The thrid day in Crete

Today was a really good day. Our first stop was Knossos, the site of the Minoan palace and supposedly where the minoutaur, Icarus, etc. took place. It is a place with amazing history and legends. My short version, don’t bother going there. Damn near everything you can see is rebuilt, and everything that is taller than about 3 feet tall is rebuilt. Basically we, and several thousand of out closest friends, walked around a place filled with half walls made of concrete where the Minoan palace was. It’s true that the palace had impressive dimensions, but that’s about all you get from the current site. It is crawling with busloads of tourists, so unless you obsess over Mioan stuff, you can find better things to see on the island.

Zaros for example. Zaros is a tiny little village about midway north/south and south of Herakaion. We went there on a whim, were were going to try to find some more ruins (hopefully not so “restored” and crawling with tourists) but we got diverted to look for food. We ate at a little taverna in Zaros. The food was OK, the sights were amazing. First of all, there is just some great scenery there. Big (for Crete) mountains, lush valleys, etc. Butler took a look at her guide book and found out that there was a monastery nearby that was supposed to have some amazing stuff. We found a little pond up by one of the peaks, and there was a path along the back of it and then along the face of the mountain. The guidebook and the signs on the trail said that it was .9k to the monastery, but they lied. It was about .9 to a sign saying that the pond was .9 back down the trail… Just a little further we came to it. The monastery looks pretty new, we found this out from a trekker coming back down the trail, it seemed to put her off since she didn’t even go look, her loss.

We were greeted at the main entrance by a large monk in a rather interesting robe. It was dirty, and had obviously been patched in many places. He didn’t speak much English at all, when we asked about seeing the icons, he offered us some schnapps (no really, he did!). We thanked him but declined, we were really hot and dry, that alcohol would have hit us pretty hard… We eventually made it known that we wanted to see the icons, etc. and he went over to a box and pulled out 3 skirts for us. We were all wearing shorts, so we had to cover up before he would let us in. They were billowy white things, I bet that they were initiate’s skirts…

He then pulled out a key and unlocked a door not in the monastery, but in the building next door. It housed the most beautiful icons have seen yet. They were haunting. In the best tradition of Byzantine icons, the halos gleamed and glowed in the dim light. It was quite an effect. The icons of Mary and Jesus were particularly moving, and the large one of St. George right by the door was also quite striking. While Butler and I were gazing at these icons, I noticed my father lighting a candle with the monk back in the entranceway. WTF? My dad is not particularly religious, and I’m certain that he hasn’t the first clue about Eastern Orthodoxy. It made more sense later on… Butler and I came back up to the entranceway and figured that we were done. It was quite a show, but we wondered where the really early frescos and icons were that the guidebook talked about. As we were about to leave, the monk stopped us, pulled an enormous key out of his pocket, and unlocked another door just past the entryway. We hadn’t even noticed it, we figured that it was probably a closet or something. Well, that’s where the old stuff was. There were remnants of frescos from the 14th century(!) there along with some really old icons. The frescos were not in good shape, but it was still awe inspiring to see them at all, let alone so close.

After we had gotten our fill, we filed back out of the room. Butler and I immediately put some money into the collection box. The monk saw this and insisted that we take a beeswax candle, light it, and put it in a holder in front of the icon of St. George. Aha! So that’s what dad was up to. Anyway, we thanked him, gave back our skirts, and hiked back down to the pond. There we sipped strawberry ice thingyies until we cooled down. The scenery was amazing on the way back, the villages were really cute, and we saw about 6 other tourists the entire time. A day to remember for sure. It makes me wonder how many other places there are like this on this island…