Carnival!

This past weekend, I joined with several other fellows and friends for a trip to Skyros for the Carnival weekend.  Skyros is a moderately sized island that’s known for a few things these days:

1.  The hiding place of Achilles when he was trying to avoid the Trojan war.  He dressed as a woman and was only discovered when his searchers staged an attack on the island.  Instead of running and hiding, Achilles pulled a sword out of his dress and stood to fight them.  Oops.

Nicholas Poussin's Achilles on Skyros.
Can you spot him?

2.  Skyros is one of the places with the most traditional Carnival celebrations, including (but not limited to) the yeros, or “old man.”  By one mythological account, there was a great calamity on the island, one that killed all of the goats living there.  The shepherds (yeros) came to the town to warn the people of the impending calamity, and they were ominous creatures.  Dressed in goat hair with a goat skin mask, the yeros these days prance along the streets, jangling the bells on their hips (100+ pounds of bells).  It seems like they’re usually drunk, too.  It’s hard to miss them.

Because Clean Monday is a national holiday (it’s the equivalent of Ash Wednesday), we had the opportunity to spend three days on the island.  We spent Saturday and Sunday exploring parts of the island and town, respectively, and had our fair share of delicious foods.  I tried some rooster for one of these meals, but the best dish was baked goat meat with a cheese sauce, cooked with tomatoes and peppers.  And the best part?  Our onlooker:

The nights were a different story.  Things were pretty slow on the island ‘til about midnight or so, when it seemed much of the island headed to the bars.  A funky mix of Greek pop, American pop, and Greek traditional music and dancing made for some fun, late nights.  Sunday night was capped off with some dancing in the street (I was more of an observer than a participant, although I had a great dance with a giraffe) and a bit of spanakopita.

Thanks to Christie for the picture.
I hope you don't mind...

Trust me, I have just about as much of an idea of what
I'm doing as you probably do right now.

A good time was had by all.

It's official. Monks are nuts.

About two weeks ago, I was feeling the itch to get out of Athens.  I had a long weekend coming up, and I figured it’d be good to explore some of the north a bit more.  I finished my school day around 1:15 on Friday, and I caught a 3:30 bus north to Kalambaka, or more specifically, to Meteora. 

Meteora ranks right alongside of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland in terms of strangeness.  Sheer cliffs rising up hundreds of feet from the ground are spectacular enough to see; add in the fact that there are monasteries perched on top of the cliffs makes it a remarkable place to visit. 

 vs.

I’d imagine you probably have two questions going through your mind right now:

Q:  How were the monasteries constructed so high up like that?  More specifically, how did anyone get up there to build them?

A:  There are a few theories about this one.  The first idea is that some absolutely crazy monk free-climbed the rock with a rope, then he began pulling up supplies and people.  The second is that monks flew a gigantic kite over the rocks with a rope ladder attached.  You choose.

Q:  How did YOU get up to visit them?

A:  I flew.

Q:  Okay, seriously, how DID you get up there?

A:  Fine.  I hiked the trail between the rocks, then climbed the stone stairs to the top of each monastery.  Happy?

It was a long hike, but it was well-rewarded with a delicious plate of lamb and potatoes, a side of xorta (I've seen it translated as “green stuff,” and it’s very literally green plants picked from a mountain.  It’s like eating dandelion leaves, but better), and some wine to wash it all down.  It’s a pretty routine meal in the villages – jealous?