Wedding on Crete and transition to something new

Agios Vasilis Church on Crete

(Agios Vasilis = Saint Basil = Greek Santa Claus)

Empty church before the wedding I went to on Crete this past weekend. Incredible religious murals covering every inch of the walls and ceilings; standing room only crowds that didn't stop talking throughout the entire ceremony; the christening of the couple's daughter (as my friend Sevi who invited me said "it will be their making-things-right-with-God day"). Despite the gunshots going off over head, everyone was incredibly friendly and welcoming to all of us who went, despite the fact that they had never met any of us before. I'm getting lazy with positing on this thing (hence the long absence, my apologies) so I'm excerpting some stuff I wrote recently in an email to a friend:

Thursday night we take an eleven hour boat ride, sleeping on the floor and arrive exhausted. Sleep all day, which is necessary because the wedding on Friday night lasted until Saturday morning at six. Dancing, eating WAY too much food (including goat...didn't know that until after it was consumed), drinking Raki which is a foul, foul substance (on par with ouzo). Traditional circle dancing encouraged by said Raki drinking (absurd pictures available on facebook). Finally, sometime around 4:30 in the morning, I, Elaine McMillin Driscoll, caught the bouquet. There is photographic evidence, however, that my main competition was a horde of six or seven year old girls -- not my fault they were too short to compete. 

The rest of the weekend was essentially spent recovering from the wedding, though we did get to explore Knossos which is the ruins of a Minoan palace where the throne of King Minos, son of Zeus, sat. Interesting fact: because King Minos is said to have retreated to the surrounding hills to receive teachings of Justice from his father, a replica of his throne is now used as the President's seat in the International Court of Justice in the Hague. Interesting facts from history! Generally, Crete was beautiful, even (or especially) with slate skies overhead and ocean winds keeping us chilly. Here are a few more photos before some talk of transition:

Back alley in a village near Heraklio

Coastal promenade in Chania

Alright, moving on. I've been thinking that writing exclusively about my travels in Greece, work at Psychico College and daily life in Athens will get a bit monotonous and/or mundane -- not only for you all, but for me as the writer. Not to say that I'll stop writing about what's going on around me, because that would be silly, but I do plan to use this space more generally from here on out. 

Love you all, and please remember to vote! 

-EMcD