Why don't you like airports?
Because I hate humanity.

This morning we headed out for the Palace of Phaistos. But before we made it there, we made a quick stop in Gortyna. This was a small village in the center of Crete that contains an old Byzantine basilica and a building that contains the longest ancient inscription of the Greek world. The Basilica of St. Titus is in pretty good condition for its age. The front part of the church is intact and reveals just how big this building would have been. But, what I really found interesting is the building with the script in it. The script has been translated and from what the experts can tell, it was the laws of the ancient village that was present there. Vaggeli explained that in Athens, in this same time period, woman had absolutely no rights. They were just "baby-making machines" as he put it. But on Crete, the laws that were displayed out in the open for everyone to see showed that women had a little more control over their own lives. They could own property and were not forced to marry a relative of their husband's family if he were to die for example. From what Vaggeli described, I couldn't have lived in ancient Athens. I would have been a Cretian woman at heart. The script is also not read in the traditional left to right fashion that we are used to; to read it you start left to right then where that line ends you start below it right to left. So confusing! After our Gortyna we then headed on to Phaistos. The palace is very similar to the temple at Knossos. We saw a lot of the same things, except this temple wasn't harmed by any fabricated restorations like Knossos was. After Phaistos we headed to the beach at Matala. It was crazy busy there. Apparently the Festival of Matala (also known as the Hippie Festival of Matala) was going on while we were there. We got to party with the hippies! Dreadlocks, tie-dye shirts, and speedos everywhere! Speedos are strictly a European thing that I really do not understand in the least bit. Not a single man on this Earth (okay maybe Michael Phelps, but he has 16 gold medals so he can do whatever he wants) should EVER wear a speedo. They don't flatter anyone and I don't want to see that. But as beautiful as the beaches are here, I guess I can deal with some old wrinkly guys swimming in their skivvies. Matala was just as beautiful as the beach at Aegina; the water was so clear and blue that even when the water was too deep to stand up in you could still see all the way to the bottom. The water was a little chilly, but once you got in and swam around for a little bit it wasn't bad. They even had cliffs that people could climb up and jump into the water, along with caves to explore. The whole thing was just amazing. My favorite picture from the whole day is the first one at the end of this post. It's of Lauren totally checking out the hot (not to mention most likely married and with child/children) guy at the beach. We were all in awe, but her reaction is priceless! They sure know how to make them here in Greece! After we left the beach we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. The food was amazing as always. I don't think anybody ever leaves the table hungry. We had Greek yogurt with beet hearts, vegetable pies, meatballs, Greek salad, artichoke quiches, and on and on and on and on. The main dish was pork knuckle (sounds totally gross, I know) and it was delicious. The meat was literally so tender it fell right off the bone. Yum! Now we are back for the night and I am headed to bed. Goodnight everyone!

One last thing, don't mention the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" around the Greeks. Irini looked at me like I was stupid when I asked her if they still throw plates on the ground and yell "Ooopaaa" and no they don't fix everything with windex either. Vaggeli agreed. Sad day.