Day 18: Exploring Rethymno!
Monday, August 11th
Today’s blog is brought to you by Liv in Ms. Hrvatin’s class.
Travel Journal
Our new home for the week welcomed us with its rich history, inviting all the eager students to peel back its layers and explore the foreign island.
Learning Under the Cretan Sun
Our first morning in Crete was an early one. Having class after a long, stomach-turning travel day felt like something I’d need time to mentally prepare for, but the day ended up being one of my favourites from this incredible journey so far. The warm sun shone brightly through the large balcony windows of our cozy hotel room, illuminating the space and drawing us out of a deep sleep, with the help of several alarms blaring from each roommate’s cellphone. Once awake, everyone began to make their way to the lobby for breakfast at the buffet. Some arrived with plenty of time to spare, while others had to dash through the halls and down flights of stairs to arrive in the lobby by 8:45 a.m., narrowly avoiding the consequences of prolonging their sleep.
After breakfast, my English class gathered in the lobby, where our teacher explained that we would be heading to a cafe named The Theorist just minutes away, to spend our morning class surrounded by the sweet and savory scents of pastries baking in the oven. The walk there, despite being short, gave the group a taste of the beaming Cretan sun. We arrived at the cafe, faces tinged pink from the heat, and were greeted with tasteful architecture and shelves lined with books. The time spent in the cafe went to good use, with most students putting sizeable dents in their essays and culminating tasks, which they needed to complete as the program comes to an end all too soon.
Class time was spent a bit differently across the various courses within our program. The Ancient Civilizations class began their day by walking to the Guora Gate, also known as the “Big Gate” in English. Students from this course explained to me that this gate was constructed by the Venetians when they took over the old city and built new fortifications around it. The gate served as an entrance to the new, walled Venetian city. After their walk, they made their way to the same cafe my class was working at, finding a spot on the second floor. There, their teacher taught them about the beginnings of Rome, including how their government functioned and how it eventually turned into a dictatorship under Julius Caesar. Callie, a student from this class, exclaimed, “The Big Gate was incredible to see in person, I love how we are walking distance from so many historical sites.”
The Photography class had a relatively similar morning to ours, wandering around the new island and taking countless pictures of their surroundings. They focused on using focal point and rule of thirds to capture the best shots, before eventually settling in at a cafe close to ours, chatting and getting snacks to refuel. Zara, a photography student, explained to me, “The next unit is portraiture, and our models are our peers in the program,” which sounds interesting!
Finding Our Footing in Crete
Class ended at 11:30 a.m., and everyone was told to meet in the lobby for 11:45 a.m. for our orientation tour of Rethimno – the city we’ll be calling home until our late-night ferry back to Athens on Friday. We gathered in the room where announcements will be held for the rest of our stay, and met our tour guide, Kostas. Before setting off to roam the city with our guide, he shared with us a brief history of Crete. He explained that it’s the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean and home to roughly 650,000 people. Crete is also known as the birthplace of one of Europe’s oldest and most advanced civilizations – the Minoans.
After this introduction, we began our walking tour of the city. It’s about a 25 minute walk into the heart of Rethimno. The streets were lined with a mix of off-white buildings with rust-coloured brick roofs, along with bursts of pink flowering trees. For the length of the walk, the glowing sun bathed us in its warmth, our only solace being the cool breeze traveling from the sea as we walked along the port. Upon arrival, Kostas familiarized us with the area, and took us to a few historical sites. One site that stood out to me was the Romindi Fountain, which Kostas explained had evolved over the 16th -19th centuries. It bears a Latin inscription, a nobleman’s coat of arms, and both a lion’s head and a man’s head carved into the stone.
Once the tour came to an end, we had free time to explore the now slightly familiar city. Some students browsed shops, others worked on assignments or lingered over lunch, while a few simply wandered the streets, soaking in the beauty of Rethimno.
A Taste of Crete
Our exploration of the city came to an end at 2:00 p.m., everyone gathering in the lobby to either be sent off for more class time, or prepare to head out to the next optional excursion: cooking! Students who opted out of this excursion spent their time working to complete various tasks – essays for English, 20 minute presentations for Ancient Civilizations, and serious photo editing for the Photography students. Those of us who chose to go on the excursion rushed to our rooms to prepare for our next experience, ridding ourselves of our sweat-slicked clothes and instead putting on clothes we were ready to have stained with our best attempts at preparation of traditional Greek cuisine.
The 40 minute bus ride to Ippokoronio, Nipos was not only stunning on the outside, but special on the inside as the small group of us got to know each other better. Even as we near the end of our program, we continue to understand that we all have so much more to learn about each other–only making us wish for more time together. We drove by a lengthy beach, waters as beautifully blue as a peacock’s feathers, and our guide for this excursion, Vincent, explained to us that we were in a circle of nature’s contrasts. Looking out the right side of the bus, you can see the charming waters of the beach mentioned above, and looking out the left side, an unforgettable stretch of mountains. From the slopes of the mountain, fresh, clear water rushes down its jagged edges to meet the needs of the earth below, keeping the area nourished and populated with an expanse of what seems like every kind of bright green tree, year-round.
Once we arrived at the quaint village of Nipos, we headed excitedly to our cooking stations, tossing on our aprons and observing the ingredients laid out in front of us.
First dish up: gamista (pronounced yeh-mee-sta) – stuffed vegetables! We were tasked with removing the tops of vibrant red tomatoes, scooping out and saving the juicy insides to add to the stuffing later. Next, we removed the top of a green pepper, discarding the seeds inside. Lastly, we prepared zucchini, hollowing out a portion of the inside with the end of a spoon to make room for a savory rice filling. The filling, rice, spices, leftover tomato and zucchini, and of course, olive oil, complemented the vegetables perfectly. Once stuffed, the vegetables were placed in a large tray, but not yet in the oven.
The next food we prepared was dolmathes (pronounced dol-maa-deez) – stuffed grape leaves. This was a bit tricky for first-timers. Each of us was handed a grape leaf, its damp surface cooling down my hand as it rested in my palm – a welcoming feeling to combat the warmth spilling into the restaurant through the large glassless windows. Our chef demonstrated how to fold the leaves, and we followed suit. Using the stuffing from the gamista, we placed small amounts in the centre of the leaf and folded as neatly as possible. Some rolls came out perfect cylinders, others…not so much. The misshapen ones brought forth plenty of laughter from the group. Our dolmathes joined the gamista in the same tray before being sent to the oven for an hour and a half.
Our next dish was a traditional Cretan dish called dakos, which piqued the group’s interest. We were given bread called paximadi, double-baked bread that dries and hardens, allowing it to be stored for long periods before being rehydrated. On the bread we placed grated tomato, Cretan cheese, oregano, olive oil, and optionally, an olive on top. We set them aside, allowing the sweet tomato juice to soften the bread.
Our next two dishes were classic Greek staples we’ll definitely be making at home. We began with a staple throughout our trip: tzatziki! We mixed fresh Greek yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, salt, oregano and olive oil, to create a tangy, garlicky dip that pairs perfectly with countless dishes. We quickly moved on to Greek salad, which turned into a friendly competition, girls versus boys, to see who could prepare the best salad the fastest. Knives hit rhythmically against our chopping boards as we sliced through vegetables, keeping the pieces chunky for authenticity. The verdict: the boys won, mastering the art of chunky-vegetable-cutting.
Our final dish was our treat for the night: cheese pies. Using handmade dough, we ran it through a manual pasta maker to flatten it, then placed cheese inside, folded it over, and used a roller knife to trim the excess, creating a dumpling-like shape.
As we waited for the gamista, we feasted on our appetizers, the scent of spices and hard work filling the air. After dinner, we wandered through the small town of Nipos, eventually stopping at a basketball court. There, two local boys joined Brennan, William and Chris from our group, for a heated game before we returned to the restaurant for our final treat, the cheese pies. We ate our dessert and socialized, building deeper bonds with each other and making memories that will stick with us for years to come. It was now time to head back to Rethimno, bid farewell and go to sleep.
What My Heart Took Home
Today was a day full of connection and culture. Being placed in a new environment can be overwhelming at first, but learning to adapt alongside new peers strengthens the bonds between you. Through food, laughter, and shared experiences, we didn’t just learn recipes – we learned a little more about each other, and about how joy can be found in the simplest of moments.
Tomorrow
Stay tuned for our next blog: a morning in Chania, Crete. A charming city to learn and explore in.
