New Girls in Mirtos!

These are my roommates and I at the top of one of the sites today: Anita, Justine, Sam, Katie and I.

The locals love us! Everyone stops us and asks us if we're staying at "the hotel" like there's only one, which I think there is haha. I'm sitting in this tiny internet cafe eating spanakopita in exchange for free internet haha. Last night was purely magical and what I think studying abroad is all about.

We ate dinner at this great pizza place right by the ocean, it was beautiful. We couldn't see the sunset but we saw the moonrise which was just as great. The whole time we were ate dinner these 5 little boys kept staring at us and playing in the sand right below us. All of the sudden we hear this adorably accented "What's your name?" and we look to see them all staring and laughing at us. We answer them and they say each of our names back to us in the most beautiful way, I wished everyone said my name like that. Then we got into a game of hide and seek and funny faces that 6 year old boys just love. One of the boys was named "Louis Louis" and was breakdancing for us in the sand!

Then we went into this cute shop to eat ice cream in the old fashion glass dishes and while we were there these Creten boys/men sent us raki shots! Then they asked us if we were going to the "rock and roll" concert later that night. Of course we had to go. It was at this pizza restaurant owned by this Italian women and the band was Italian. They looked like old hippes: tattoos, dreadlocks, dirty ripped clothes, but they were actually good! They played Skinner, Rolling Stones, lots of classic rock. The lead singer could actually sing while smoking a ciggarette, something I've never seen before.

While were sitting there this Dutch guy and his Creten friend by us wine and start talking to us, asking us where we're from and everything. They knew great English so that was fun to talk to them. Then one of the girls requested Sweet Home Alabama and they played it! We all started screaming, there were 9 of us, and ran up to dance in front of the stage on the promenade. This whole thing took place in an area of about 100 square feet. The crowd was LOVING it! Everyone in the village was there, old women and men, young babies, teenagers, everyone! We sit back down and we find out these 5 Creten boys send over a pitcher of margarittas for us! They come over and we talk to them about Crete and what they do here, etc.

Turns out one of them is cousins with the infamous "Louis Louis" so we kept playing with them the whole night. Then the Creten boys start dancing with us and whole town is just staring! All 9 of us girls, 5 Creten boys, and the younger boys laughing and dancing around, some even breaking glasses. It was incredible. I love the girls here, we're all pretty close and get along great. After we get tired my roommates and I: Katie, Anita, Justine, and Sam all pile into their room and talk for about an hour just about each other's lives, it was wonderful.

This morning we had breakfast and it was really good. The hotel owner kept bringing us stuff and if she asked how it was and we said good she would bring us three times as much! She got really confused when you would try and say no so we just kept accepting what she brought.

Then we left to go to two really challenging sites. We climbed up these mountains full of prickly bushes that oddly enough smelled like rosemarry. The views were fantastic! The ocean is just so gorgeous and is surrounded by this great atmosphere of landscape and plants. The Minoan civilizations we went to were Myrtos, Pyrgos, and Gournia.

We were back by noon today and ate lunch at the same place the band played at while being stared at by Louis Louis and his friends. We had delicious guacamole (I know, it's odd) and feta and salami sandwiches made with Foccacia. Then we headed down to the beach for a couple of hours to lay out and swim in the sea. It was a great afternoon! Now we're all catching up on our internet stuff and we'll go to dinner later. Tomorrow night we leave for Santorini!

Talk soon hopefully and will get my pictures up by the end of the weekend!