Too Much
Mmmm, I just pulled a pile of clean clothes out of the laundry room. I’m bathed, shaved, and replenished with a fresh stock of clean clothes. Yes, we are back in Albania.
Greece was amazing in every sense of the word. But, to settle down again after a great adventure and enjoy the company of the ones you love right before Christmas… this is the life just as much as jumping around Greece is “the life”. What the heck does “the life” even mean? My life seems to always fit the bill. Thanks be to God.
Meteora was indescribable. Waking up in Hotel Antoniadis, we had our cappuccinos and it wasn’t long before I was in the car with Yiayia and Papou twisting through the roads. I looked to my left and to my right and there were huge pillars of stone shooting up out of the ground. Their facades were contradictory. They both taunted us and told us we wouldn’t make it while, in the most tantalizing manner, they beckoned us to keep climbing. I don’t think I really even knew what a camera was in that moment. I tried my hardest to snap pictures but the reality of what was in front of me was always greater than what showed up on the playback screen.
When we finally parked on top of one of the cliffs, Papou and I went in to tour a monastery. We walked around and drank in the history of the place while, of course, maintaining a good sense of humor.
I approached a door and, standing a couple feet away from it, I couldn’t really see inside, everything was pitch black. Even when I approached the window, I couldn’t really see. I stuck my camera in the hole and snapped a picture, according to Papou’s encouragement. When I pulled the camera back and looked at the picture I had just taken, I was startled. There was a shelf in that room where dozens of human skulls were lined up from top to bottom. On the periphery, I saw various baskets and barrels and more BONES. This was the room where they stored the remains of deceased monks.
We walked through the monks’ winery and saw their humongous cask. There was also an area where they had a pulley system holding a net over the edge of the cliff. Papou explained that this is how they used to get monks up and down from the monastery. After taking a couple of turns where I don’t think we were necessarily supposed to, we came upon an aerial cableway that is now used to transport tourists who are incapable of climbing the stairs up to the monastery. The car was suspended over the air and clipped onto the cable contraption. Papou somehow managed to convince me to climb into the suspended cable car for a picture. There was a part of me that wanted the car to come unclipped so I could fly through the air to the other side. Then, a part of me, of course, that knew such an escapade might end in death. We got some good shots of me scared out of my mind, at least.
Continuing our walk through the monastery we entered the old dining room of the monks. In the center of the room, multiple portraits of Greek military figures circled all the way around as the focal point. Pictures were strictly forbidden in that room and yet Papou somehow managed to come out with a picture of every single one of those amazing portraits. And I am a happy girl because of it!
At some point during our walk-through we heard a very familiar “Chris?!” rise out of the monastery. After taking a corner, we found Yiayia there and for some reason or another (maybe it was the image of her in the skirts that they made us wear looking around for us in the monastery) we all burst out in laughter. Now that Yiayia was with us there were, of course, thousands more pictures being taken. We saw a couple more sites and spent a significant amount of time in the gift shop.
On our way out of Meteora we kept pulling over for pictures. We made it to the top of another cliff and got even more great shots from one of the bridges leading to the monastery there. It was too close to closing time to enter that monastery but it was all the same to me after seeing the largest monastery and taking a million jaw-dropping photos of what I now consider to be one of the most jaw-dropping places on earth.
That night we drove to Athens and stayed the night outside of the city.
The next day I experienced some of the most unforgettable hours of my life as we drove around Athens and made our way to the Acropolis. I don’t know how to express the exhilaration and beauty of the scene. I only know that there was something about the overcast climate and the grandeur of that site that, together, produced a staggering brotherhood of unforgettable moments.
I ran up the marble steps, not wanting to miss it before the downpour. It’s still hard to imagine that just a couple days ago I was running up steps that led to the Acropolis while tiny drops of rain brushed my face. I saw it there, at the top of the mountain and I can’t imagine running toward any structure more beautiful.
When I got to the top, I waited for Yiayia and Papou and could hardly believe my own eyes. Not only was the Acropolis too much to handle but I was standing on top of the mountain overlooking Athens, Greece. I could see view of the marble theatre where the first modern Olympic games were held. I saw the great Parthenon with reliefs of Greek gods and goddesses. There were statues all around and marble ruins lining our path. It began to rain and the rain enhanced the inherent beauty of the scene. The world was spinning all around me and I felt Greek history leaking out of the ground beneath me, entering my body and renewing my mind. The rain was wetting my hair and it made me want to run all over the site and take everything in. It was wet and cold and marbleful. Every ounce of exhilaration in the world was condensed into that half hour of standing at the center of Greece.
We didn’t have much time to read all of the signs around the Acropolis as it was started to rain harder and harder. I have been reading up on it since, still trying to make sense of all the beauty and history atop that slab of rock. I can’t wait to go back.
After Athens, we drove out to Ioannina which is the largest city of Epirus (north-west Greece) and is east of the city where my great grandfather lived (Igoumenitsa). We stayed the night in Perama in a hotel overlooking the Pamvotis lake. Yesterday morning we woke up early, ate breakfast, and hit the road. We were supposed to go to Igoumenitsa to see the village where my great grandfather lived but Papou called one of his cousins and he told us not to come because the mountain was covered in snow and there was no passage. I figure this gives me a plausible reason to return to Greece next year…
The views leaving Greece and through the mountains of Albania were, again, flooring. In Greece some of the mountains were only half covered in snow. You could see a rust orange looking tree that stood only several feet south of its friend who was covered in a blanket of snow.
About two hours outside of Tirana we got in a car accident. By the grace of God, no one was hurt, except the car. It took us a while to get home last night. Needless to say, a nice, warm bath and seeing David’s face was exactly what the doctor ordered. Today I feel lazy and lovely and warm. I’m going to sift through all of the treasures I bought in Greece for some lovely people, I’ll probably spend a lot of idle time looking at everything I’ve see over the last week, and tonight we have plans to go caroling.
CHRISTMAS IS COMING! Four days.
Christmas in Albania 