Is it possible to sum up the peculiar, passionate, unconventional and often contradictory nature of Cretan people? Only if you look in the right place… We tried the one-acre rocky land on the top of the island’s highest mountain, the ‘mythical’ Psiloritis, also know as mount Ida, home to Zeus and a pilgrimage site since antiquity.
The main ‘character’ of this 52 minutes documentary is this mountain, specifically its summit, Timios Stavros that attracts people like a magnet until now. Why do they still ascent?
Though not considered a difficult climb by most standards, it is quite challenging because of the extremely strong winds, the rugged relief and the low temperatures. The only valid response to the question “why Psiloritis” is a tautologous one: “because it is Psiloritis.”
This mountain is the soul of Crete, a land so complicated and diverse.
Crete is a very popular tourist destination with around 2 millions visitors each year. However, very few of them, even the other Greeks, manage to penetrate its world. Cretans have the reputation of being extremely hospitable, hotheaded, passionate for freedom, open-minded and at the same time full of superstitions. They are somewhat Christian somewhat pagan. They are crazy about music and rhyming couplets. They possess and use guns, they practice personal vengeance (vendetta), they are goat thieves for fun. How much of all this is true?