The Mountain

Boy it sure is cold here in Greece. At least they think so. It's at least 22 in the sun, but every building you walk into has the heat cranked. It's a bit ridiculous.

Right now we're in Thessaloniki, and we're not sure why. We left Meteora on the bus yesterday night (Meteora was beautiful by the way, look at our pics later) and now we've been walking around all day. But enough of the boring details, i'm sure lindsey will fill you in. Right now it's story time. So settle in and relax.

The first thing i noticed when we pulled in to Thessaloniki was the church (you know, Thessalonians? Read your Bible). It is HUGE.

Back in Meteora, we hiked up a mountain. We walked through an amazing forest, green as green can be. It was pretty humid from the rain the night before. The path we were walking on had tons of droppings on it. I told Lindsey they were from a goat, but i'm pretty sure they were from a mountain lion, or perhaps a cougar. Under one huge rock, i saw a snakeskin that was as long as my arm.

There were pretty looking flowers (man-eating) and bushy shrubs (the den of the cougar). At the top of the mountain, we were accosted by thousands of angry tourists. Luckily i knew a few words in their language (japanese of course) and managed to trade in some electronics componants for a free passage through the doors of the famous monastaries located there.

The monastaries are all Greek Orthodox (who have no use for Protestants, according to a book i skimmed through in a giftshop) and they charge 2 euros to get in. The women have to wear skirts, so lindsey quickly made one out of palm fronds. We walked around admiring the beautiful churches, and fact filled museums.

We spent about 6 hours straight walking; unfortunately i got a horrible cramp about 5 minutes up the mountain, and sean and joel were kind enough to carry me the rest of the way. Looking back now, i probably should have turned around and gone back to the hostel.

Now we are all tired, (well not so much me, remember i got carried) and thinking of what to do next.

till next time...