Crete

Hi! I've been absolutely terrible about putting pictures up and keeping the blog updated, so much so that I'm writing about Crete now while I'm already starting our second trip to the Peloponnese. Crete was an odd trip. I love the island, which seems to be made entirely of rugged mountains, beautiful beaches, and olive groves -- but the site I was most excited about, the Minoan palace at Knossos, was a huge disappointment, and I was thoroughly sick of seeing Minoan palaces by our third day there. Some of the smaller sites were really wonderful though, like the Minoan harbor-town of Kommos, with its ship-galleries fully preserved. The highlights of the trip were Adventure Day (riding up in the back of pick-up trucks to a site, followed by taking a tiny boat to another site), Fun Beach in Mallia (a tourist trap, sure, but a great beach nevertheless), the museum at Iraklio (all of the finest Minoan artifacts), and just watching the constant ride through the mountains. I really can't stress how beautiful the landscape of Crete is, and I wish that we had more time devoted to hiking and swimming, but although our bus says "American Holidays Session 2" we actually do need to learn about stuff.
Here's the run-down of the pictures on this post:
1: Colleen, Timmy, and I at Fun Beach in Mallia
2: The Throne Room at Knossos
3: Mountains, olives, and the sea
4: Chris in the Roman Cemetery/Hippie Haven at Matala
5: Our boat to the site of Mochlos