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Amber's Journal - Day 8: Today was one of my favorite days. Today we saw the ruins of Knossos, one of the most important Minoan cities. Remember Akrotiri? Paved roads, multi story houses, clay sewage pipes? Also Minoan, but this was even bigger, better and more colorful. Many sections of the palace have been re-created or restored, giving a good sense of the splendor and comfort enjoyed here. Minoan art is fascinating--bright, colorful, amazingly developed for the time and with a deep sense of life and of enjoying nature. The palace of Knossos is a unique place--it's a mixture of royal residence, administrative center, temple, reception center and showplace. I especially love the pillars...in ancient times they were cypress trees which when you make pillars out of them you have to turn them upside down or they start rooting themselves! The odd narrowness of the Cretan pillars is imitating the natural narrowing of the tree trunk. From Knossos comes an amazing sense of life--even though everything is ruins you can still understand so much of their character. It's a place where it would feel natural for time to start reversing, for the stones to start flowing back into place, and for the ancient inhabitants to emerge from the trees. The strangest fact of Knossos and of the whole Cretan civilization remains that we don't know what they called themselves. Their written language remains a mystery. Knossos and Crete are names given to these places and people and I truly wonder what they called themselves. After seeing Knossos we went to a Greek arts village. It's basically a tourist destination, but you can actually stay there too. There are lots of pretty houses and stores that actually are ancient/old and were rebuilt here. It's rather pretty and a very enjoyable demonstration of Greek life, food, and architecture. A local guide made tzatziki sauce for us--this is a David unfriendly concoction of yogurt, cucumbers, lemon juice and olive oil. Delicious and great in a gyro, but terrible for David who can't eat yogurt and who doesn't like cucumbers! After lunch we made komboloi, Greek worry beads. They're called that because you "worry" or repeatedly stroke, flip, click or swing them. This was another day we were so full from the giantic and delicious lunch that we just burped our way back to the hotel and didn't bother with dinner! |
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