36 people, 16 nationalities, high expectations and a lot of question marks in the back of our heads. That’s how it started. After eleven days soaked with cretan sun and history, new friendships, amazing experiences and a confidence that this story is going to be continued, appeared…
Imagine a group of young, crazy people from different parts of the world, people who are curious about diversity, People who don’t want to live in a comfort zone, people who want to know more, experience more and exchange this knowledge with others. We gathered them in the hottest greek island.
It’s all Greek to me
How to start exploring the local culture? Through food obviously! Just visit a traditional cretan neighbourhood and learn for yourself what is the real meaning of cretan diet. One day of cooking workshop with the old cretan housewife gave our participants a quick glimpse of what the local cuisine is about. But it was just the beginning. Whoever has visited Greece knows that the greek spirit feeds itself well. Very well. And very often. So there we make our appearance in Archanes, discussing its beauty during traditional breakfast with local cheese, yogurt, fruit, vegetables and following the Minoan paths. But what would the land of grapes mean without tasting the local wine? Nothing obviously. We all know that the gods of Olympus didn’t drink water. So after trying cretan wines – some of which you may know as “ambrosia” – it’s indeed high time that you faced a big, fat, greek feast. You take your seat, you see a greek salad, stuffed zucchini, vine leaves, bean spread, a lot of bread, cheese, amazingly aromatic “dakos” and you know you will not leave this place hungry. You’re getting to the point where you are full, but then the huge tray of lamb and baked potatos lands in front of you. So you eat and eat and eat. Until you explode. And when you are sure you cannot take even the smallest piece more, it is time for dessert. – “Challenge accepted” – says Pablo Cuesta Gonzales and eats three more plates of local sweets, trying to digest it better with – obviously – the local drink, called “raki” at the same time. Because raki connects greek people. Raki makes you feel the cretan spirit. Raki is a god’s gift for Cretan people. And all the amazing things you feel are caused by raki. Stay Greek and drink raki they say. Drink raki and learn how to become Greek I would say. Because we all already learnt that Greece is more than pompous history and famous the “malaka” word and the best way to discover it is to follow the greek lifestyle.
We follow the leader, leader, leader!
So there we go. After seven days spent in Heraklion, getting familiar with local habits, language and history, we move to Rethymno, ready to see more places of this beautiful island. Somewhere between singing about “sexy bull” (which became the unofficial anthem of our Summer University) and settling our things on the hostel’s terrace where we sleep all together, we follow Vaggelis Zozonakis, our great leader and local AEGEE member who shouts this phrase countless times, infects with positive energy every grumpy night owl who was forced to wake up early and explains all the mysterious things about Rethymno with his unique greek accent which makes us smile even more during the whole stay.
Then we take a deep breath, ready to visit the best place we would ever see. The gorgeous view of the azure water on Balos beach which compensates for our last sleepless night and stays in our minds for a long time. Hot – literally hot – water in Balos’ lagoon warms our minds up even more and gives us the small image of how paradise could look like. We enjoy ourselves, smile, laugh, swim and feel that the best time of the summer has just embraced us is too strong to be real. We found ourselves in a pure and beautiful heaven.
„Don’t cry. You have a free house now”
All in all, we visited three cities, six charming villages, one – secluded from Crete – small island and marvelous Balos beach. Every morning we learnt a lot of gossip about everyone during the famous “gossip box” ceremony, made friendships and tried to make us feel like home. Because indeed – for the past eleven days – this hot cretan spot on the european map meant home for all of us. Now we’re already separated, trying to get back to the normal life after this unforgettable adventure and putting effort to redefine the meaning of “home”. Home is wherever great people make us feel like home. So no need to cry.
– Now you have a free house in Europe – like Pablo said. It’s not goodbye. It’s just see you later, AEGEE people. We are “greekfull” we met you. And we know you will miss us this summer.
Written by Magda Małczak, AEGEE-Heraklio
Pictures by Magda Małczak and Kostas Trigos, AEGEE-Heraklio