitheatre that was built in 2014 there but because of COVID hasn't been used much.
From there we headed to a local bakery. More food - bread and olive oil and raki! All local to that bakery. Around the corner was an old castle/tower that we couldn't enter but is currently being used to film a new greek movie and so a film crew was on site. Our last stop was for lunch in another small town. At this point I'm not very hungry as we've been eating all morning and also fruits from all the various plants that grow here. We had some Christmas oranges directly from the tree!! SOOOO good! But lunch was traditional cretan cuisine - greek salad, a dish made of eggplant and grain and then some chicken and fries. They serve alot of fries here! It was good, but I couldn't eat much.
On the way back we were ahead of schedule and so Jannis took us to an additional stop at a park that overlooks Souda Bay and the city of Chania and gives beautiful views. Chania has the largest natural port in all of the mediterranean. 14km long and 3-4km wide, it's home to the greek navy as well as NATO. The Chania airport also hosts the military and NATO. The weather was perfect today - hit 27C and so it was a lovely day to visit all of these small towns and learn about the culture. Many places you wouldn't know to visit if it wasn't for someone directing you there. Another excellent day!
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