27 December '04,Monday. Yesterday (Sunday) we stayed with”Bumble Bee” all day. Fact is, if I were one to wear PJ's, I most likely would have stayed in them to bed time. Late last night we had another camper pull in. For the last 6 days we have been here on our won, and now, someone invades our territory... About 3, I saw our new neighbor outside having coffee, so I went out to meet him. Phillipe is a professional photographer who makes his home in Spain. Louise an I had him in (because we had a heater and it was getting very cold outside) for a drind and conversation.. As it turned out, he doesn't drink while he's out on a shoot. Phillipe started his job here at Meteora and will be shooting winter locations throughout Greece and Turkey. He has chosen to shoot winter this time out because other photographers don't like to get out and get cold. He travels in a 4 wheel drove Jeep and that is his camper as well. We thought we were small... Today we pulled up0 stakes and headed off to Athens. Our trip today was to cover about 360 km, so we took off early. Our main objuctive was to find our campground and set up in daylight....Fortunately, we made it. We had a beautiful drive with the mountains on our right and the sea on our left.
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25 December '04, Saturday. Merry Christmas to All... There are times when your not with family for the holidays,and today is one of those, but today we tough it up...it's CHRISTMAS DAY and we're having a wonderful day. Yes, we would have loved to be with our family, but we weren't, so we had and did make the best of it. Yesterday we took “Bumble Bee” into the little town next door (1 km away). We were liiking for “camping gas”, which we had been out of for a couple of weeks. Maybe driving into town wasn't the best idea, but I didn't want to hand carry those gas tanks when full or empty as they get heavy really quick. Well Kalambaka is no different than any town or city in the states the day before Christmas... I just think it's the challenge to see how many cars, trucks, and buses can converge onto the streets at once. They have the “advantage” here because of those smaller cars and trucks. The disadvantage to all of us (although they don't show it as a problem), they double park, park on the sidewalk, park in the crosswalks, park at the corners and bumper to bumper. Now get this, we only heard someone honk their horn twice all day !!! No arguments, no hand signals (you know what I mean) and when you want to stop and leave your car...turn on your 4 way blinkers and walk away...leave...THAT'S IT !!! I Love These People... Ok, back to finding our camping gas. Everyone we asked, “do you know were we can find Camping Gas”? Gave us directions to a campground...not good as we had already checked and none of them had any, besides we were all ready camping at one. It just so happened that I saw a truck pumping Propane into a business, so I grabbed one of my tanks and ran to him. He of course didn't have any, but he told me to follow him when he finished and I could get some. He gets into his truck on this skinny one way street and BACKS UP !!! He is running now against trafffic (that is backing against traffic), and the cars were getting out of the way, dodging in every direction imaginable, so I jumped right in behind (front) of him, and followed right through traffic. As we got right in the middle of town he stops his truck (and remember, he's still backing up) and gets out and immediately starts motioning for other cars to stop and for me to swing into this alley...that is were the gas can be found... WE CAN GET OUR GAS !!! It was going to take an hour for us to get our gas, so we went on to find lunch. The sidewalks were even more crowded than the streets. Shoppers were everywhere. Now remember, this is a small town, very small...we were amazed at how busy the meat markets were, and they are everywhere ...people were lined up on the sidewalks and deep into the meat market. Everyone was looking for the same thing... A PIG or maybe a PIGLET to barbeque for their Christmas Holiday Dinner. The “Taverna" we found for lunch had 3 roasting on their spits when we walked in and had at least 6 to 8 more to go. Beside these, every back yard we walked or drove by had their pig roasting as well. 23 December '04, Thursday Yesterday they were calling for snow..today it didn't... Sooo, we set out for a long walk to see as much as we could in the “Meteora”. Most of the walk was up hil, but fortunately, it was gradual. Our first stop was after 45 minutes and then we had to clomb at least 10 flights of stairs to reach Agios Nikolaos Anapaphas, our first monastery. This monastery was built in the late 15th century. It sits on top of a smaller “obliged” rock. On the first floor we saw the chapel and refectory. Above were the “cells” for the monks. About 1527 the frescoes were painted by a monk Theophanis Strelizas. They fill the chapel and the refectory ...what a brilliant work of art. You want to sit and study the work until your eyes give out. But we also have to see some other monasteries, so down all those flights of stairs to the street far below, and start the hike up to the next one.; All the photo ops along the way made the walk seem much shorter than it was. As we approached our 2nd stop, a “Tourist Van” pulled up. As the bus unloaded and the troupe of 10 started up the stairs, we decided to follow. As we reached the gate, it said they were “closed”...Apparently this group had made special arrangements. Soooo, we ducked in behind and... Moni Agias Vararas Rousanou is now a Nunnery. We were welcomed into the beautiful entrance after climbing stairs for ever and then crossing a “dizzing” bridge. Once inside we were treated to a demonstration of wood mallet on a wood Beam (sounding like a drum), and a mallet on 3 metal hanging bars, which sounded similar to bells. I was very impressed. It was really beautiful. Then we made our way into the chapel. It was adorned throughout with frescos painted in the 16th century. There waas ver little light inside, so when they have their services the chapel is lit by candle light. As we “kind” of followed the group in we decided to leave and tour the grounds on our own before departing (we did pay our entrance fees...). At the heights we were at, the views to the surronding hills, valleys, and additional monestaries were stunning. All the monasteries close at 1:30 so we decided to head home and make some chicken chunk soup. The hike back may be downhill, but it was a long down hill. We had a full day and we were feeling it. Tonight I received a set back... My good ole “Gateway” decided not to star5t up....OH S...UCKS !!! The disadvantage to that is no spell check, no pictures, and tr5ying to read my handwriting. Well we made it! We are in Greece. Not with out some problems. When we got to the Turkish border to leave, we hadn’t kept copies of our visas and custom forms. I know how stupid. We certainly have traveled enough to know better. Really the hassle could have been much worse. I cost us about 1 hour time and an additional $55. euros. Ouch! Live and learn. We are in Alexandropolis, a city of about 50,000. There are Christmas decorations and trees, and even a few Christmas songs on the radio. We spent the last two nights in gas stations, last night it froze and we had frost on the inside windows. The sun quickly thawed us out and tonight we are snug in a camp ground right on the Thracian Sea. This campground has hot showers not solar heated which is a real treat for us. It is still cold we bought some gloves for Joel and a stocking cap for me today. We will stay here tomorrow and then head south to Thessaloniki. We hope to find some camping gas there. We are almost out and have no way to keep warm or cook if we don’t have electric hookup. Had a great lunch today. Ate at a small stand by the ferry dock. Joel had a gyro and I had a sausage. Both were on fried pita with French fries and condiments on top and rolled up in paper. Soooo good. Tonight we had a pork chop dinner and tomorrow we will have bacon and eggs for breakfast. We missed our pork since they don’t eat it in Turkey. We will miss the call to prayer and the wonderful people of Turkey. It is a remarkable country. |
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