Greece - Day 10 (Thurs. 9/5/24)

Our hotel had a delicious breakfast buffet, which included a big bowl of these mysterious red balls. I ate them and still don't know what they are. They were hard and crunchy like peppercorns.

We had breakfast with Marc and Allison in these chairs that looked like birdcages and were too heavy to budge. Then we got on the bus to explore the city.

Ioannina is known for its silversmithing, so several in our group were all about shopping for jewelry. We were more interested in walking around the city. Here's Mike under a fabulous weeping willow, admiring the mountains and lake.

There appeared to be a walking path all around the lake, and had I not made an egregious error in my footwear choice, we would have walked the whole thing. Since I was wearing my previously-mentioned cheap slides, I struggled to walk as much as we did, and Mike very kindly gave me a foot massage on a bench right here by the lake. We also went inside the old Ottoman castle walls and walked around the neighborhoods where people are living inside walls. There we met an old Greek man who was eating crackers on a bench and attracting a stray cat that I wanted to pet. I sat down by the guy and tried to coax the cat over to me. The guy, who spoke no English, put a couple crackers in my hand and broke them up and gestured towards the cat. I offered them to the cat, but he was not interested. I didn't want to waste the crackers, so I ate them myself and the old guy laughed and gave me the rest of his package of crackers. I remembered how to say "thank you" in Greek at just the right moment.

Our next stop was a quaint village called Metsovo. They were smoking cheese there, and the whole village smelled like that pleasant smoke. We finally reached a high enough altitude to escape the stifling humidity. It was still hot up there, but much more pleasant. 

On the second floor of this building is where we ate lunch. Mike and I were strolling along aimlessly on the street when our friend Deb called down from the balcony, "Janel, this is the place" or something like that, and I knew that was where we were supposed to be. I wish God's directive voice was always that clear. 

After lunch, back to wandering. We went in another ornate Greek Orthodox church. I like how the churches are just mingled in amongst the restaurants, houses, and shops, and the doors are always open so you can go in there anytime throughout your day and shift your focus to God. I wish the churches in America were like that. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s a business and what’s a personal home in these little villages. In my defense, this gate was open and there was a sign that said “information” on the porch and a sign for some kind of studio on the upper level. I’m always looking for information, so I led the charge up to this place. A guy was coming out the door as we were walking up the steps. We exchanged greetings and he asked if we were looking for the hotel. I said no, we’re just looking around. He invited us in. As we entered, he said this was his family home. I apologized and turned right around but he seemed to want to show us his home, so we went in. He said Americans don’t visit this village often and that he knows about Illinois from watching movies. After we left, I went back to take this picture and found him outside talking excitedly to his neighbors about the Americans. 

I wanted to go see this monastery but didn’t know how far it was down this very steep, winding uneven path. But after my shoe error from Ioannina, I was overconfident in my shoe choice for this village. We made it, and it was beautiful, but it was quite a descent (and therefore, quite a climb to get back up). 

The bus took us to our next hotel at Kalampaka where we ate dinner and went to bed.