Oyer's Greece Trip

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Location: Meteora, Greece

Meteora by Theodore Killinger

My mother and I left Thessaloniki early Tuesday morning to catch the 8:30 AM bus departing for the town of Trikala. The bus ride to Trikala lasted about three hours, and then we caught another bus that took us the short distance to Kalambaka. Kalambaka is a small town snuggled directly under the Meteora rock formations that rise hundreds of feet at almost a ninety degree angle.

The five big monasteries atop the majestic rocks are Great Meteora, the Monastery of Barlaam, the Monastery of St. Barbara, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, and the Monastery of St. Stephen. There is another small monastery of St. Nicholas, but I do not think it is considered one of the "big" Meteora monasteries.

We had all of Tuesday afternoon to look around Kalambaka and Meteora, so we started exploring right after settling down in our hotel. I immediately began hiking up the formidable Meteora mountain side, but my mom was too tired out to accompany me. I was aiming to visit the two closest monasteries to Kalambaka, Holy Trinity Monastery and St. Stephen's.

I made it to the Holy Trinity Monastery where the man who was collecting the two euro entrance fee let me in for free. I wanted to be hoisted up in the net like visitors used to be, but there was no one to pull me up. After lighting candles and praying in the beautiful church, I went out to view the amazing overlook from the monastery courtyard. The view was absolutely breathtaking.

Next I hiked back down the staircase hewn out of the rock, and on to St. Stephen's monastery. When I got to the monastery, there was only a handful of visitors. I paid the two euro entrance fee this time, and went to look around the monastery and take pictures. I also went to venerate in the church, where there was a skull of an unknown saint.

As I was about to leave the church, I asked an elderly nun who was busy cleaning what saint's skull was in the church. She brought me to venerate to skull once again, and told me it was the head of a St. Charolombos.

Then she asked me if I was Orthodox, and when I nodded, and added I was from America, her eyes lit up and she got excited. The little nun whisked me out of the church and brought me to this other nun working at the giftshop. When the other nun was informed that I was American Orthodox, she started grabbing various items such as little crosses, icons, and booklets, and gave them all to me in a bag, for free! After this, the nun who I had met first asked me if I had eaten lunch, and I told her I had eaten a little. She nodded in agreement and led me out of the giftshop into the private quarters where the nuns would spend their day while there were visitors at the monastery. The nun took me to the abbess and I received her blessing. After this, I was introduced to an English speaking sister who gave me a wonderful lunch and talked with me for a while. I was so blessed to be taken in by the sisters at St. Stephen's monastery.

When I came to Meteora, I was half expecting the monasteries to be closed to the public. I had heard a lot about how the monasteries would close due to the huge number of tourists. (When I left St. Stephen's, there were about seven tour busses in the parking lot and the monastery was swarming with tourists.) My mom was very sorry she missed my unexpected meeting with the nuns at St. Stephen's, but the next day we would visit more monasteries.


On Wednesday, my mom and I made our way to Great Meteora, the Monastery of Barlaam, and to Holy Trinity and St. Stephen's once again. Along the way we met a nice young lady from Taiwan named June. She was studying literature in Germany, and was taking a short vacation in Greece.

Our stay at Meteora was extremely wonderful and blessed, and we were sorry to be leaving at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning. However, we are looking forward to our stay on the Island of Aegina.

Here is a picture:

http://flickr.com/gp/55664096@N04/7804LW

Love in Christ,

Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Location: Thessaloniki, Greece

Saturday June 18

In the morning we met Mike for breakfast. A friend of Mike's from Holy Resurrection in Boston, Julianna, flew in the night before from Romania and joined us for breakfast. She would be visiting the sisters of Holy Nativity Monastery for a few days before returning home to Boston via Romania.

Since Greece does not have laundramats, we spent the afternoon at Mike's apartment catching up on our long overdue laundry. Mike, Theo and Julianna went for a 2 hour bus tour of historical sights of Thessaloniki.

After they returned, we all went to Vespers at Holy Trinity Monastery, the men's monastery adjacent to the women's monastery of the Nativity. We had coffee with Gerondissa Philothea and nuns first and then they took us over to the men's monastery for service. We had hoped to see and get the blessing of Elder Symeon, however he was ill and could not attend. Leaving Julianna with the nuns, we returned to Thessaloniki and Mike took us to have the biggest and best gyros in town.

Sunday

Sunday morning, Fr. Michael again served with Fr. Spyridon at Mike's church of the Theotokos Made-Without-hands. We had our last visit with Fr. Spyridon before we left and will miss his humor and his bright, direct Greek personality.

In the afternoon, with Mike's friends Fr. Gregory, the triplets, and Paris, we all went to the monastery of St. John the Theologian where Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain was buried. We arrived during Vespers and first venerated the relic of St. Arsenios the Cappadocian. The beautiful Byzantine church at the monastery was dedicated to Him. We learned that St. Arsenios baptized Elder Paisios and gave the Elder the name "Arsenios" at his baptism. St. Arsenios surprised the family with the name, but said that he needed a monk to carry on after he was gone.

The church was packed with people and after Vespers everyone went out to the grave to venerate the elder. There was a long line of people who took turns burning candles and praying at the gravesight, which was on a windy rise right behind the church. The gathering was very respectful - tender and quiet. Afterwards, there was cold refreshing water and lakoumi for all the pilgrims.

Before returning to Fr. Gregory and Pda. Pelgia's for dinner, they showed us a sight that could only been seen in Greece. Bearing in mind that stores are closed on Sunday, they took us to the largest shopping mall in Greece. In the middle of the mall, there a beautiful Byzantine church with shops, fountains and amusement park surrounding it. Even though the stores were closed, the amusement park, coffee and ice cream shops, restaurants and movie theaters were open. The whole place was packed with families out for the evening.

The reason for the church in the mall:

The land on which the mall is built is owned by the Patriarchate of Constatinople. A wealthy Greek businessman wanted to build a mall there and approached the Patriarch. The businessman was given a 99 year lease on one condition - that he would build an Orthodox church there for the Patriarchate. And not just any church, but an exact replica of the church at the Phanar in Constantinople.

After everyone had ice cream and the children played around the fountain, we went to Fr. Greogory's for an enjoyable dinner. We sat and talked about spiritual life in America until it was time to leave. We were sorry to have to cut the evening short, but we were leaving for Athens the next morning.

Here are some pictures:

http://flickr.com/gp/55664096@N04/2K673f/

Love in Christ

Saturday, 18 June 2011

Location: Mt. Athos, Greece

Simonopetra Monastery By Theodore Killinger

Wednesday June 15th

Today was our first morning on Mt. Athos at Gregoriou Monastery. Midnight office, followed by matins, hours, Divine Liturgy, and Paraklysis, started at 4am. It was about 9 o'clock when the services were over, and we processed into the refectory for a meal.

After the meal we talked with one of the monks, Fr. Damian, for a few minutes. Then Mike, Deno, James, and myself started the grueling hike to Simonopetra Monastery. The hike took us about an hour and twenty minutes. We arrived at the Simonopetra guesthouse all tired and sweaty, and were given the usual amenities, lakoumi, ouzo, and water.

Mike asked if either Fr. Maximos, or Fr. Iakavos, were available and willing to speak with us. Fr. Maximos and Fr. Iakavos are two American monks at Simonopetra. They were both interviewed on the Paschal edition of 60 Minutes.

While a monk went to search for them, we hiked above the monastery to the cave of St. Simon, the founder of Simonopetra Monastery. The Mother of God appeared to him in his cave, and told him to build a monastery on the rock cliff. Simonopetra actually means "Simon's Rock.'

Fr. Maximos was willing to meet us and we sat down and talked for the whole afternoon. It was extremely benevolent of him, and we all profited from his spiritually enlightening words. Fr. Maximos discussed various topics such as death, spiritual warfare, thoughts and prayer, and acquiring grace.

After talking for about five hours, Fr. Maximos showed us around the monastery, and then we went to Vespers. The service was chanted majestically by the Simonopetra brotherhood. Immediately following dinner, we went in to Compline and venerated saints' relics. Afterwords, we had to start hiking back to Gregoriou so we wouldn't be hiking in the dark. Fr. Maximos met us at the gate and bid us farewell. It had been a truly wonderful and blessed day with Fr. Maximos at Simonopetra Monastery.   

Heres some pictures:

http://flickr.com/gp/55664096@N04/z4971Z/

Love in Christ,