Sucking up the culture

On Saturday it was time for our first obligatory excursion. It was part of the EILC course and was a great way to get to know one another better and learn about local culture and a crash-course in Minoan history. The bus was packed with 45 students and off we were to Heraklion and the Museum of National History.

Here is Sylwia taking pictures of the sea right outside the museum. Next stop we hit up the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion. A pink-headed lady who works for the Ministry of Tourism and something something and is a linguist/historian guided us through the museum and educated us on the symbols of the double-axe, the labyrinth, the bull etc etc and linked the historic artifacts to greek mythology which was kind of fun. This trip was a prerequisite to follow her in-depth guide at our next stop - Knossos! The oldest known Bronze Age excavation and also home to the world's oldest theatre.

Dan Watson (a British anthropologist) wants me here to include a picture of the pink-headed lady:

And some pictures from Knossos

The last stop for the day the Cretaquarium - more or less an ordinary aquarium so it wasn't that exciting. Got some pretty pictures of some pretty fish though!

This is Dan Watson btw being philosophical over some fish. This was the man behind the phrase: 

‎"My name is Dan Watson. I enjoy getting disappointed. If I go an entire day without getting disappointed I get disappointed. I'm always happy."

Back in Rethymnon some of us went out for a nice Staurday dinner at Καλια Μαρια (Kalia Maria) and I tried out the Cretan local drink Ρακι (Raki). It isn't the best thing in the world but hell it's strong and it's cheap. The guy furthest in is Daniel, a guy from Norway, who has blown me away with his superior alcohol-consumption habits. He makes the Polish people here look bad.

Fun night though! After dinner we went to these French girls' hostel and continued drinking where Daniel got us thrown out due to a severe inability of keeping his voice to a minimum and then we met up with the other EILC gang who were on their way into the city after a pre-party on the beach. We then browsed the town for clubs but ended up in different bars. At 3-4ish the evening drew to an end at the beach where we saw shooting stars - one after the other. How many wishes are you allowed to make?