Greece - Zahagoria - East of Eden - Carnet de voyage - Travelogue - Europe - Middle East

Hugged into the hills above Ioanina are several villages which have become great hits with Greek tourists.
The valleys are dramatic and the villages, built of native granite and slate are handsome. The only draw back is the immense amount of rubbish the locals tend to throw into nature.
Strangely enough, when you scream at someone for throwing a plastic bottle down a cliff, he'll recognize his fault and go to retrieve it.
The real gem of the place for us, however, was the monastery of the Prophet Elias, which is up a hill and down a hill and over a hill and under a hill, just follow the sign. And follow we did until we came to this ancient monastery in ruins, locked; although with a tumble down wall low enough for us to climb over. Inside was a small stone compound with all the charm of a Provence village. It was not difficult to imagine the peace and beauty of monastic life in that place, and the very walls seemed to whisper their secrets to us, but oh, so silently.
We ran into town to see who the owner was and went to see a Taverna owner who had spoken to us in French.
When we asked about it, they thought we wanted a book about it, and so I came out and said, 'no! I want to buy the damned place!' Raucous laughter.
The monastery, it seems, belongs to the Orthodox Church in Ioanina and they never part with anything.
It's used only once a year when a mass is celebrated there on the 21st of July, St. Elias day.

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