Daily Updates
Week Two: March 31
31 March: Katie and Rebecca Reporting: We got to lead on a Free Day, so we figured we’d tell you what we did (and we might mention somebody else’s day too). In planning our free day, we were poring over the guidebooks and were overwhelmed by the plethora of options that Crete provided us. So, we decided to pick something that wasn’t even in the guidebooks. We, along with the wonderful Kari, the brave Anais, and the sturdy Sarah Jones, headed off into a beautiful Grecian morning around 8am for Mt. Ida, the biggest mountain in Crete. Since it wasn’t in the guidebook, we got to take an all too-exciting ride with our fabulous taxi driver, Giorgos, who taught us Greek and told us all about his family, his children, and his love of football (soccer), and how he “so much loved the ladies,” all while driving down a terrifying mountain road at about 85km/h. We soon found out why our adventure wasn’t in the guidebooks. Giorgos dropped us off on the side of a beatufiul mountain road in a random, deserted spot in the middle of a pile of snow, to climb another 1000m or so completely covered in snow. Since we didn’t bring our ice axes, we just set out for a day of hiking whatever we could find that wouldn’t kill us, found some “stone igloos” (shepherds’ houses), a mountain monastery, and lots and lots of mountain sheep. The views were outstanding from the middle of the completely empty countryside, and we ended our day with a 20km hike back to the nearest town, and of course, another thrilling taxi ride with Giorgos. Now, to update you on some of the other folks’ adventures, we heard from Leslie, Randy, Liz, and Chris that they spent a fabulous day on the 2 sq m they could find of sand that was not covered in trash a little bit outside of Iraklio. They chilled and enjoyed the day, Leslie quite literally as apparently she was our brave soul who tried the water and promptly turned purple. Another of our brave souls, Melissa, decided to purposely get herself lost, and then “refind herself,” in a much less philispohical way than it sounds. Our dear Ani headed out to Knossos, to spend an extra day with her lovely Palace and prepare for her lecture the next day. And Sarah Murray, Evan, and Mike apparently “tried” to go to a go-cart place, rent a car, and then decided it was too late for everything, so they sat in their room, ate sugar, and got kicked out by the cleaning ladies.
31 March: Our Leaders
31 March: On Mt. Ida