John Mark’s Study Abroad

This is a video of our stay in Greece.

Crete Day 1

After arriving on the first day, we had a free afternoon to eat lunch and walk around for a bit, but the rest of the evening and night was spent working on our thesis. We had to meet with Mrs. Ruth to show her the progress we have made with the Cost, and Schedule of our buildings.

We did get away for a little while with a large group of us to eat dinner.  Since there are so many restaurants they compete for your business, so the owner, in order to persuade us to come to his restaurant, offered our group a free round of drinks.

After dinner there was an interesting nightlife in Crete, this women was dancing with fire

Crete Day 2

In the morning we woke up and ate breakfast on the roof of our 5-story hotel, it was beautiful, overlooking the ocean and the rest of the city.  And again they had cereal, which I proceeded to eat 3 bowls of to try to maintain my regular intake.

We caught the public transportation to the Palace of Knossos, the first European Civilization built around 1700 BC.  Daniel Burson was the student expert in charge, and gave us a brief tour, and then just let us explore.

One of the most interesting construction technique was the use of upside down trees as columns, where the base would act as a capital, allowing greater spans.  We are sketching every structure we visit, and I wish I had a scanner to show you how awful my sketches are.

After visiting the Palace of Knossos, we all meet with Mrs. Ruth at the hotel, then headed to the beach.  It was even more beautiful than I expected.

After relaxing for a while we decided to see if we could join the locals in a soccer game.  Both Scott and I joined, and it was a blast.  I scored a couple of goals, and was exhausted at the end of the game.

After the Beach we went to a local restaurant.  We had 3 appetizers, 2 salads, 2 liters of wine, 2 huge platters of meat, 3 deserts, and 3 rounds of after dinner liquors.  The meal came out to be about 13 dollars a person, and everyone threw in a 20 because she was so generous to us giving us everything extra.

That night we went to a bar/dance club called Gozo, it was fun, but I was just to tired.

Crete Day 3

Today was our full free day in Crete.  We had a group of 8 guys go on our day adventure, Jep, Jay, Cole, Shyam, Scott, Chase, Tommy, and myself.  We started off at 9 am with an hour drive into the mountains of Crete, and the Zoniana Cave.

Before we went into the cave we went on about a 3 mile hike up some pretty steep terrain.  We think we climb about 3,000 ft.  At the top of the mountain there was a beautiful stone church, and a local sheep herder.  This is the picture of the stone house, you can see a little of the church in the picture above.

It took us about an hour and a half to climb up, and it would have been a long walk down as well, except the man who lived on the land gave all us a ride in the back of his truck.  He made a living making cheese from goat’s milk, and herding sheep.  If it were not for the lift he gave us, we would not of had time to make it into the cave, and he refused any payment, except an apple that I gave him.

The cave was not as impressive as some other caves I have been in, but, it was still a cool adventure.

After coming home and showering we went to the edge of the island and watched the sunset.  Words can’t describe its beauty, and this picture doesn’t near do the justice it deserves.  The favorite part of my travels so far is seeing the immense beauty God has created all over the world.  Ever city has had jaw dropping scenery that just makes me wonder at supremacy of God creating the Earth.

Our next stop is Rome, Italy