Published Thursday November 18th, 2004

Heh, well then.. As I now write this I'm on a boat named Highspeed 4 heading out towards Mykonos.. Exciting! This bout is pretty modern.. I went to the rear of the ship, the only place where one can go outside, and saw two huge sprays of water pushing the ship along. They almost seem like jets pushing the water away from the boat.. The wake of the ship is huge!

Anyway.. I have still to finish catching up with writing about the past few days.. At least I finally have a lot of time to kill while I wait to reach Mykonos. My pen is running out of ink..

Friday morning after eating breakfast and boarding the bus we went to the ruins of Delphi. During breakfast talking with the Australians, they had convinced me to eat with them at a low price instead of always eating lunch at the restaurants we were brought to on our tour.

We visited a museum, and then proceeded to see the ruins at Delphi. Our visits to these sites were always guided by our guide, Casandra, who was exceptionally informative. Other tour groups would come and go and we would still be in the same place while Casandra told us the history.. Her passion and knowledge on the sites we visited was astounding.

Soon, four hours of Friday morning had passed and it was almost 13.00. We departed the ruins of Delphi and as we boarded the bus and took our seats, Todd of Florida gave me a small little wrapped gift. A shot glass which he told me I would need to bring when I was going to visit him because he had one two. A sort of inside joke.. Thanks, Todd of Florida!

We drove back into town where we the group split. Some were on a 4 day tour which did not include the Meteora as the 5 day tour did. Todd was on the 4 day, so he left, as well as a few others..

The rest of us drove to some restaurant on the edge of town where we ate lunch after which we picked up another group of people on a 2 day tour to Delphi and the Meteora..


Meteora - Suspended in the air; in between heaven and earth.

Heh, as we continued on our way towards Mykonos, my pen becoming lighter and lighter I still have mobile phone service .. Ha ha.

Continuing: We left Delphi and drove back down into the valley of Olive trees, where we came from, but headed north up over a curvy mountain pass, down into a valley, up another mountain pass and then down into the plain of Theseus, the land of the centaurs.

This plain was filled with fields of cotton. The sides of the roads were littered with cotton which had come loose from all the many cotton transport trucks.. What I also noticed during the 4 hour trip with one stop at a highway rest stop, was that there were many animals: livestock, cattle, etc, just grassing on the sides of the roads completely unbound and free, sometimes idly standing on the roads. Herds of sheep, horses, cows, goats, and so forth.. just.. existing without containment as they pleased and or saw fit. I thought that was interesting.

In the evening around 18.00 we made a stop at some building complex where some priest created icons in the old-style and through taught the art to others.. The Byzantium Greek Church icons were interesting to look at. Though, not more interesting than 20 minutes which were were given at the stop.

After 20 minutes we left again and dropped of those in 1st or luxury class hotels. The rest of us drove into the sacred town of Kalampaka, right below the Meteoras at the edge of the Theseus plain where the centaurs were said to once have lived.

I took a shower, joined the Latino pair of couples for dinner as well as a stroll through town.. In the Saturday morning we departed early at 08.00. Picked up the rest of the group and then headed into the Meteoras.

These sort of naturally formed pillars at one polint held 24 monasteries, one of which was a nunnery. The sides of the sheer vertical Meteoras were also dotted by or with caves which were used by early monks before they build the monasteries.

We made a photo-stop, and then continued on to the monastery of Varlaam.

A few flight of stairs circumvented the old pulley-basket system for tourists visiting the monastery. These monasteries were perfectly placed to protect from looting or any other form of attack.

After seeing the small church or chapel in the Byzantine style of architecture from which Jesus stares down from a central dome on any visitor who stands below (which I find to be very disturbing and creepy), we saw some other sections of the monastery to which we had access to..

IN the store room we saw a giant wine barrel designed to get the monks through their winters of isolation.. These guys (the monks) must be drunk constantly based on the sheer size of the barrel!

I forgot to mention: Women had to wear dresses or skirts to enter the monasteries, and the males could not wear shorts. This was also true for the nunnery we visited after the monastery of Varlaam.

After purchasing an ion, I left the monastery. We all continued on, making another photo-stop, and then making our way to the Monastery of St. Stephen, a nunnery. Here, a sequence from James Bond - For Your Eyes Only was filmed in a courtyard we visited.

We explored the still in use nunnery, occasionally saw some "Sisters" walking about and so forth.. This site was bombed by the Germans against Greek resistance during WWII, and after during the revolution between the communists and Partisans. The location was used as a store-hold by the communists.

In a new church, were paintings were still being completed on the ceilings, I saw a depiction and painting on the top of a dome on the most beautiful calibre I had ever seen in any church. The paint was so incredibly vibrant in the relatively dark nave of the church. It was a sort of modern interpretation of Byzantine art and was simply amazing. It was extremely unfortunate that photography was prohibited and strictly enforced by the stern "Sisters" who held facial expressions with the likeness of an ugly, unmoved rock.

The painting showed a coastal scene in a sort of spherical shape in the dome of the structure abundant with tropical foliage, but equally spaced apart by vibrant yellow sands. Beautiful blue water with detailed waves rippling the surface. It was the first religious church drawing where I wished I could actually visit the imaginary depicted location. Next to this painting was another of a woman getting here breasts chopped off in graphic details, beheading, and a river of blood leading to the floor.. Erm.. Ha ha. Religions are funny.

After leaving the nunnery at around 13.00, we stopped for lunch back near Kalampaka. I sat with the french-Canadian couple and an old woman and her husband, both in their 80ties, both teachers, he once a professor. The old lady had a digital Rebel with her and another smaller digital camera which she had been using throughout the trip. I told her how cool I thought it was that she was able to use such a camera and understand how to use it.. She told me she was a photographer..

After lunch we started our 5 hour drive back to Athens during which we made 2 short stops for breaks. We had driven a total of 1300 kilometres through the entire trip by the time we got back to Athens..

The bus made numerous stops dropping off people at various hotels.. I got off near Omonia Square almost at random. The first two hotels I tried were full, but the third had rooms available for EUR 35. I liked the sounds of this. The hotel was nearby, relatively, to the Amaryllis hotel where I had stayed a t the beginning of my trip. It's funny how familiar I now am with this area of Athens around the Plaka..

After checking in and freshening up a bit, I went to the Plaka, strolled about a bit, and then ate dinner.. I got back to the hotel at around 22.30.

The 5 day tour had come to an end. It was a good, fun 5 day tour. I can recommend G.O. Tours for the 5 day tour of mainland Greece with Meteora based on my single experience with them for 5 days. The bus driver was kind and skilled and the guide was awesome, filled with information and enthusiasm, though this surely differs from guide to guide, driver to driver.

I got up this morning around 19.00, had breakfast (included in the price of the room), and before 11.00 I headed to Monastiraki and took the metro down to Piraeus, the harbour of Athens, for EUR 0.70.

I quickly found my ship at the harbour, but I was 3 hours early (intentionally.) I found some harbour terminal, went on the Internet at an Internet cafe in the terminal, ate something for lunch (at some sort of fast-food cafeteria.. It was pretty grouse and I didn't eat much of it.)

At around 12.30, I boarded the ship which departed at 14.00 for Siros-Tinos-Mykonos-?-?.. My destination is Mykonos where I should arrive relatively soon after about 4 hours of travel time during which I've been writing here.. in this notebook.

Heh.. This pen doesn't have much left in it and it's becoming difficult to write. For this reason I shall now end this entry.

Note that photos in this entry have not been altered and could possibly use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments among other touch-ups.