23 September 2008

Crete- A Really Big Island That's Pretty Far Away

Tonight I am going to Crete on a school trip. I will be there without internet access until Sunday, so there won't be any posts or contact until then- but expect some pictures and exciting stories after I get back!

For the geographically challenged among you, here is a map of Greece- if you look towards the bottom of the map, south of pretty much everything else, you will find the island of Crete. For safety's sake (this is, after all, a public blog) I won't be saying exactly where I am going, but we're hitting a lot of the major sites in the next few days, and it should be quite exciting.

I actually know very little about Crete. It has produced some very famous writers and artists, most notably El Greco and Nikos Kazantzakis, and has a very interesting culture, in part because it's a long way off from the rest of Greece (I'm going to be on a ferry all night tonight!) and in part because it has been occupied by many, many people for a very long time. It's a very mountainous place, and has been settled for a long time- the famous palace at Knossos is on Crete. It is the largest island in Greece, has a lovely climate for growing all sorts of fruit, and produces an alcoholic beverage called raki which I can say from personal experience (CYA provided it for us) is really rather awful.

Expect some posts on either Sunday or Monday! I hope that everyone has a lovely week!

No comments: