On Friday, we went to the Meteora Monasteries, which are incredible monasteries built on huge sandstone pillars. There were originally more than 20, but today there are 6, which are still functional and have monks (and one has nuns) living there.
To enter the monastery, girls had to wear skirts. They had sweet sarongs in very attractive patterns for women to use.
As you can see, the view was incredible. The Greeks clearly knew how to convince people to become nuns and monks. The monastery itself was just precious; everyone was built from stone and was perfectly maintained. It was different that other historical sites we've been to because those have all been decently well preserved (or not so well preserved) but this one was rebuilt and repainted so everything looked new. Paintings, for example, were done in the style of 13th century Eastern Christain art but they were brightly colored and not chipped, for example.
Me, Nicolette, Marilena, Michelle, Serina and Anna
My favorite part was possibly the actual church part of the monastery; every inch of the walls was covered in paintings (which, in keeping with the remodeled look, were all recently done, not preserved art). It had a different feel but was incredible. There were also chairs with amazing carved details which had such high relief that relief is almost not strong enough of a word. We weren't really supposed to take pictures though so I just have one...
Afterwards, we headed down (literally) to the nearby town and had a delicous, as always, lunch. We had a new vegetable dish which was baby onions in a sauce. I've never been a big onion person before this trip but I am now! Tina and I then went on a shopping expedition since we had passed a store with lots of leather sandals outside and both got some. Now I have shoes other than my Target flip flops haha. We joined the rest of the group at a cafe and relaxed for a while. That is the Greek thing to do. I can't remember if I've emphasized that before, but "pame ya cafe" was the first phrase our Greek teacher taught us, which means "Let's go get coffee".
On Saturday I had a very relaxing day involving sleeping in, watching House (I finished Season 3), doing yoga, working out, and writing post cards. I was slightly tired of being in my room at the end of the day. We had crazy weather though; it poured and then thundered and then there was wind which was so loud it sounded like an airplane was landing next to the dorm, and then it was sunny with a significant amount of blue sky, and then it all repeated.
Today, I did homework. I read about 100 years of Albanian history, which was more in-depth and more coherent than our lectures so I feel like I learned lots. It continued to rain all morning and through the afternoon, but it cleared up in time to walk to dinner (rice with mystery meat chunks in grey sauce (tastes better than it sounds, fortunately) or two hot dogs on rice). I also organized and uploaded more pictures ( http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.fussell ) so check that out if you want to see more!
Love Alex
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