Mt. Athos

Saturday

Woke up at Vergina, the town that houses the Ancient Royal Tombs and we drove to Ouranopouli. There we can pick up our permits to enter the Holy land and take a speed boat over there. For some odd reason we couldn't find any availability in any of the hostels or guest rooms in Ouranopouli. The only hotel did so that's what we took. Worth the extra cost for the AC though. After getting our bearings straight, locating the ferry office and where to pick up our permits, we bought supplies for the day and stayed in the hotel room all day long. A necessary rest day for the day after hiking Mt. Olympus and the day before exploring Mt. Athos. Aside from an early dinner, we didn't leave the hotel. Sunday will be a day full of walking around and looking at more ancient monasteries.

Sunday

This'll be the nth time I explain what Mt. Athos is, mostly for myself, I'm getting a better understanding of what this area truly is. A proper comparison I've heard is that Mt. Athos is to the Orthodox religion as the Vatican City is to the Catholic religion. Now I understand why they say making a reservation six months in advance is necessary. We pick up our tickets at 8 and take the ferry to the peninsula by 8:45. We land at 9:30 and as a couple of completely lost Americans that we are, decide to walk to the city of this area. Climbing Mt. Parnassus & Mt. Olympus, and constantly walking during Dr. Lane's project gave us a false sense of understanding heights. This peninsula goes up and down and up and down again. The city was an estimated 7h away and we thought we could do it sooner. Idiots the pair of us. But fortune favors us! We found a path with the sign "Keryus" (the city), perfect and we started walking. We reach a small farm area, rest for a bit then continue our path upwards. Fortune no longer favors us, the path seemed to be less maintained as we went on. Who knew that once cars were introduced, the walked path would be abandoned. But we trudged on thinking we'd find the rest of the route eventually. Want to guess what happened? We got lost. In the forest of Mt. Athos. How is somebody going to rescue us when even we didn't know where we were? We continue upwards as downwards meant defeat and we eventually find a road. Checking the map we did the least amount of progress somebody can make when taking an abandoned path. So we did what any other exhausted and tired and dirty person would do. We tried to hitchhike. After the third vehicle, a monk driving a truck picked us up and dropped us off at the city. Thank you monk man. We were also told to make a reservation with a monastery to spend the night. I sent a blast email requesting lodging, of the 8 I emailed 5 said they were packed, and the others said to be there by 3pm. We decided to stay with Magistis Lavras. The oldest monastery built in 953. So it now being noon, and the distance from the city to the monastery, by foot, was 7 hours, we weren't going to make it. We walked around the seemingly empty city and found out they have a bus system on the peninsula. Supposedly the bus to Lavras left at 1:30. That left us with enough time to buy a beer and admire the view. Come 1:30 and we find out the bus there will cost €70 regardless of how many board the bus. I'm using the term bus loosely as only 10 could ride the minivan at a time. So if all 10 people ride the bus, it'll cost each €7 but if it's just the two of us… €35 down the drain. As 1:30 approached and the driver was calling out the destination only a handful approached. Not all 10 but enough for each to only pay €10, not bad but both of us grumbled about it for a few minutes.

We arrive at 2:30 and the guestmaster welcomes us. He serves us a typical welcome snack: water, a shot of strong tsiporo (think Greeks version of aguardiente) and some powdered gelatin snacks. Once we're ready and signed the guest book he shows us to our dorms and informs us there is a service at 6, dinner is at 7, and doors close at 9. Perfect. With time to kill our dumbbutts decide to walk to the next monastery. 3h there and back. Our feet hurt but we make it, there the guestmaster welcomes us as well and provides us with the welcome snack and is ready to assume we're staying the night. These monks are very friendly. We inform him that we are just visiting, we walk around, take pictures of what is permitted then walk back. The service begins and it was one of the most bizarre experiences in a church I have witnessed. The rituals, customs, wardrobe, et all are completely different from a Catholic service. Connor and I were in the deep end on this one with no life jackets or saviors in sight. Dinner was also an experience. You can only begin to eat when the lecturer begins his sermon. You heard me right. Another sermon. When he starts we eat, and when we stops, we all stop. AND THEN ANOTHER SERVICE, what?? That one didn't last long, or rather we dipped out of that one rather quickly. Now that the service had ended it was meander time for the monks and our prime time to ask them what just happened. Before the first service began we encountered a monk who spoke English, btw nobody spoke any English anywhere, it was difficult to be understood. We were hoping to find the monk during this time, however, another couple of guests had his attention. No matter, we had another day here. Before we go to bed they informed us that the next morning service began at 4am. Do these monks ever sleep? Guess we'll be going to a 4am service.

Monday

Morning church gongs, or bells or whatever, wake us up at 4am. We look at each other, then go back to sleep till 6. At 6:45 there's a bus waiting for the guests outside to take them to the city. This ride was €7. From the city we took another bus to the dock where we originally had arrived, and hopped on a speedboat to go further towards the tip of the peninsula towards another monastery. This place is larger than we originally thought and we had to give up on a few of the monasteries as we are supposed to be on the other side of Greece tonight to pick up items Cris's mother had bought for us. We land at Magistis Gregoriou, once again they welcome us with the welcome snack. However this time once we finished the snack they take us to the dining hall and provide us breakfast. Damn these overly friendly monks. We begin having a conversation with one of them as another passes us outside. The monk inside hails the one outside to enter. He comes in and we find out he's British! They swap seats and we have a good conversation for about 45min. Apparently he was on a journey of self discovery, heard of Mt. Athos and entered as a monk 3 months later. He hasn't left since, that was back in 1996. We thank him for the meal, we took pictures of the monastery and we headed out to walk to the next monastery. There is no direct path from Magistis Gregoriou to Magistis Simonos Patras. We had to hike down the mountain through a "travelled" path and then back up. On our way there we ran into another pair of Americans! New Yorkers doing a typical bro bonding trip without the wives. We arrive at the most beautiful monastery of them all. It's on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Absolutely stunning. The guestmaster welcomes us, provides us with the welcome snack and asks us to fill out the logbook regardless if we're staying or not. As we begin to explore the monastery we bump into a monk and we tells us which route we can take to see the best view. After photos were taken and "wow's" were said we began to head out. Just then our monk friend asks us to stay as its peak heat and the next city is only 1.5h away. We weren't needed there for another 3h so why not. Our monk friend guides us to a beautiful area where we can talk and view the ocean, and we discuss all kinds of things. The differences between the local monasteries, how his journey led him here, how a Chinese man was led here (we were shocked when we ran into him) and most importantly we were able to get answers from the questions we've been harboring since the day before. The time spent with our friend helped a lot. In understanding how a typical service goes to getting a wider grasp of a different religion. Once all is done he gifts us CDs with monks chanting and his email, should we have any more questions or wish to be invited back. We arrive back at the dock, take the boat back to the main town we left from and then began a 10h drive down to Nafplio where Cris and his family are staying. We arrive at 12:30am, greet them all, then pass out for the night.