Office of Marine Programs
University of Rhode Island
Narragansett Bay Campus
Narragansett, RI 02882-1197
Phone: 401-874-6211
Fax: 401-874-6486
Email: OMP@gso.uri.edu
Thera Expedition
Teacher: Kathleen
Podraza
Date: Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Jet lagged and tired, I slept through breakfast and lunch on the ship, so it was a late start leaving for the center of Heraklion today. We were originally to sail today, but now the ship has been delayed with sailing, due to the winds and choppy seas. That left me with deciding whether to stay onboard and sit in the sun (too windy on deck) or walk back to the center and try to find the Internet Café.
Apartments are built above storefronts and I have seen very few single homes.
In some of the areas that look to be small gardens or areas where the locals might congregate, the walls are layered with colorful graffiti. Other places, indiscriminate markings that might be markings for gangs or street groups are simply scrawled anywhere with black spray cans.
Motorcycles and motorbikes are everywhere and line street corners with 30-40 bikes parked and others zooming around tight corners at enormous speeds. Here it appears that pedestrians must give way to cycles and cars. Men who are dressed in coats/jackets stand in front of large café’s and ask customers to come in and try the menus. They are quite friendly and hope to get your business.
I found a corner sandwich shop today that some locals were using and asked for the cheese and spinach pie that was listed on the glass case in front of the sandwiches, which are more like what we know of as, calzones. When the young woman gave me the sandwich, she mentioned, “no cheese.” I told her I wanted the cheese and spinach sandwich and pointed to the description on the glass. She insisted there was no cheese. I purchased it anyway with some water and she was right, all spinach, and no cheese.
Our first night here I had traditional Greek food in a café overlooking the busy street. It was a “people-watching” event and the food was good, but not like the Greek food in America.
I had dinner at an the Italian restaurant, the 2nd night in Heraklion, which was superb, walked one last time to the Internet café to email my family and the 5th grade students and then headed back to the ship around 11:00 pm. By the time I hit the pillow, my body was still on a different time zone, so it wasn’t easy to fall asleep—or perhaps because I had slept too long earlier. I set the alarm this time and woke up at 6:30 am, feeling fine.
