The Yosemite of Greece

This morning I woke up and sat on the beach reading my morning devotional (I’m reading Isaiah right now) as the sun came up over the ocean. What a great way to start the day! Then I headed out to Metora, a place I had seen some pictures of and wanted to visit. It’s about a 2 hour drive from the foot of Mt. Olympos. I was not disappointed. The rocks jut out of the earth like spires and monasteries have been built on the top of several of them. I think the pictures tell it all.


One of them shows a cave, which after a bit of hiking around I was able to find the trail head to. (There were also people rockclimbing up the spires like little ants)I’m not sure how long ago people built platforms and most likely lived in these caves, but it is amazing that they where able to use nothing but wood and holes carved into the rock walls to support themselves. I spent a few hours hiking around before heading back to the Afroditi hotel.

“Open Water”

I was planning to take a run Friday night afternoon after arriving at my hotel, the Afroditi on the Mediterranean coastline at the foot of Mt. Olympos. It was about 7pm and the sun was starting to set. As I looked from my balcony I noticed someone floating in the water about 200 meters of the shoreline. I thought to myself “I’d much rather take a swim, and this would be a perfect time to overcome my fear of swimming in open water”. I didn’t really want to go for a run anyways because I think I have a massive hangnail or some other unidentified problem with the big toe on my right foot since it hearts like crazy and is bleeding….but back to the swimming. I’m not really scared of open water if there is a large group of people, but I can’t help but feel like there are huge hungry fish all around me when I’m in the ocean. Or worse lots of tiny little hungry fish. And I know they are all much faster than I am. But this other guy was floating around like a huge buoy so I figured I should be safe.

So I headed out and got about ¼ as far from the shoreline as this guy had been when I noticed he was back on shore and I was now the only swimmer in the entire ocean. O.K. no problem, just breathe and swim…. So, I kept swimming and was actually enjoying the view as I turned around to float on my back and watch the sun set behind Mt. Olympos. If that was the home of the Greek Gods, including Zeus, than I was swimming in his bath tub. Kind of cool. Anyways, after watching the sun setting and noticing that it was going to be getting dark very soon, I turned over to start swimming again and I see a shadow below me. Then my eyes focus and I see a HUGE jelly fish! To that point I had seen nothing in the water but little anchovy type fish and when I saw this jelly fish I must have swam the fastest 20 meters ever back towards shore. I may have even hydroplaned on my first couple of strokes.. The only thing I know about jelly fish is that some of them can be deadly and I wasn’t about to find out which kind this was. After my 20 meter sprint I slowed down and actually laughed at myself because it really wasn’t that big and it was probably 10 ft below me. Since the point was to overcome my fear, I started swimming back out towards it but couldn’t find it anymore. So, I slowly headed back to shore swimming and floating towards the sun set.

Santorini

If you ever travel to Greece and can only visit 1 island, Santorini is the one I would recommend. Black sand beaches, volcanoes, amazing sunsets, great local wines, and breathtaking cliff vistas. I only had 2.5 days there. Not enough. Oh well, that just means I'll have to go back ;) The first night on the island I went to the Santorini Festival, a buffet dinner with traditional dancing and wine testing. After dinner, and before the dancing, I decided to check out the museum that was open to guests for the night. I was the only one down there and all the lights were on motion sensors, only turning on as I reached certain points, which gave the museum hallway a dark feeling. As I approached a scene ofmanikinss I also became aware, suddenly, that they also were set to move on motion sensors. As the fake heads turned to look at me, I couldn't help but think I was in some sort of wax museum movie come to life. When I got out the dancing had begun, and I missed a bit of the traditional dancing. But I made it in time to see the belly dancing and get pulled on the dance floor to participate in the group circle dance. After the music was over we were all heading back to our seats when I got pulled back on the dance floor. Just the 4 professionals (if you can call them that) and myself. We danced in a side by side line with arms on each others shoulders. One guy would lead and say something in Greek and the others would join in leaving me to either mimic what they were doing quickly or start tripping over my feet. It was a fun challenge trying to follow their foot work, although it wasn't really all that complicated. A very fun evening.

Next day I took a boat excursion that included a hike up a dormant volcano, swim in hot springs, lunch at an island village considered to be the least developed village in Greece, rock diving and a sunset dinner on the north end of the island. The entire day was filled with amazing vistas.



On the second day I decided to head up the hill to an ancient city that was built 2500 years ago. There are no postcards and very little information about the city, but I could see the trail and I asked the hotel owners about it. The confirmed that I could get to it with the trail and so I took a water bottle and ran up the hill. When I reached the site I was amazed. It was the best set of remains of an ancient village that I have seen in Greece. You could really picture the village with all the little houses and central squares. It was really cool, but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me. You'll have to take my word for it.


I stayed at Stelio's Place, a very nice little hotel just 100 meters from the ocean. The owner, Stelio, picks everyone up from the ferry or airport and also gives everyone rides back to the ferries and airport when they leave. His wife does all the breakfast cooking which was wonderful. I highly recommend it. www.steliosplace.com