Last Day in Crete

The hotel we've been staying in at Iraklio has been awesome! There is wireless internet so I have been abe to get on whenever I want; their breakfast has been the best out of all the hotels, and the rooms are much more spacious. We are all very sorry to leave tomorrow.

Iraklio is another city that is on the sea. I can see the sea and the old venetian wall right from my bed. Nearby Iraklio we visited two minoan castles, one of them is thought to be the castle of King Minos. His claim to fame involves the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. The castle could've resembled a labryinth, it was so extensive with rooms everywhere.

In Iraklion the main church is the Church of Saint Titus, who was sent to the island of Crete by the apostle Paul. In a town outside of Iraklion we saw the sight of the supposed original church of Titus. I looked up Crete in the Bible and this is what I found. Paul stopped in Crete on his way to Rome, and then sent Titus to Crete saying "Even one of their own prophets has said: 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy glutton.' This testimony is true." This made me laugh when I read it, and one of the professors we were with confirmed that Crete often did have this reputation of being liars.

One person I have learned about a lot is Nikos Kazantzakis. He is a very well known Greek author; we visited his grave one day, and I was very intrigued by what I heard of his life. Someone who is looking to get me a birthday present could look for a copy of his book The Last Temptation of Christ.

This afternoon we had a lovely time at a beach on the Southern coast of Crete at Malata. The beach was crystal clear and surrounded by beautiful mountains with caves you could explore; it was the most beautiful beach I'd ever been to. The highlight of the experience was jumping off a cliff probably about 20 feet high. It was a great day.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Santirini, which I hear is beautiful but we are only there a few hours to catch a ferry to another island called Naxos. I'm praying that the hotel in Naxos will also have free internet so I can keep updating consistently, and talk to people through skype and facebook...