After our breakfast,
we loaded the rental car and headed for the monastery. The drive was full of beautiful scenery and
involved a 2 lane winding mountain road.
After a few wrong turns, we parked in what appeared to be a primary
school parking lot in the quaint an somewhat preserved town of Chora. We were at the top of one mountain and could
see the parking for the monastery at the base of said mountain. Fortunately, there was a trail all the way
down. Unfortunately, I was the only one
who was wearing something besides flip-flops.
Regardless, we started the hike and took many pictures on the way
day. Halfway down Scott had the bright
idea to go get the car and take it to the parking lot at the base of mountain
so we wouldn’t have to climb back up in flip flops—we were very grateful for
this after the journey!
Upon our arrival to the monastery we
met the Abbot who had just returned with a truckload of groceries. I am grateful to Scott for offering all of
our to transport these necessities to the top of the mountain (which is where
the monastery sits in the rocks). So all
the Boltons and Ashleys grabbed a grocery bag or two and started our climb up
the “Holy” mountain.
The climb was much more difficult
than anticipated. We didn’t know how the
Abbott had planned to transfer the groceries himself because he is an obese
62-year-old mean who walks tenderly on his knees and uses a cane. After about 15 minutes of grunting and
sweating and straining we reached the top of this incredibly unique monastery.
After taking the groceries to the
monastery I went back and took the Abbott’s cane which he was using to hold
groceries over his shoulder. Taking them
up to the monastery. Brittany and
Everlie walked with the Abbott (Spirotos was his name) and enjoyed their
intriguing conversation on race, Islam and Obama using very few English
words. Apparently he shares our views
regarding politics. He said “Islam
problem” and proffered an invisible machine gun maneuver with his a hand and
pretended to cut his throat with a knife. I guess he would be a Tea Party
Republican in the States!
At the very top of the staircase
there was a young bearded man with raggedy clothes who welcomed us. He was kind of goofy and Scott wondered if he
was the village idiot (respectfully, of course). He would start singing a song and the Abbott
would tell him to hush. He told us he
had been there for 5 years and was an “apprentice”. What a lifestyle to choose! He also told us he didn’t like the current
pope because he required everyone to have a radio frequency identification tag
implanted in them. The Abbott was 62
years old and had been at the monastery for 44 years!
We entered the monastery with caps
out and tongues tied out of respect for the atmosphere. There were 2 small sanctuaries in the
monastery with lots of silver and gold lamps, frames and portraits of the
Virgin Mary, Jesus and other stories from the Bible. All these things were obviously old and had
been there for probably hundreds of years.
After we looked and experienced the “holiness” of the place, we were
taken to what appeared to be their dining room where we were given water,
brioches (sweet bread) and samples of their homemade Raki. There was a chair at the head of the dining
room table that was black and had ivory figures on the back of the chair and
front of the armrests (the figures were ivory carved lions). It was a beautiful chair. I couldn’t handle the sweet ness of the
Monk-made Raki but didn’t want to be rude so thankfully Everlie had an empty
water bottle that we quickly poured the Raki into and hid in her purse before
the monks returned to collect our dirty dishes!
We walked down the stair after
bidding farewell to the Abbott (where he blessed us and thanked us many
times). After piling into the rental
care we drove back to the village of Chora. This was a really neat town with
small lanes, clean and simple architecture and multiple taverns. The bougainvillea were massive and provided
shade! There were lots of trellises that
had plants on them covering the alleys providing shade and beatify. We stopped in one store a bought a locally
made coffee cup.
We planned to eat lunch in Chora but
didn’t find a place advertising gyros so went to another tavern by the harbor
where we enjoyed delicious gyros. A good
gyro is made of pita bread, meat of some sort, tzatsiki sauce, French fries,
tomatoes and onions—delicious!
We left the harbor around 14:30 en
route to another uninhabited island where we could spend the night. The waters once again incredibly smooth and
ushered no wind for our sails so we used our man mand wind again to make our
around the long island of Amorgos.
En route to Keros, we sailed by an
old shipwreck that was very interesting to observe. We took several photos and Bertrand told us
that this boat had been in a movie.
We didn’t stay long and were soon
our way at 7.5 knots (by engine this is the most fuel/energy conserving speed) to
the beautiful uninhabited paradise. What
a paradise it was! Upon arrival I was
asked to dive in and swim to a rock mooring with a rope in my hand to secure
our boat in the harbor.
Bertrand says this was likely a
pirate cove because it is so well protected from the open sea. There were also large black stones at he
bottom of this harbor that were seemingly out of place. Captain told us pirate ships most likely
dumped these stones where when transferring treasure or smuggled goods from one
ship to the other so the weight of the accepting ship would remain the same.
Scott went snorkeling. Davis rowed the dinghy and Everlie swam to
shore. Everlie wanted to explore the
mountain but there were critters “rustling the bushes” so she chose to watch
Davis hit rocks with a piece of bamboo.
It should be noted that by the Grace of God no injuries were made or
caused by the many roks thrown by Davis on this trip.
After enjoying our private beach and
harbor on the island of Keros, Bertand rang the dinner bell and served us a
delicious meal of freshly caught and grilled fish, tasty potatoes and grilled
zucchini with tomatoes and fresh bread and white wine. It was an incredible meal for which we were
very grateful. We were served watermelon
for dessert.
The sun went down shortly after
dinner and we read, wrote, contemplated, talked, listened and relaxed in our
own private beautiful harbor for the night.
The stas were incredibly
beautiful. So many things were visible
due to the absence of man-made light. We
could easily see the Milky Way. Stars
were twinkling like I had never before seen.
Before bed every evening, I joined Captain Bertrand for a sweet sip of
homemade Raki. I enjoyed this ritual as
the drink proved to be “medicinal” and “good for digestion.” While looking at the stars, Betrand softly
said, “We are so small” and repeated himself before bidding me goodnight and
walking to his cabin.
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