After postponing with Dio several times to take a round about way through the islands, I have finally met up with my Cretan Canadian friend. Tho he has now left for Athens for a day and I have acquired myself a nice couchsurf and a solid hangover.
My host and all his friends in Heraklion are so fucking awesome and truly made me think about things from a a different perspective. It's rare that happens for me, I'm usually the one to, as arrogant as it sounds, enlighten the others I pass in life. I always say I think the only thing we have in this world is each other, our relationships, that every encounter is truly significant and has the ability to affect the course of our lives. We should try to affect everybody in a positive sense and hence direct them down a positive path. I'm already wandering this path BUT every so often, someone says something in passing conversation that touches my very existence and moulds my school of thought ever forward. I find it difficult to look around and think that everything hasn't been thought of at this point in humanity, that every avenue has at least been explored but not perfected, the basic concepts existing without resolution. 'But hasn't every era of forward thinkers thought just that? That everything was considered or discovered? Then low and behold, the concept of democracy was created, or the first alphabet or piece of paper. Maybe there lies an undiscovered idea, an alternative to money or bartering, a solution to the disease of greed poisoning our existence. To believe that there waits concepts unknown, social, economical or political, is the very substance of an open mind.' (paraphrased - Stelios) The very substance of an open mind... I can't argue with that in the slightest. Though, I think we all long to believe there is more undiscovered and not just unperfected, it can be hard. I know since this statement I will attempt to believe that possibility, shying away from the pessimistic face of the argument.
The conversation extended down many avenues, mostly a constant and amusing reiteration of how many English words are Greek. The origins of the word Anthropoid, coming from a Greek term - Άνω θρωσκω - Ano Throsko - Literally refers
to those who look up. We are the only beings to ever look up for no particular reason other than fascination, a desired gaze into the endless and unforgiving, filling our lives with questioned existence, making them not only a strive for survival but a hunt for the meaning in it all. We were never happy with just existing. We all question why. What are we here to do? Were we created or did we just stumble into the accident of existence? No point on starting that subject, the only thing we will ever know, is that we know very little.
It's Good Friday, a day that has always been one of my favourite holidays in Bermuda. I'm caught in thoughts of hot cross buns, fish cakes and kites and knowing that all the people I love most are congregating with endless supplies of rum. I love traveling and experiencing new thing but maaannnn, it would be so much easier if I hated where I came from! I long to be loud, obnoxious and offensive to the people I love most and in return, get the same respect. I seem to be cold and utterly exhausted no matter what I do, struggling to be the bubbly self I love and just collapsing, unable to keep up. Being in Crete doesn't help, I know in my socialising today, I will have to consume 10 more glasses of Raki. Bermudians party in spurts, 4 days here, then on the tack for a little while, then one nite here and back on the tack for a little while, but Crete, HAAA! It's everyday. They need no break, recognise no tack and feel no hangover it seems. And yeh, I know, I'm supposed to represent but it has been hard consuming the Bermuda basic equivalent to rubbing alcohol and I think any one of you would have trouble eating that much food and drinking that much booze for an extended period of time.
We drove around last nite, amid stops for Raki, visiting each church to see the decorations being made for this coming Sunday. Little girls help make wreaths of carnations to adorn Jesus on the cross while families gather for a more than 2000 year old tradition. While everyone driving around that nite were atheists and anarchists, we still find beauty in it all and appreciate the traditions. All the elders here are Greek Orthodox but I'm yet to meet a young person who isn't an atheist. Yet despite their inclination to science, the traditions are mostly still respected and celebrated. The other tradition is fireworks, there's something about a saviour getting tacked up on a cross that says 'let's set shit on fire!' With the face of Jesus popping up everywhere though, my thoughts are on all the martyrs who've been forgotten. The countless people who died on crosses that the world chose not to remember.
Let's be honest, religion has everything to do with where you're born, who you're raised by and what path of knowledge you choose to take in life. If you were born in India, Nepal, Afghanistan or the New Guinea rainforest you'd believe something different. To judge the non believers or alternative believers is to say that you don't agree with the circumstances they were usually just born into. As if you have some kind of control or right. To teach that Jesus is the only way to salvation, redemption or truth, is to say that every other religion is wrong. Despite there being millions of paths to enlightenment and there being many far more ancient religions than Christianity. I am coming to realise that I am a very religious person. I just don't believe in false idols and a laid out path. I believe in culture, history and individuality. Christianity swept the world like a disease, destroying everything in its path. Destroying ancient scientific, spiritual and historical documents (Mayan), Covering history with crosses (Egyptian), and all the while reaping monetary benefits to build it ever stronger, to grow ever outward and teach that this is the only way, that your current religion is false and that you must erase it entirely. It makes me sick to think of all the knowledge we've lost in the name of Christ. If he was or wasn't the son of God, he'd probably be equally as disgusted as I with what his name has become and all the terrible things it has brought reason to. Just as the Prophet Mohammad would likely be disgusted with the extremist, highlighted version of the Koran that CNN & illiterate terrorists have made us so familiar with.
Since I've been on this trip I have created my rituals, to keep me sane and focused, positive and precise, thankful and calm. I am my own religion and I know now that being direct in thought and intention makes all of this an easier endeavour. Rituals help you be direct and help cement thoughts into existence by relating them to actions. I pray everyday, not for someone to help me but to find the strength to help myself. That strength comes only from becoming balanced with the energy around me. At the basis of our very core and at the base of everything, is energy. It is the only thing I am comfortable believing in. Thoughts are proven to change the molecular structure of water, no one can say logically, that counts for nothing, that we are not part of this system and this earth. Religion often puts man above the life cycle, a separate entity, earth as a medium to serve our needs. When really, she does not serve us and we do not serve her, we should just cohesively exist or at the very least attempt to.
Dio was saying that he had this idealised vision of how college would go and was disappointed to discover the chase for grades and lacking enthusiasm, just as I did as well. But he made an interesting point. Knowledge is sacred, why don't we treat it as such? Why is there no ritual, no respect? The seek for knowledge on our own accord and not becuz of obligation or a grade. There is such a huge lack in respect for knowledge today and little emphasis on the teacher also being the student. To enter into the quest for knowledge as equals would create an entirely different dynamic, less concerned with grade outcomes and more concerned about knowledge gained.
Where ever I am tho, I will embrace the cultural conditions and traditions and learn all I can. Today is Easter, when a week long fast of meat is broken in great style. Praise the lord, kill the goat! I will be in the midst of a large Greek family soon, consuming as much Raki and food as possible. Last nite, thousands of candles filled the town, symbolising the acceptance of the light of Christ into their lives. This tradition however is not upheld by the atheists. One would think this would be a peaceful celebration, a moment of reflection and respect. You would be sadly mistaken in Greece. Even now the next day I could easily imagine I am in a war zone, dynamite exploding constantly with thunderous boom and despite a large crowd and children gathered last nite, it was the same. Dynamite going off in the lake, unable to walk through the open spaces in the crowd becuz it's dangerous and ducking the ash from fireworks immediately above our heads, set off by miniature pyromaniacs nearby. It is beyond a miracle that more people aren't killed every year, tho just as I said that, it came on the TV that a 7 year old was killed by fireworks in Rhodes. It's surprising the disrespect of some, setting off loud explosions immediately next to you when you're sitting in a quiet area. I can't really figure out what's amusing about constant gun shots going off with no light display. In small towns, everyone gets drunk and breaks out the guns, firing them into the air. Needless to say, it's a wasteful, dangerous and deafening tradition that I could have done without.
The Greek family gathering is strict to the stereo type. Meat, meat, meat, music and raki! Underage drinking is not even a thing here but it works better becuz the kids aren't concerned with getting smashed or in desperate need of the forbidden. They all drink responsibly which is not surprising becuz in general, people are more mature here and don't look at alcohol as a way to get toasted like most Bermudians / British / Americans do. Weed is used but still taboo and other drugs seem non existent. Everyone who's done harder drugs did them somewhere else. There's a particular set of things you expect to find in Greece but I have been surprised several times from the Johnny Cash sing a likes to the open and thriving gay community. There is alot of different culture packed into the national identity, always starting with proud Greek roots but ranging across the same spectrum of stereo types in the US. The Greeks are well educated, angry and determined people, particularly the section of youth that is pissed off with the current status quo. That number forever grows with the continued army drafting for a 9 month service at 8€ a month. Disgusting. One of the few places with a draft still in effect. At least in Israel the draft is for men and women. Bermuda and the current argument with BAD members and the entire inscription process is not as bad as it is here in Greece, tho we should not be comparing ourselves to other countries to decide what is fair. What is fair and logical is mandatory community service for all, starting at a reasonable 2 hours a month. That's a topic I intend to cover at a later date, on another blog. Anyway, back to Greece! I find the multiculturalism here with such strong Greek roots, fascinating and wonder if it will be similar in other countries I go to.
Slept a total of 80 minutes today. 20 on the marble entrance of Agios Nikoloas bus station in sleeping bag with my stuff locked to my wrist, 20 on the bus, 20 at Knossos on some ancient wall and then 20 on some playground before I finally got over the exhaustion and hit 2 museums. The ferry to Athens tonite will give me some sleep. Knossos was a significant disappointment, comparable to a cheesy movie site, but that's not what irritated me about it. The roped off sections EVERYWHERE ruin the feel of it being an ancient city, glass dividing everything, making is fairly impossible to see anything unless you're tall enough to see over the glass. Basically nothing is original and it shows with cement slapped everywhere. It's scale is impressive but it's so over run with tourists, even in the off season, that it feels small trying to run away from them. I truly regretted not bringing headphones cuz around every freaking pillar is some French tour guide. I wish I had gotten to see more of Crete, Chania, Rethymo, and so many more places but I've made a definite decision to come back and experience more, in warmer weather!
....So much for sleep on the ferry ride. I got a little but woke up coughing cuz every body thinks it's their right to smoke inside. I've concluded, the only reason I won't live in Europe is becuz of the smoke. Smoked out rooms with children coughing. So gross. Basically, I'm gonna be so done smoking after this trip. Also couldn't get much sleep becuz people don't use condoms or any other form of birth control and just continue breeding their below average genes so they can scream and cry and run around like 'whirling dervishes. I don't even know what a whirling dervish is... But I know that's what they were like.' Don't they have cages for them? : / Meanwhile, their parents are the ones chain smoking.
I realise now, I hate traveling and love everything in between. Catching the ferry, train, bus, organising this, booking this, did that person respond? Do I have a place to stay? The ferry only leaves 3 days a week and then I'll be stuck here for this amount of time, so I'll need to do this, but I arrive at 2am and blahhh blahhh blah! And what is with hotel check in and out times? Like flights and other schedules ever fit with that! Why can't it just be 24 hours from the frikin time u check in if the room is available? Yeh yeh maids, but I would pay happily to have that option. Ok. Complaints voiced. Back in Athens at my favourite place, pure bliss, about to spend a couple hours meditating and forcing positivity.
Random notes:
It took me a considerably long time to notice how there are little or no trees there are in on the coast lines of Greece. It's what creates such an iconic rolling and smooth coast line, a response to harsh conditions and both extremes of weather. There are no question marks in Greek. Instead they use a semi colon. Why aren't corner toilets more of a thing in the west? They make so much sense. Toilets here are a bit like mental challenges. Every one is different and u have to solve it. HahaCrete is considered quiet separate from Greece, having it's own form of the language that many main land Greeks don't understand. There's even ipod applications to help one decipher. It is the island most associated with excessive consumption in all its forms and is also the place in a Greek family situation, you can absolutely not say no. So I'm told anyway. Binge and purge if needed. Keep eating, everyone is too skinny. I have the pleasure of spending Easter here which will surely be quite an event. Upon arriving in Crete I was told "I don't know if u knew this or not... But Crete.. It's pretty fuckng awesome." So double that statement for holiday festivities.
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