Crete Day 2

As I woke up I realised I was in a new country. That means I had to get a new souvenir today.

The new hotel was called The ATRION Hotel.

Look to the right to see our hotel

For breakfast I had crispy bacon with special Cretan honey. It was delicious.I also tried a special round Greek Donut - its about the size of a ping pong ball, the dough is a little bit more soft and squishy than a normal donut with a little bit of crushed pistachio on top. The outside is similar to a Perth donut with a bit of sugar on the top.

Today we did 3 things

• The old markets where I bought my new souvenir.
• Knossos - the ancient ruins where the minotaurs maze was.
• Dinner at a place that Zoe organised

THE MARKETS

At the markets I got my new souvenir.

How i got a closeup of this picture: Firstly I took a picture of it on our hotel floor. Then I zoomed the picture on my Ipad and then took a screenshot by pressing the home button and the off button at the same time. The screenshot gets saved into my photostream where I could grab it with Blogsy and post into my blog.

my new souvenir

 

I got this particular souvenir because the owl is the mark of wisdom and its eyes are the symbol of strength and courage. I knew that from Percy Jackson books. The owl is made out of brass or was it bronze and the eyes are made out of glass.

I did some research using Safari and found this on a website "The main difference between brasses and bronzes is that brass is mostly made of copper and zinc while bronze is mostly made of copper and tin". Although i still don't know what my souvenir is made of.

KNOSSOS

Knossos is the ancient ruins of King Minos's temple and the maze of the Minotaur (called the Labyrinth). It is very old, some parts are more than 4000 years old.

Here is a picture of me on a road in Knossos that is the oldest road in the world. Thats what they told us but Zoe is sceptical.

Us on the side of the oldest road

(dictated by Drew, typed with great skill by LD): Here is a summarized version of the story of the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a half bull, half man. He could talk and walk. He was wild and was imprisoned in the Labyrinth by his father king Minos. Every year 7 Athenian boys and 7 Athenian girls were sent into the Labyrinth for the Minotaur to kill and eat. When it was the prince's turn to be sent into the Labyrinth he said to his father "I will kill this beast". "If come back to Athens with my sails white, you will know I have killed the beast, if my sails are black i will have died". Prince Theseus prayed to Hermes and Artemis to help guide him through the Labyrinth. The Gods came down to earth and gave him a ball of string. Theseus took the princess of Crete with him and tied the end of the ball of string to the door of the Labyrinth. As he unwound the string he finally found his way to the Minotaur. It was a rough battle but the Minotaur was dead in the end. Thesues rewound the string to find his way back through teh Labyrinth. As Theseus came back home to Athens he was so busy celebrating with his friends he forgot to change the sails to white. When his father saw the black sails, he was so sad, he jumped off a cliff.

Acrobats jumping a charging bull

Knossos

 

 

DINNER

Finally we went to dinner at a place that Zoe organised.It was really amazing. We had ten different dishes altogether.

We all had a huge meal.

I decided that I would have french fries and meatballs. We all shared a massive salad, eggplant fritters, chicken souvlaki. I had the best meal I have ever had. My main course was a pork fillet steak. It was juicy and tender and every mouthful was delicious.

 

Yummy salad - if you like cucumbers

 

 

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