Heraklion: Day 1

The alarm rang at 4:45 AM and we all dragged ourselves onto the bus in the dark streets of Thessaloniki. We arrived at the airport of Macedonia about 6:00 AM for our 7:30 flight and were all unhappy about being so early. Well, not to worry … because the Europeans don’t understand the concept of a line.

Katula herded us all to the check-in queue for Aegean airlines and told us to stay close and not let anyone cut in. We’ve all noticed that Europeans jump the lines, but didn’t really think anything of it. Sure enough, some guy came up the side and one of the boys played guard and wouldn’t let him in. At some point, they opened a third line and most of the people who had been behind us jumped up to the front of that. Our group was left in the middle line, which was not moving even a centimeter. Katula asked the check-in lady why we weren’t moving and she said they had announced the third line was for the Heraklion flight. We had never heard this announcement, so proceeded to just merge over – which really upset all of the Europeans, who had skipped the line only moments earlier.

It got pretty vicious and was unlike anything I’ve ever seen! We all watched some older guy just walk up to the counter in front of the line ropes and get checked in. The airline people don’t even try to do anything about it, they just let it happen. Another guy creeped up the side and cut in and people started yelling at him to move and it got pretty heated. I thought they were going to throw some punches. We finally battled our way up to the counter, and secured the sides of our group so that no one could cut. There was some comic relief though. The people in front of us asked Sarah if we were going to Heraklion, and she said, “No, Crete.” ... Heraklion is the capital of Crete.

We rushed to the gate, which said the plane was bound for Athens, but just took the staff’s word when they told us it was the right one. Some of us ran to get some breakfast. I got a Nescafe frappe and a potato pie (which was one of the best things I’ve eaten all trip!), but just as the rest were ordering, we were told it was time to board. We ran over, only to be told we couldn’t bring drinks on, so I gulped down my coffee. A bus drove us right up to the plane, and from there it was a little smoother. The flight was only an hour and I slept for most of it, but the people next to me never stopped talking! The Greeks are very animated, dramatic speakers.

The landing was cool but scary. It was one of those where you look like you’re going to crash in the ocean, but hit ground at the last second. And at the end of the flight, before I even stood up to get off, the woman was on her feet and pressing against me. I don’t know where she thought she was going to run with the cabin door still closed, but that seems to sum up the European mentality. They rush everywhere and lack respect for personal space.

From the airport, we went straight into the center of Heraklion to grab breakfast. Since I was one of the fortunate ones who had eaten at the airport, I skipped food and wandered around a shop with one of the girls. It had really cute, inexpensive clothes; kind of like Forever XII at home. I ended up buying a skirt. We walked down the road to the Heraklion museum with our new tour guide for the week, Vangeli. He led us around all of the artifacts and I actually enjoyed this museum. Everything was from the Minoan civilization, starting around 4000 B.C. They were very smart and way ahead of their time – some of the jewelry was amazing. And there was an ivory sculpture of a lion’s head, which indicates that they had traveled outside of Greece, since there are no lions here.

Next, we took the bus over to the archaeological site of Knossos, a huge Minoan palace. This, too, was pretty interesting because it was so big. There were gorgeous frescoes on the walls and it even had a plumbing system in the king’s quarters. And this was 4000 years before Christ! This is the oldest stuff we will see while here and it never ceases to amaze me.

By this time it was 1 PM and we were all starving. Katula said we would drive out to Arkhanes, a little town, for lunch. We arrived and Vangeli announced we were stopping in a small museum first. The word “museum” brought on a small groan that echoed throughout the bus. It ended up being only one room, the coolest artifact being the first – some coffins with real skeletons inside –, but after that I didn’t hear a thing. We tried to go to one of the two tavernas, but the old man’s wife was in the hospital so he wasn’t open. Obviously we then went to the other, where I sat at a table with six students and Katula. It was good company and amazing food, but pretty bad service. One woman was waiting on the whole place! I guess they hadn’t been expecting a group of 21, so we all understood. We ordered a little bit of everything – tzatziki, omelettes with potatoes or vegetables, chicken fillets, beef patties, some veggies, and dakos (more popular than the Greek salad in Crete, it’s a big crouton topped with tomato paste and feta. Yum!).

We stopped in “the best gelato place in all of Crete” according to Katula (which he says about every place he points out), but it was very good. I had some flavor with chocolate swirl inside, but I couldn’t really tell what it was. The bus driver said no food on the bus, so for the second time that day, I had to scarf down my food, which completely detracted from the joy of ice cream in the first place.

Finally, about 5:30 PM, we checked into Hotel Olympic near the center of town where we had spent the morning. The rooms are nice, probably near the middle but higher end of our hotels thus far. Sarah and I immediately took a nap and didn’t wake up until 9:15 PM! We were both just passed out. When we did get up, we showered and went to pick up pizza and some drinks.

The boys had found some clubs up near the waterfront earlier in the day and assured us it was no more than a 15 minute walk, so we followed them. It obviously turned out to be more like a 30 minute walk, but no big deal, I enjoyed the exercise. We went to a place called Desire, with a rooftop bar and dancing, where we all had a drink and sat around. Then we brought the party! We went downstairs in front of the DJ booth and moved some tables to make a dance floor. It was literally just us ten dancing in the middle of hundreds of Greeks staring on awkwardly. But we didn’t care; we just danced! We went to another place after, but it was full of sketchy men so we took cabs back around 3:30 AM.