Crete: It's A Little Bit Like the American West, But With More Ruins

So, before we ever went to Crete, the administrators of CYA gathered us all together and explained to us in very simple terms, with pictures, that Crete is just not like the rest of Greece. It's partly because of the geographical distance, partly because of different histories, and partly cultural- but Crete is just different. Sort of like Texas.

We didn't believe them. How wrong we were.
Ok, this is a Roman bath at Aptera, and this is mainly how Crete is not like Montana, in my opinion. Also the olive trees. And the speaking Greek. And the totally different cultures.
But is the culture really so different? People in the west like guns. People on Crete like guns. People in the west like shooting holes in road signs. People on Crete like shooting holes in road signs. People who live on remote mountains in the US are strange. People who live in the remote mountains of Crete are strange.
If you didn't know that this was a trip to Crete, could I convince you that this was Colorado?
Probably not if you saw this picture. It's from a heroon (hero shrine) at Aptera, and it's really cool because as you can see you can still read the inscription. Nifty!

Essentially, Crete is like Texas, but different.