Day #9: 9 July 2013

Today we had a field trip day. Our first stop was the Monastery for Saint George of Selanaris. This is a popular stop for many drivers because he is the saint for drivers. The monastery was very simple in design, with lots of windows to let in the sunlight and wind.

Monastery for Saint George of Selanaris

The next stop was Toplou Monastery. The monastery was  built during the fourteenth century. It is still an active monastery so the girls had to use towels to cover themselves up if too much of us was exposed. For me, because my shirt covered my shoulders, I had to use the towel to cover my shorts/legs. It was interesting walking around and seeing all that the monks do in the monastery. We saw the oven where they bake their bread, a storage closet and the flooring which they placed all of the stones individually by hand. The monastery also has some of the best olive oil in the world because of the dry climate! The monastery is a large place for storing ancient books and clothing from the church. They had the vestments from the priests as well as copies of the bible and stories from the bible that dated back to the seventeenth century.

Toplou Monestary

Flooring Where Each Stone was Hand Placed by the Monks

View of Inside the Monastery Showing the Openings for Light and Wind and the Flowers

The monastery also leased out their land to other people for use. One such person was Nikos, a retired naval person who now owns a banana farm. He was so funny and welcoming to all of us. When we got out of the truck at the plantation area of the field, he played for us "Day-Oh (The Banana Boat Song)," which was his favorite song. It was awesome being able to see where the bananas come from and how they are grown. I had no idea that each plant can only produce one stalk of bananas and then the banana plant is unproductive. The bananas that we ate from his farm was so delicious and sweet!

Nikos, the Banana Man, Explaining about how He Grows Them

Bananas on the Tree!

Another piece of land that was leased out by the monastery is Vai. Vai is a beach area which has the water where Alexander the Great swam. The water was very blue and refreshing. I was surprised by how rocky the bottom of the ocean was and how slippery it was from the algae. It must be because the water was not as rough because at the beach area here, there is no plant life at the bottom of the ocean. Even  the rocks in the water are not slippery but rather rough because there is nothing on them.

Gorgeous View of Vai

Our last stop was INSTAP Study Center for East Crete. This is an archaeological area primarily owned and ran by University of Pennsylvania. Here, they process all artifacts that have been found in the area. Most of their objects come from Eastern Crete because that is where the Americans have dig sites that are authorized to them. It was interesting seeing how everything is processed right at a site rather than taken back to a school laboratory to be examined. I have seen archaeological labs before where they do all of the cleaning and reconstruction, but these have been in schools rather than on-site. The on-site was slightly different where it was more of an organized chaos that was laid out rather than in a lab where everything is precisely kept track of.

Cleaning Pottery at INSTAP