Summer Memories

I hope this blog post find you all well and rested.   I can only imagine (and hope) that everyone has had made many lasting memories this summer.    We have just returned from our family trip to Greece.

Where to begin?   We arrived safely on August 7th in Athens.  From there we drove to our simple villa in my fathers "horio" (aka village) on the water in Assos, Corinthos.  We were exhausted, so we welcomed a good nights rest and woke up around 11:00a.m. the next day!  

That day, we visited with Yiayia Ourania (our 102 year old grandmother).  She was thrilled to be able to hold the childrens hands and to offer her breadth of advice, well wishes and blessings for the us and the children.  I'm convinced it is the daily plate of "horta" (e.g. dandelion greens and vleeta), and ouzo that have sustained her system so well to this point!





 

Then we headed to the local beach with our multitude of cousins.   The beach was perfect for the children.   They had no problem jumping right in!   We visited a number of beaches and were so pleased to find the complete lack of sea weed, crabs and jelly fish.  They do say there is a jelly fish season, but it is in late Sep to early October.  All we had was warm water and soft silky sand.




After spending every day at the beach with the kids, I said farewell to the children and to Nick, on August 11th, and headed to the island of Lesvos for my pilgrimage.   Upon landing at the airport, my mom and I took a taxi for a 20 minute ride up a mountain to the monastery of St's Rafael, Nicholaos and Irini (shown below with an olive branch that I picked as another momento of my visit).    

We arrived in time to attend the evening Paraklesis service for the Virgin Mary (as the dormition of the Virgin is celebrated on August 15th in the Orthodox church).  There were two churches on the property.   One in honor of St. Nicholaos and Irini and one dedicated to St. Rafael.   Paraklesis was held in St. Rafael's chapel. Before I found a seat, I lit a candle and said a prayer for everyone who asked me to do so.   

During Paraklesis, I was overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude as I listened to the purest form of Byzantine chanting from a group of 3 young men.  Their voices filled the sanctuary with reverberations of Byzantine hymns which have been sung for centuries, never changed.   Something I hope all of you will experience at least once in your lifetime.   

That evening we "slept" on the monastery grounds in a simple room with only two beds, an icon of the saints, and a simple light bulb on the ceiling for a light.    We didn't sleep well that night as it was quite warm and our room was on the ground level. We could hear the revelries of others outside our room (which was outside the monastery walls).  Greeks very rarely seem to sleep at night!

The next morning we heard the bells toll at 7:30 a.m. indicating the start of  the Divine Liturgy.  As soon as the bells rung, people started walking up the hill to the church to attend services.  Such a beautiful thing to be in a village where life is still lived by the toll of bells.  We too walked up the hill to attend services.   I was so happy to be able to receive communion after Liturgy.   Following the service, I spent some time at St. Rafael's tomb which was inside the church.  Below is a picture from on top of his tomb and the side view.

In addition to the celebration of the Liturgy, a 40 day memorial service was conducted for Iouymeni Evyenia, the head "Abbess" of the monastery who recently passed away.   Iouymeni Evyenia was world renowned for her writings and even honored at Harvard University for her work.  Below is a pic of a small service conducted by her grave site which was located behind the chapel in the monasteries gardens.

After this service I was able to talk with the young priest (shown in the pic above on the left (you basically can just see his beard!)).  I walked with him and told him my story.  He relayed the story of the history of St. Rafael and how he commonly "appears" as a doctor.  He was not surprised to hear my story and feels all will be well.   Soon thereafter we took a taxi back to the airport.    As we left the grounds of the monastery and the island of Lesvos, I felt a sense of closure to this journey I have been on.   Knowing only so well that a very "new journey" has begun.

After arriving back in the "horio" (village) with the kids, we ate a late dinner.   The following morning we woke early to meet Nick's cousins in Athens to tour the new Acropolis Museum.  Simply awesome.  We could not take pictures on the first floor (which was the most amazing) but we were allowed to on the 3rd floor.  See the pics below.  The pic on the right is outside the museum where they have preserved the ancient city that had found there

 After the museum we headed up the mountain to see the Parthenon.  It was a hot day, so I had to carry Andrew up the mountain and Nick had to carry Anna.  James toughed it out!

After the Parthenon, we headed to Nick's aunts house in the port town of Pireas for dinner.  I have to offer up much gratitude to Google at this point.    We would never have made it from the village in Corinth, into Athens and back to Pireas without Google Maps and it's built in GPS.   How did anyone ever get around before???!!!   Thank you Google!!!!!

Our final day in the village was spent having dinner with my cousins.   The following day we were taking a ferry over to Paros for the second half of our vacation.    But before we drove to the ferry, we drove up a mountain by the "horio" to see Ancient Corinth.   The kids were absolute troopers this day and did all the walking themselves.  Nick and I were quite grateful!

After making our way up and then back down, we headed over to Pireas once again, but this time to catch our ferry (shown below).    It was a 3 hour trip, so we had plenty of time to get some summer work done!
Once we arrived, we were greeted by the owner of the villa where we were staying.  He led the way as we drove to our villa.   We had no words to express how we felt when we saw the view from our villa upon entry.

Not only was the view spectacular, but so was the Greek hospitality.  Illianna, (Stamati's wife) had filled up our fridge with milk, juice, water, butter, beer, coffee and bread.  She also had cookies for the kids, honey, "friyania" (mini toasts), a bottle of wine from Paros, home pressed olive oil and vinegar!  To top it off she had a bowl of fresh fruits from their garden on the table.   The kids dove into the fresh fruits while Nick and I just stared off of our veranda at the view.   If anyone plans a trip to Greece, the Blue Mare Villas are amazing!    They were new this year, so the pool hadn't gone in yet.  But the plan is for a pool, playground and an outdoor bar.

Over the next few days we ventured into various beaches and found the one we really enjoyed, Santa Maria.  It of course had crystal clear water, no sea weed and a few fishies here and there.
We were fortunate enough to have two sets of friends visiting the island of Paros at the same time.  We lunched with Evyenia and family

And had dinner another evening with the Georgekopoulos family.  Below is a picture of us having an evening cocktail on our veranda before going into Parikia for dinner.

Our last night we enjoyed an amazing evening in the town of Naoussa.  Simply spectacular.  Words can't describe...you just will have to go experience it for yourselves.

On our last day before catching the ferry we went to a church on the island called Panagia's Ekatontapiliani (The Virgins church of the 100 Pillars built in 326 AD). Here is the info from Wikipedia on the church.  The church is a historic Byzantine church complex.  The church complex contains a main chapel surrounded by two more chapels and a baptistery with a cruciform font. (Here is the picture I took of this most amazing font and the main sanctuary!)

Main Sanctuary

4th Century Baptismal Font

The origin of the church's name is obscure, as it does not have one hundred doors, or gates. One theory suggests that it is a corruption of the name "Katapoliani", i.e. "the Downtown Church", as it lies by the sea in the lower part of the town of Parikia.

The church dates to 326AD. Its oldest features likely predate the adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire in 391 AD. The church was founded by the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (ruled 306–337 AD), Saint Helen, during her pilgrimage to the Holy Land when she stopped to worship at a chapel on the island. Later Justinian is credited for initiating construction on the site as well. The site was badly damaged by an earthquake in the 18th century, but gradually restored.^[1] The Ekatontapyliani is a renowned Marian pilgrimage church of the Aegean, second only to the famed Megalochare church on nearby Tenos Island"

Visiting this church before we left was the perfect way to end our vacation.   We spent the next evening in Athens visiting with family again and staying at the hotel on the airport grounds to make life easier for us.  

It is a trip that won't be forgotten and will hopefully soon be repeated.   I would LOVE to hear from each and everyone of you about your summer experiences.  

Looking forward to seeing many of you again as school is just around the corner.

Much love,

Renee