We assembled for breakfast in the hotel dining area on the patio at 9:30. When we all had eaten, we boarded the bus and drove to the Minoan Palace and New Palace ruins with Bob and Anne regaling us with the known history of this 3500 year old prehistoric people. The palaces must have been very elegant and comfortable. We toured the site for more than an hour before returning to Matala.

Bob, Anne, Drew, and I had lunch on the veranda of the hotel complex overlooking the beach. Bare-breasted German women showered in the public facilities at the beach entrance. The commonplace here is considered a crime at home. We have a long way to go in this area. I went to the hotel internet café and fulfilled two days of email requests, obligations, courtesies, and spam deletions before returning to my room with the intention of writing. I made the mistake of lying back and awoke and hour and a half later, in time for our tour of two Matala sites.

On the other side of the beach from the hotel, a number of “caves” are carved into the Neogene limestone cliffs. These caves were tombs from the era of Roman occupation. During the hippie era of the 1960's Cat Stevens lived in one of them. Joanie Mitchell wrote “The wind is in from Africa ……beneath the Matala moon.”

We clambered over the cliffs, peeking in the caves and seeing the final resting place for the dead. A marble Roman sarcophagus was sitting tilted near beach level. A large boulder had crushed a late Roman structure house when it and about 5 other 20-40 ton boulders tumbled at least 30 m from the cliffs. Kristen and Justin partially excavated an intact amphora but then covered it back up. It was a fascinating place but is pooh-poohed by the archaeological glitterati because of its connection with the drug culture.

We next walked across town to the site of the Roman town. The gridded excavation pattern used by the English archaeologists had not been backfilled for preservation and was open to all. Drew found a large piece of a pythos that preserved the fingerprints of a child. We photographed it and put it back.

Anne and I went shopping when we returned. I bought a map of Crete , a book on its geology and some post cards. Upon returning to the hotel, I was invited by Aaron Post, Ben, and Justin to join them for dinner. We went to a place down the beach where I had excellent fried calamari and ample wine. Afterwards the four of us retreated to a tavern where we commenced to do shots of ouzo and some other local liqueur whose name I have yet to learn. We had a lot of good, sometimes deep, conversation during the evening. Most of the other students drifted in during our time there, some drifted back out.

I proved to be the weak hitter and left around 12:25 to go back to the hotel. I had no trouble falling asleep.