Dolphins and the golden ticket

For years I had this ancient Minoan dolphin fresco from Crete on my desktop at work. It was my direct link to my goal to go to Greece one day. Dolphins are my favourite animal (besides unicorns of course) and I am drawn to any piece of art that depicts them. I first saw this fresco in an undergraduate course on Ancient Greek art and fell in love. I was adamant that I would see it one day in situ.

This particular piece is from the palace of Knossos in Crete outside of Iraklion (Heraklio). It was found in the Queen's room, or Megaron, and dates back thousands of years. The Queen's room also has a clay bathtub, a toilet, running water, and a dressing room - technology that was lost for millenia. The palace of Knossos was massive, around 20,000 square metres.

The Minoans were as old to the 5th century Greeks, as ancient Greece is now to us. Their civilization dates back to the 6000 BCE and lasted until around 1000 BCE. Sir Arthur Evans, an archaeologist named the culture after the myth of King Minos, the Labyrinth and the Minotaur. No one knows what they called themselves.

The Minoans are thought by archaeologists to be a matriarchal culture, as all their religious iconography depicts goddesses of fertility and power. Minoan palaces served a dual purpose as a royal residence and ritual centres. The Minoans were seafarers and had connections with Egypt, African and other parts of Greece. It is believed that the inhabitants of Santorini (Thira) at Akrotiri and Thira were Minoan. Mainly I like that the women apparently walked around topless!

In 2005 I was working for a children's health and development program as the Operations Manager. Summers were always extremely busy and I had not been on a real vacation for years. At the end of the summer my boss and mentor gave me a gift. When I opened the wrapping, I found two guide books on Greece. My initial reaction was gratitude, as I thought she was encouraging me to go on the trip I had always longed for. However when I looked further, opening the first page of one of the guide books, I saw that she had written me a cheque to cover a return flight from Vancouver to Greece! It was one of the most overwhelming moments of my life. I was shocked, ecstatic, nervous, enlivened and overwhelmed. I could not process or believe that I was actually going to be able to go to Greece. I was amazed at her kindness and the fact she would facilitate something so amazing for me. As a world traveller herself, she know the value of travel and how it can change a person's life.

So my planning began. I knew I could take time off work in the fall, and wanted to make the most of my time and ticket, so I planned to go for 5 weeks. My boyfriend was working and it was impossible for him to take time off work. That is when I realized that this was going to be a solo trip - my first one ever, alone as a woman in Eastern Europe in a country where I did not speak the language. There were a few things I knew at this point: (a) I was going to backpack (b) I was going to to plan my trip around archaeological sites and museums, and (c) I was going to come back different.