I've always been fascinated by graveyards. Especially the ones where the graves have intricately designed headstones, or it's in a really unique setting like on the side of a mountain or hidden away somewhere. It's an unusual interest to some, but I personally find them beautiful and thought provoking, and plan on featuring the various cemeteries I visit on this blog.
Today's post features the last graveyard I visited which was way back in September on a family holiday to Crete. I was in a village called Margarites which is famous for its pottery studios, when I stumbled upon a cemetery just behind a working monastery. The grounds of the monastery had a really beautiful garden, complete with birds and pink bougainvillea everywhere. When I peaked my head around a tiny chapel at the side of the main building I saw a row of crosses in the near distance, and my brother walking towards me asking if I'd seen the cemetery.
It was a blazing hot sunny day so I was surprised to find this to be one of the more eerie cemeteries I've visited as there was no fog and plenty of (blinding) sunlight.
I'm used to seeing gravestones of people who died in the early 1900's and earlier, however this one contained people who had passed away much more recently. It left me feeling a bit strange about taking photos, I personally don't believe in any particular religion or afterlife, and there weren't any people visiting the graves so I wasn't disturbing anyone but I'm not used to visiting the graves of people who lived in my lifetime.
I noticed that quite a few of the gravestones had little items on them. It must be a tradition in Greece (or just Crete) to leave items the deceased person loved. I saw half filled Fanta bottles on people's graves, personal photographs. cigarette packs etc.
