My Yemen Blog

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…

We arrived in Crete 2 days ago and were taken to our hotel in Herakaion. It’s in the middle of the night life area and we were a bit worried about the bustle surrounding the place, but things have worked out. The first day here we mostly walked around the town and we saw the local archeology museum. Our second day consisted of renting a car and driving all over the west side of the island. We saw several nice beach cities along the Cretan sea, and not much of anything along the Libyan Sea. The highlight of the day had to be going to a monastery in the middle of nowhere. They had quite a nice museum, the icons were incredible. Some of them were also very old. If you walk around Greece enough, you’ll see a bunch of tourist icons. You might even see “church stores” where you can buy actual, new icons. The ones in the museums and monasteries are really in a different class, seek them out.

We got a shock when we got back to the hotel, the whole city square (which our hotel is on) was going crazy. Flags waving, fireworks, air horns, news crews, and lots and lots of people. It turns out that they had a country wide election that day, and the headquarters of the party that came out ahead was right next to our hotel… Cars and motorcycles were driving all over the place with Greek flags fluttering and horns blowing, it was quite a scene. We eventually fell asleep, the festivities seemed to die out around midnight or so.

That second day was spent in the car mostly. We saw some really nice scenery, but there was never a good place to pull over. Besides, I still wasn’t feeling 100%, the day is a big blur for me… I’m trying to put some pictures up..

Well, I’m still sick. The really weird thing is that I don’t feel bad, I just… um, need to stay close to a bathroom. So I’ve been hanging out at the hotel while dad and Butler make the most of the trip. I feel bad for them spending all this money just so that I can hang out at the hotel… Looks like I’ll miss the Parthanon, but we are going to Crete tomorrow. With any luck I’ll recover by tomorrow and I can start to enjoy this place! My internet time is drawing to a close, so I’m not sure when I’ll be posting and/or emailing again. Well, off to Crete, wish me luck!

So my stomach problem got worse the next couple of days. The second day, I didn’t feel up to going to the Acropolis. I stayed in bed and took some Imodium. I felt well enough when they got back and we went out into the local neighborhood. It’s really lovely here, the weather is perfect, there are tons of cafes and shops, and everyone seems really friendly. I scoped out some potential gifts for people, and then we came home.

Today was the worst. I stayed in my room until 6PM. I had my first food around 7PM. So far, so good, but I didn’t get to do a damn thing! Tomorrow will be my last decent day to go see the Acropolis before we head to Crete. I am feeling better right now, so I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to do everything I want tomorrow, wish me luck!

My flight didn’t leave until 2AM, so I sent the day just hanging out and doing stuff. I went to Hamra resturant for dinner, turns out that was a bad idea. It’s only 4 and 1/2 hours from Sana’a to Istanbul, but when you leave at 2AM, it’s pretty rough. The flight wasn’t crowded at all, I don’t think that there was anyone within 2 rows of me on the plane. I tried to sleep, but I never can on the plane. I sat up and noticed some light outside. I moved over to the window seat and peeked out, what I saw was amazing.

The ground was almost pitch black, with only the occasional town illuminating it’s streets and houses to mark where the ground was. As I looked up to the horizon, there was an intense band of orange, thin, but highly saturated. Above that there was a narrow band of almost pure cyan. That’s a color that you rarely see, in nature or otherwise. It faded into a dark blue and then the pitch black of the night sky. There weren’t any clouds anywhere near us and everything was crystal clear. There was one star that I could see, I assume that it was actually Venus, but it really set the mood. It was like what I imagine being in space is like. Seeing the night sky with a bright band of light low on the horizon was something special…

It turns out that the band of orange was a bank of clouds a long ways away. It was being lit by the sun from behind the curvature of the earth, I never actually saw the sun until we landed. As we got closer to Istanbul, you could see the lights of the city outlining the streets and bodies of water. The water had a slightly higher albedo than the ground, and it reflected a very slight, and very dark bluish color from the sky. I immediately knew where I was, the shape of the Bosporus gave it away, we were almost at the airport in Istanbul. The combination of the night sky, the intense colors along the horizon, the dark blue of the water, and the outlines of the streets combined for an astonishing view. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something. There is no camera that has ever been made that could capture what I saw, the dynamic range was waaaay too large, plus I was shooting out of an airplane window…

The flight to Athens was easy enough, but I was really dragging at that point. Lack of sleep and a developing stomach/GI problem made me a bit cranky. After a 37 Euro(!) cab ride, I got to the hotel. The rooms are a bit on the small side, but the location is fantastic. We are almost directly under the Acropolis and right across the street from the Temple of Zeus. The view from our roof is spectacular…

I caught up with Butler and Dad and we went to the Temple of Zeus. It is impressive, and impressively old. What struck me was how haphazard and careless the Greeks have been. There are some ropes around, but anyone could, and did walk right into some of the ruins. The temple of Apollo was completely open. I think the problem is that everyone has always known where this stuff was, it has always been around. So people treat it carelessly. If this had been found in 1950, you can be sure that they would have done more to preserve it. Anyway, it was a good day, and I got to see some actual Greek ruins…

Just click on the “Recent Pictures” tab on the right side for the first 25. You can see the rest by clicking on “The rest of them.” I’ll post some more detailed info later. The short version is that I love Athens! More to come…

If all goes well, I’ll be in Greece tomorrow morning. My flight leaves tomorrow morning at 1:45 AM, groan, that means a whole night without sleep. Oh well, at least the flights are pretty short. I’ll still need a nap when I get to Athens though… I hope to post pictures as I take them, stay tuned!