Day #11: 11 July 2013

Today we ventured to the western part of the island to Chania. Chania is Theo’s birthplace so he was very excited to visit. Our first stop was to eat breakfast at Akrotiri. It was so beautiful and the view was amazing – but the Cicadas were so loud!

Chania!

We then went to the center of Chania where we met the provost of the Technical University of Chania. He felt that Drexel and the Technical University were very similar with a five year program and the fact that there is real work experience included in the final degree. We also walked around the port area of Chania where many of the restaurants are known for their fresh fish.

Port of Chania

We then went to the Venizelos Foundation library. We met the author of the Venizelos biography book. He signed a copy of the book for us as well as answered any questions that we had about the book and about him as an author. After, we went to see the most beautiful beach for swimming called Falaisarna. 

People Playing in Falaisarna

Our next stop was an olive oil factory, Terra Creta. There, they are unique in that they have “traceable” olive oil. They made a conglomerate of all the small vineyards where Terra Creta makes the olive oil from these numerous olive trees under one name. However, each bottle has a code which will tell the consumer where exactly these olives came from – down to the specific farm. This is very interesting in that it creates a connection between the producer and the consumer rather than the factory and the consumer. It was interesting hearing about their business practices in that everything has to be transparent because Greek’s do not trust the olive oil people in giving them a fair price for their olives. We did an olive oil tasting which was very different for me. When tasting olive oil, you do not use bread or anything; you just drink the olive oil straight and try to spread it around your mouth.

The area where Olives are cleaned and sorted

We then went to the Paximadhi factory. It was so cool seeing how the bread was made. I love to cook and bake so this was right up my alley. I loved seeing the entire process and tasting a bite of bread along each step of the process. I was surprised at how hot the bread was baked, even to dry it out!

Mixing the Dough

The Final Product!

Lastly, we went to our hotel where we ate dinner with the family who owns the hotel and the Paximadhi factory. They shared their local diet which consisted of seafood meats and Greek salad. They also included French fries for us, just in case we did not like something. Everything was delicious!