A Journey to the South
As some of you might know, I've been to Crete for two weeks. I came back on Monday morning and today I have finally caught up with my Friends page. It is surprising how much Arashi fans do post in that time span! Now I have time to write a bit about this holidays torture field trip.
First of all, I study Earth Sciences, and this field trip was a course to learn the mapping of geological structures.
Although we had to book our flights on our own, the whole group ended up taking the same plane, because we had a set time when we would meet in Heraklion. For me it was the first flight, and I didn't like the rising part. But once we reached cruising altitude, it was okay, especially when we crossed the alps. The view was stunning!
Landing had the feeling of "Huh? That's it?" for me. We arrived one and a half hours later then scheduled and drove to the pension via taxi. We only stayed there for the first night, the next day we got our rental cars and headed to the southwest of the island - of course with several relevant stops on the way - until we reached our next lodging in the evening.
This place was quite nice, I was lucky and got a double room with one of my friends. With a group of seven we went to a restaurant and took a stroll to the near beach afterwards. It was already dark so none of us saw the stream flowing into the sea at exactly that place which lead to some amusing shrieks because of the unexpectedly cold water. The ocean began behind a little sandbank and was quite warm. We didn't stay long, though; we headed back to get our swimming togs and then went to the beach again, not caring that it was already after midnight and that we had to get up early the next day.
We stayed at that place for three nights, in the meantime we were shown outcrops that were more or less in the vicinity to get to know the geology of Crete. On the way to the third and last accommodation we visited the ruines of a Minoan palace/temple, and then looked at some more outcrops.
Of all those places some were downright beautiful...
...some were magnificent...
... and some were just boring...
..while one island reminded me of a sinking ship.
I don't want to bore anyone with details about the geology or how frustrating it is to map an area with way too much dislocations. Just this much: Striding through the countryside on an island where shadow is a rarity and the sun is burning from early morning on isn't exactly fun, especially not if most plants growing there have thorns and they are always where you have to go. Neither is it fun if you have to go to the same little area three days in a row because it's really complicated - and to discover something new every time. My friend and I (we were doing the mapping in pairs) lost our motivation pretty soon, but because we both need a good grade we kept going and somehow finished our area in time.
The housing this time was the best. My friends and I got hands on the seperate house that was about five minutes away from the main building. While the latter is located at the sea, our house was on the flank of the opposing hill.
In contrary to the little rooms in the main building, this place was quite spacious and had two kitchenettes. The place was for five people in total, so it was us four and one other guy. The other three stayed in the main bedroom while one of my friends and me had the extra room for ourselves, but both parts were connected and we spent our freetime mostly in the only living room anyways.
On our terrace we soon got furry visitors. Three straying cats came by and since we started to feed them they came back everyday. Two of them I would have liked to take with me, but my finances didn't allow me - plus I have no idea what formalities come with it. But those two were so cute! I guess they were mother and child, but I'm not sure. The small one was very shy and mostly ran away, but the other we could pet. ^^
Surprisingly both of them even showed up the evening the whole group did a barbeque at the house, but not for long since it became quite loud. Like students are, the alcohol wasn't far away, and one guy made sure that everyone had a frequent refill of his glass. The liqour of choice was Rakí, the speciality of Crete. I only took one sip pure and one sip of a Rakí-Cola-Mix, but I didn't like the taste. So I could watch how everyone became more and more cheerful, how they were frollicing - and how it ended like excessive alcohol consume always ends. I don't understand why people drink until they are in that state, what's fun about stumbling around and puking?
Want to know what was scary? The guy who stayed with us was one of those who drank too much, and when he was laying on his bed he had his eyes half open and didn't blink. I thought he was dead until he started to snore. Apparently he sleeps with his eyes open, but it shocked the hell out of me!
The following day we didn't need to do much, just go to our area accompanied by one of the professors and look at some places again (for the fourth time...). On Sunday we finally drove back to Heraklion where we arrived at noon. Since everyone had booked their flights seperately some would stay a day longer, only us six who booked together had a flight the same evening, the same one as the profs we soon found out. While they went in the city, we spent the time at the airport, playing cards, reading, walking around... Passing time the best we could.
Since Greece's economy is on a bad status these days and they want to cut down the salary of the flight controllers, the control tower operators were working only episodically which lead to a six hour delay of our flight. Well, it's nice to get a free meal, but I would've rather came home at night than early morning. But at least public transport was rolling again at that time so I could go home immediately and sleep.
First of all, I study Earth Sciences, and this field trip was a course to learn the mapping of geological structures.
Although we had to book our flights on our own, the whole group ended up taking the same plane, because we had a set time when we would meet in Heraklion. For me it was the first flight, and I didn't like the rising part. But once we reached cruising altitude, it was okay, especially when we crossed the alps. The view was stunning!
Landing had the feeling of "Huh? That's it?" for me. We arrived one and a half hours later then scheduled and drove to the pension via taxi. We only stayed there for the first night, the next day we got our rental cars and headed to the southwest of the island - of course with several relevant stops on the way - until we reached our next lodging in the evening.
This place was quite nice, I was lucky and got a double room with one of my friends. With a group of seven we went to a restaurant and took a stroll to the near beach afterwards. It was already dark so none of us saw the stream flowing into the sea at exactly that place which lead to some amusing shrieks because of the unexpectedly cold water. The ocean began behind a little sandbank and was quite warm. We didn't stay long, though; we headed back to get our swimming togs and then went to the beach again, not caring that it was already after midnight and that we had to get up early the next day.
We stayed at that place for three nights, in the meantime we were shown outcrops that were more or less in the vicinity to get to know the geology of Crete. On the way to the third and last accommodation we visited the ruines of a Minoan palace/temple, and then looked at some more outcrops.
Of all those places some were downright beautiful...
...some were magnificent...
... and some were just boring...
..while one island reminded me of a sinking ship.
I don't want to bore anyone with details about the geology or how frustrating it is to map an area with way too much dislocations. Just this much: Striding through the countryside on an island where shadow is a rarity and the sun is burning from early morning on isn't exactly fun, especially not if most plants growing there have thorns and they are always where you have to go. Neither is it fun if you have to go to the same little area three days in a row because it's really complicated - and to discover something new every time. My friend and I (we were doing the mapping in pairs) lost our motivation pretty soon, but because we both need a good grade we kept going and somehow finished our area in time.
The housing this time was the best. My friends and I got hands on the seperate house that was about five minutes away from the main building. While the latter is located at the sea, our house was on the flank of the opposing hill.
In contrary to the little rooms in the main building, this place was quite spacious and had two kitchenettes. The place was for five people in total, so it was us four and one other guy. The other three stayed in the main bedroom while one of my friends and me had the extra room for ourselves, but both parts were connected and we spent our freetime mostly in the only living room anyways.
On our terrace we soon got furry visitors. Three straying cats came by and since we started to feed them they came back everyday. Two of them I would have liked to take with me, but my finances didn't allow me - plus I have no idea what formalities come with it. But those two were so cute! I guess they were mother and child, but I'm not sure. The small one was very shy and mostly ran away, but the other we could pet. ^^
Surprisingly both of them even showed up the evening the whole group did a barbeque at the house, but not for long since it became quite loud. Like students are, the alcohol wasn't far away, and one guy made sure that everyone had a frequent refill of his glass. The liqour of choice was Rakí, the speciality of Crete. I only took one sip pure and one sip of a Rakí-Cola-Mix, but I didn't like the taste. So I could watch how everyone became more and more cheerful, how they were frollicing - and how it ended like excessive alcohol consume always ends. I don't understand why people drink until they are in that state, what's fun about stumbling around and puking?
Want to know what was scary? The guy who stayed with us was one of those who drank too much, and when he was laying on his bed he had his eyes half open and didn't blink. I thought he was dead until he started to snore. Apparently he sleeps with his eyes open, but it shocked the hell out of me!
The following day we didn't need to do much, just go to our area accompanied by one of the professors and look at some places again (for the fourth time...). On Sunday we finally drove back to Heraklion where we arrived at noon. Since everyone had booked their flights seperately some would stay a day longer, only us six who booked together had a flight the same evening, the same one as the profs we soon found out. While they went in the city, we spent the time at the airport, playing cards, reading, walking around... Passing time the best we could.
Since Greece's economy is on a bad status these days and they want to cut down the salary of the flight controllers, the control tower operators were working only episodically which lead to a six hour delay of our flight. Well, it's nice to get a free meal, but I would've rather came home at night than early morning. But at least public transport was rolling again at that time so I could go home immediately and sleep.