Last time in Greece…

At the end of this month, I’ll be getting out of here for a couple of weeks to spend some time in Europe. Greece, Italy, France and England to be more precise. In anticipation of this great journey, I thought I’d reminisce on the last time I was in Greece.

It was the spring of 2005, and I was quite fortunate to visit Hellas for one week with fourteen other souls on the OCF Real Break trip. On Sunday we arrived at the airport in Athens. There we met our guide, who would take us all over central Greece for the next six days. We piled into a red mini-bus (aptly called the fire truck) and began our trek northward. On the way we stopped at a convent in ancient Thiva (Thebes). Here is a shot of the road leading away from the monastery (which is to the right).

Sunday night we reached our destination, the sixteenth century monastery of the Twelve Apostles just outside Karditsa. There are nuns from all over the world in this holy place. There is also an old, burnt-out church on the grounds where it is said that many Greeks were martyred decades ago. Thus the monastery is called “Red Church” by the locals. We were told not to go in. I recall walking outside the church on the first night and peering into the dark silence within. A somewhat haunting experience.

On Tuesday we traveled to a place which is considered by many to be the “second Mount Athos” of Greece. Holy Meteora.

At the feet of Meteora is the small town of Kalambaka…

…where we ate dinner.

On Wednesday we traveled deeper into central Greece to the monastery of Moni Petras. There we celebrated the Presanctified Liturgy in an old church and recieved the blessing from a renowned spiritual elder. I specifically recall hearing the monks chant in the beautiful Byzantine tones as their breath crystalled in the cold morning air. After breaking the fast with the monks, we spent most of the day throwing logs down a hill. It was an amazing experience. If you can believe it, most of us didn’t eat that day until we returned to Karditsa well after dark; yet none of us were remotely hungry…or even thinking about food.

Can you tell there’s no electricity in this church?

On Thursday, we visited the monastery of Mavromati to help the nuns with much of their work. This is their humble church.

Later we did some gardening and picked up trash in the surrounding hills. Here is a shot of the road leading up to Mavromati toward evening. One of my personal favorites.

On Friday we spent our last day in Karditsa, helping the nuns with various chores. Saturday morning we departed for Athens where we scaled the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon. Here is another ancient building on the Acropolis…

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…a column of the Parthenon…

…and a breathtaking view of Athens from the Acropolis.

Sunday, we boarded our plane and departed. It was necessary to find creative ways to pass the time on the 11-hour flight home.

So we decided to be Gypsies….

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