{"id":2616,"date":"2017-10-01T04:43:06","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T10:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2017-10-07T13:28:10","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T19:28:10","slug":"1020-steps-5-monasteries-a-nunnery-lotsa-mushrooms-and-lotsa-meat-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triciakarsay.com\/guatemala\/1020-steps-5-monasteries-a-nunnery-lotsa-mushrooms-and-lotsa-meat-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"1020 Steps, 5 Monasteries, a Nunnery, Lotsa Mushrooms and Lotsa Meat, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Month #10, Meteora, Thessaly. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow. Not only is this place otherworldly, I have seriously wanted to come here since my very first visit to an Orthodox monastery. \u00a0That was 1991 in Amorgos, I was traveling with a couple of guys I met on the boat to Naxos\u00a0and one of them was from New Zealand\u001f\u2014Brett D’Acourt (I’m surprised I remember his full name…he was very spiritual and also a good letter writer!). \u00a0I wanted to visit untouristed\u00a0Amorgos for a few reasons, but primarily to see this spectacular cliff monastery I read about.<\/p>\n

After hanging\u00a0around Naxos\u00a0together for a few days, Brett and Nick (Dutch guy) were also pretty keen\u00a0to join the\u00a0adventure so we hopped on the next boat. \u00a0I think we arrived late afternoon,\u00a0and at that time Amorgos\u00a0wasn’t like other islands I visited, where touts came to meet the boats and whisk you away to cheap rooms. There\u00a0was no one named Kostas waiting for us at the port holding a sign with “Aegean Village” or “Rooms Voula” on it. \u00a0Actually there very few people around at all, so we just went to the first taverna, pointed to an\u00a0octopus the owner probably just beat the crap out earlier that day\u00a0and grilled it up for our dinner. \u00a0After we ate, I\u00a0mimed the international sign for sleep and then someone’s\u00a0yiayia <\/em>just showed up out of nowhere and brought us up to her roof. \u00a0There were some mattresses with blankets and pillows and she charged us the equivalent of $1 to sleep there under the constellations that fueled so many myths. \u00a0It was almost as great as Easter Eve on Naxos when we couldn’t find a place to stay so\u00a0we all just slept under a tree on a beach. \u00a0Magic. \u00a0Ahhhh, the good old days. \u00a0Now I just look up apartments on airbnb and harass\u00a0my soon-to-be hosts about the speed of their wifi.<\/p>\n

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This is not my photograph, but I have a similar one at home. \u00a0And this is on the island of Amorgos, not in Meteora. \u00a0Visiting this extraordinary place almost 30 years ago with some other backpackers is what sparked my knowledge and interest in visiting Meteora.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next morning\u00a0we immediately hiked up to the dramatic whitewashed\u00a0Monastery of Hozoviotissa<\/a>.\u00a0Built into the side of a mountain\u00a0in the late\u00a011th century, it is one of the oldest Orthodox monasteries in Greece. I was excited to visit and vividly remember the strange\u00a0interaction. \u00a0First we had to cover ourselves in dusty black frocks in order to enter or visit\u00a0with one of the resident monks or priests. Then we were brought into a room where a man\u00a0I assumed\u00a0was a priest was reclining on a bed,\u00a0who\u00a0then summoned a very young woman I assumed was a habitless nun. \u00a0She entered with a tray and served the priest and\u00a0us raki<\/em> and turkish delights\u00a0and was\u00a0silent as he spoke\u00a0to us rapidly in Greek, and waved his arms around rather wildly given\u00a0his prostrate position. \u00a0I remember being very confused about the whole thing. \u00a0Who was the girl and why were we doing shots and eating these perfume jelly candy things with this holy dude? Anyway,\u00a0Brett\u00a0told me he was heading\u00a0to Meteora and Mount Athos to check out these amazing monasteries built into rocks that women weren’t allowed\u00a0to visit, so of course that just made me want to go more. \u00a0And on that very same trip, after parting ways with Brett and Nick, I met another guy on the boat from Rhodes who had just been to Meteora\u2014John from Minnesota, a poet in seminary school. \u00a0Also a good letter writer. \u00a0I just can’t believe it took me 29 years to get here!<\/p>\n

Anyway, I did not mean to go on that nostalgic\u00a0tangent, but I am very excited to finally be somewhere I’ve wanted to go for so long and never got around to visiting. \u00a0So let’s fast forward to the present! \u00a0Okay, yesterday, after circumnavigating the train station a few times, I finally got to the hotel and Dita, the very sweet owner of the\u00a0Monastiri Guesthouse<\/a>,\u00a0gave us the most wonderful “map” of the area. I love it and I’m keeping it forever.\u00a0At first glance, it made me think\u00a0I might be able to visit at least one or two of the 6 monasteries before dinner!<\/p>\n

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Now this is my\u00a0kind of map. \u00a0It has everything I need to process directions and successfully plan and navigate through a new place:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Questionable distances.<\/strong> I like when every\u00a0place\u00a0looks like it’s an inch or two away from the next place. It gives me a false sense of confidence that I can easily and quickly walk\u00a0from one place to another, and makes me feel invincible.<\/li>\n
  2. Cartoon line drawings of landmarks and monuments.\u00a0<\/strong> I am very receptive to this approach to\u00a0cartography because it gives me the ability\u00a0to visualize myself in the map while I\u00a0hold it in the direction I am walking, which is usually north.<\/li>\n
  3. Arrows.<\/strong> \u00a0What can I say, I’m a sucker for arrows.<\/li>\n
  4. Very. Practical. Information.<\/strong>\u00a0How many steps I have to climb, the amount of time it will take to walk from point A to point B, movie\u00a0references, food discounts and free stuff…what else does anyone need to know?<\/li>\n
  5. Bus times!<\/strong> \u00a0Now this is a first. \u00a0And the added\u00a0bonus of an arrow pointing FROM<\/strong>\u00a0the bus times TO<\/strong> the bus stop! \u00a0Genius.<\/li>\n
  6. Emergency phone number!!<\/strong>\u00a0 Every map should have the phone number of someone you\u00a0can call if\u00a0you\u00a0get lost.<\/li>\n
  7. A compass!!! \u00a0<\/strong>So if I get lost I can call them and say\u00a0I’m somewhere west of St. Stefanos and east of the wifi password.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It was already almost 3\u00a0pm when I\u00a0headed out\u00a0and armed\u00a0with the realization\u00a0that nothing really was an inch away from me, I just went on\u00a0a fantastic walk to, through and a little beyond Kastraki.<\/p>\n

    I wanted to see if I could get into St. Nikolaos before closing time and Dita told me about a footpath on the way that passed a ruined monastery dedicated to St. George. \u00a0Built in the 14th C, only the chapel in this cliff cave survives, but it is the location\u00a0of a miracle.<\/p>\n

    According to a local legend from the 17th C,\u00a0 Ayios Giorgos the “Mandila<\/em>s” (handkerchiefs in Greek) is where a Turkish woman dispatched a prayer and her veil with a local from Kastraki, to climb\u00a0up to the ruin to\u00a0hang it on the altar\u00a0in exchange for\u00a0the saint to revive\u00a0her dying husband. \u00a0Every year since, on April 23rd, the name day of St. George, villagers who want to ask\u00a0the saint for good health or something else like “fortunate marriages”, tie their handkerchief to the adventurous young women and men from Kastraki who then climb the steep cliff face to replace the previous year’s handkerchiefs with new ones. \u00a0I found a good blog post with photos and interesting background\u00a0about the celebration,\u00a0http:\/\/eu.camperistas.com\/1676\/kastraki-st-george<\/a>. \u00a0I truly\u00a0love these wonderful traditions, they reinforce all that I adore\u00a0about Greece, a land steeped in myth and legend and wonder and hope.<\/p>\n