Monday, November 13, 2017

Crete


By the monastery

(Sami here) We docked at the port of Heraklion, Greece on the isle of Crete in the early afternoon. Our tour bus took us up the rocky, olive tree covered mountains to the Arkadi Monastery (built in 1500).
We learned that the monastery is important to the Cretan history because in 1866 the Cretans waged a revolt against Turkish troops who had been in control of Crete for almost two centuries. The townspeople routinely took shelter in the monastery, but in November the Turkish soldiers laid siege to the monastery.


The people were huddled in a room together and faced being overwhelmed by their attackers. Rather than be taken, the townspeople, with a monk as leader, set on fire a room filled with gunpowder. The explosion, which killed all the people inside the monastery and most of the Turkish soldiers, was a desperate act of the Cretans to remain free and not fall in the hands of their enemies. This act drew the attention of the western world to the plight of Crete and rallied the world around their cause, ultimately driving the Turks from Crete.




Although we understand it is a working monastery and church, it was quiet the day when we were there, with a greeting committee of two cats and a dog. Rather a solemn place.



Stéphanos, our guide that day, was one of my favorites, not because he knew the most information and history, but because when I asked him about Greece’s economy he answered from a very personal place, and went on to talk at length about what it meant to him to be Greek.



After our trip down the mountain we sat at a little cafe in the old town of Rethymnon drinking coffee and resting. Our tour guide took a little break too.


What always astonished us was how the historic towns were completely lived in. Centuries-old buildings were simply someone's home, and the locals went about their lives in and amongst (and making their livelihood from) us tourists. Nothing was Disneyland.
We decided not to fill our suitcases up with souvenirs, but I now wish I had bought more than one natural sponge.
Rethymnon was small and filled with interesting buildings and photo ops.


No comments:

Post a Comment