TravelStream™ news feed for member ehouston on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ehouston en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 27 May 2008 14:46:14 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ehouston/1/1211791560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ehouston/1/1211791560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ehouston/1/1211791560/tpod.html Tue, 27 May 2008 14:46:14 -0400 My Cretan Adventure

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Chania, Greece

So i must apologize for the lack of entries but i have been super busy. lets see where to start.
well stella let me teach a class for the day which was great! i had lost of fun and i got great feedback from the class. we have a super star in class. Stone Phillips who is an anchor on |Datline is taking the class along with his wife and son. they are wonderful people and bring alot of great energy to the class.
i celebrated my 300th day of sobriety yesterday and stella, Nektarios, stylios and i went to the beach near Stavros. It was beautiful and of course i got burned. but i enjoyed it thoroughly.
I have been staying away from the nightlife here but it is a great event for the greeks. They don't eat dinner until around 8 or 10pm and their lunch is around the time that we americans normally eat.
Tomorrow i am heading out in the vans with Constantine Manos class to head across the northern coast it Iraklio. I decided to join the trip since it would probably be the only time that i would get to see somewhere other than Chania. it should be interesting.
anyway here are photos from the past week or so since i actually have some down time before class.
i think i am almost done with the bakery and i am looking for another project.
it feels like i have been here for a couple of months and i still have 2 weeks to go!! everyone should come here because i think it might be the most beautiful place on earth!!!
yassas

ok it seems that this stupid PC won't except my usb so i will go to another internet later!!!
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Chania, Greece

Hey all!!! first all sorry there are so few pictures i haven't had time to change everything in to internet jpegs. the class has finally started. we had our very first critique today which was good. such a diverse group its great. We are going to meet every day on the second floor of a cafe where there is the least amount of light to disturb us viewing the laptops.
I am still photographing in the bakery. On Saturday i didn't have a very good reception at the bakery and i was pretty sure they were not going to let me keep photographing there. The only people who seemed to be perfectly comfortable with me photographing were a moraccan immigrant and an Albanian. But today when i came back in and brought them more photos i got one of the best welcomes i have ever recieved. Anna, the wife of the owner invited me back to her house this coming thursday where i am sure she is going to cook for me and let me in to her daily life. She is a painter and from what Alex says, a rather good one.
Tomorrow i am having coffee with the Albanian around 7:30 in the afternoon (to them night is not until 10 and dinner doesn't start until between 8-10pm) He said "don't worried, I'm married." I am bringing Andreas, who is a fellow cretan student with me to translate because the wonderful Albanian does not speak any english.
I am starting to pick up the language. ... well the basics at least and i want to start taking Greek lessons when i get back to boston.
Yesterday i got up with stella and Angela around 5:45 am to watch the sunrise. some of the most beautiful light i have ever seen. Well worth getting up at that time.
ummm... i can't think of anything else at the moment. i have been so busy the past couple of days that have not been able to get to the internet cafe but oh lo and behold all i had in my mailbox was junkmail so i don't feel bad. the culture is wonderful the people are amazing and i am pretty sure that i am going to have to move here.
as we say here in Crete
Yassas
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Chania, Crete, Greece

So i am here in Beautiful Chania!!! it is so amazing and it just started getting hot. well hot for me.
i haven't been able to upload the images that i have shot yet because its hard to find an internet cafe that has access and.
I am staying in Pension Kasteli, a beautiful place right in the center of it all. Alex who owns it is great and wonderfully helpful in all ways. The first full day here he brought me to the local flea market on the back of his MoPed. there is nothing like this place. He has two kids Adonis who is 10 and Anna who is 4. Anna and i have become fast friends even though we can't really speak to each other.
yesterday he took me to a traditional bakery where i will be photographing for the next 3 weeks. the light is unbelievable and the people always nice.
We eat at Faka, a great resturant around the corner from where i am staying. the food is great. i have found this dish that is fried cheese that i eat with the local bread and olive oil. and the oil, oh it is soo good!!!
The first of the other students in the class are starting to arrive today. i have been alone at the Kasteli except for a bunch of Scandinaven women and a couple from Jersey. Stella is staying out in a village outside of Chania (pronounced HanYa) but she moves into the city for the next two weeks of class.
I was trying to learn greek while at the same time trying to get through finals and i come here and everyone speaks english! its great. though as an american it makes me feel super lazy that in america we aren't really expected to learn another language fluently yet her Adonis who is 10 already speaks 3 languages fluently and is learning german now.
There really isn't such a thing as a non smoking area in Greece. you smoke in the restaurants the villas, the stores and smoke is billowing around me now in the internet cafe. It must suck for those who are trying to quite.
And at almost every meal there is alcohol. its just a part of daily life here. most restaurants have their own local house wine that they make themselves but i am sticking with the natural water that comes from the gorge here.
well i guess thats it for now. the light is getting good and i am hungry to try the local ice cream since it is hot enough.
Oh when we first arrived it was pretty cold here and raining so i bought (and don't give me shit all of you animal rights activist they eat lamb here all the time) a beautiful lambskin and wool vest that is sooo warm!!!
the shopping here too... oh man. i don't think i can ever enter an american shop again and buy things when the variety is so great here!!! the jewelry is beautiful as is the clothing. i also bought a great greek photo book of some simply amazing photographs. good thing i packed an extra suitcase eh?
alright thats it for now. when i really start photographing more i will try to upload more. and since i figured out the stupid PC that i am on i now know how to upload. its only 1 euro for 30 minutes and thats like 2 bucks .
also i don't know if you've heard about it in America but there is a huge strike going on right now with the drivers of the gas tanker trucks. there has been no gas on the island for a week now. there are lines to the gas station 5 miles long and longer and it has really stopped the country. and here they pay 9 dollars US a gallon. and we complain about the our prices.
ciao!
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Athens, Attica, Greece

Well we made it to Athens. Its 4:30pm May 9th here and around 9:30 am eastern standard time. I haven't slept in over 24 hours. we left boston yesterday around 5pm got into Frankfurt Germany around midnight EST, and then had a 4 hour lay over hanging out in the airport trying to find bottles of water. which were 5 US dollars each for a small bottle. HOLY SHIT!!!
now we are in Athens. We missed our flight connection to Chania, Crete but thankfully got on a later one. I am having a horrible time trying to think of what to write and tell because i am in that limbo state where i am soooo tired yet hopped up on caffeine and to involved in staring at all the Europeans. My god am i under dressed!!!!!!! fashion is an artform here. more so then newbury street!
anyway thats all until i can make a coherent thought tomorrow.
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