Sunday, June 29, 2008

Quick Check-In, Leaving Astros

Well, I have just spent 2 hrs trying to download my photos so that I could post more on the blog, but it is very difficult when all the instructions and titles on the computer are in Greek. I just can't figure it out and the few I managed to get up have very bad resolution. So I give up!

Last night I was delighted to find that the local monastery only a few minutes away is just lovely. I went up for Vespers and got there just at the right time. The lady here had told me: "Go up the mountain just as the sun is beginning to set but hasn't yet gone down. I think it will be the right time for Esperinos." And she was sure right. Grandma and the kids stayed here and relaxed, having dinner and a quick dip in the water.

The church up there is constructed similarly to the monastery of Malevi, with a small old church in the center of a large square of buildings. But rather than paving stones and masonry, this monastery has a court filled with little pathways, rose gardens, and many growing things. The whole church is frescoed and has very old paintings, many of them damaged, but still in quite good shape overall. The whole church seemed very old: all the lines were a little cock-eyed and everything seemed to lean a little this way or that. It felt like a place where many, many prayers have been prayed. The nuns were extremely warm and welcoming, delighted that I had found them, coming from so far away.

We went this morning for Liturgy and it was quite packed with local people, I imagine because of the feast day. This afternoon we took it very easy, swimming in the sea, organizing our things for the next leg of our journey, and making it into town for a few hours to have dinner and a look around. We called home late last night -- an adventure in the dark on the side of the road with no way to see all the multitude of numbers we must punch on the correct order to get through. We had to turn on the headlights. But we all felt better afterwards, being able to talk to Grandpa Al before his big marathon on Sunday and Christopher before his departure over to Athens.

We will leave Paralio Astros tomorrow before noon, return our car in Corinth, and take the train into Athens to meet Maria-Meredith and Nikos. From there, we will go to stay at Nikos' family home in Ravenna until we have met up with Christopher and Fr. Nicholas and Gabriel.

All are doing well. Grandma has a cough/cold, but it seems to be improving. I got a mild sunburn.

I need to go now as I just learned that my typing is disturbing the man in the room next door. More later....

Signing off in muggy Astros, with a refreshing breeze at 11:17PM
Macrina

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Holy Monastery of Malevi

At about 11AM in the active town of Mystras below the ruins, we couldn't find anything to eat. None of the restaurants were open yet. We settled for some day-old bread, yogurt (sorry! I know we should be fasting), and cold drinks. We found some stamps to mail our postcards and went into a little shop that had hand-painted icons and many little trinkets and jewellry. The iconographer was the shopkeeper and spoke pretty good English. We had a wonderful conversation, comparing notes and discussing prices for icons and things like that. I enjoyed it a lot. She showed me a painting she did on a piece of pottery she found that was 300 years old!

One thing also that I forgot to mention about Ravenna, was that the highlight for me was probably seeing some of the drawings that were studies for the mosaics. In the little museum they had there, I found a lovely Greek marble statue, a pretty good collection of icons, a lot of stone carvings and sculptures that I skipped, and an entire hall devoted to the design of the churches and mosaics. Seeing the drawings and studies the artists had used to create these incredible churches was very inspiring for me, and made me want to go home and paint.

We left Mystras before noon and headed up into the hills. The iconographer had assured me that the road to Malevi was good. On my previous trip, I had taken the bus up into the monastery in the mountains and literally thought I was going to die on that trip. I was saying my final prayers, no joke! I couldn't exactly remember why that drive was so scary, but it was enough to make me seriously hesitate to include the trip in our itinerary to begin with and to attempt to drive it myself at this point. However, we prayed, and went!

Stopping at a small taverna (little restaurant), we had a nice lunch. Yes, Grandma got more souvlaki, and we had a giant plate of pasta which we couldn't even finish. There, we verified that the road around the corner was the correct one for the Monastery of Malevi, and off we went.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the road itself was quite good -- paved solidly with some potholes, but no big deal. Initially, we rode through the interior between small hills, seeing the same lovely scenery, but very red dirt. After awhile, we began climbing into more serious mountains and the road narrowed somewhat and became quite curvy. Now I remembered what had terrified me previously. The road is barely wide enough for two cars. The side next to the mountain is fine, the side next to the precipice has no guard rail, no shoulder. Going up we probably passed a total of 6 cars coming the other direction. If this happened at the wrong moment, with the wrong speed, it could easily be disastrous. On the bus I rode all those years ago, he was going fast, taking those curves like a trooper, and I realized that if a car HAPPENED to try and cross our path at one of those points it would be my demise. But it didn't happen. This time around, it was no big deal to drive slowly at the major curves, and we felt pretty safe. I wasn't scared to drive. Going through two small towns, though, was crazy! The streets become even narrower, if one can believe it, and seeing how crazily cars and houses are seemingly clinging by a few beams to the side of the mountain, with sheer drop-offs basically out the back door, we were pretty speechless. (Well, not really, for anyone who knows Grandma Coco, Emilia, Basil and I).

Finally, we did reach the Monastery of Malevi, arriving a day earlier than planned. It houses a very miraculous icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God. The range of these particular hills, which spans a distance of many miles, has a long history of monastic habitation, and today there are still a good handful of very active monasteries, not the least of which is Malevi, which receives hundreds of pilgrims every year, despite the difficult drive.

The nearest town to Malevi is Agios Petros (Holy Peter) and tradition says that the people who live here are descendents of those who left the penninsula of Agion Oros (Mt. Athos) so that it could become a monastic habitation. They willingly left their homes, lands, and farms, at the behest of the Theotokos (Mother of God) to relocate here so that the penninsula could be dedicated to solely monastic life over 1,000 years ago. For this reason, a nun told me, the Theotokos had a special love for these people and blessed them with this miraculous icon.

The icon began streaming myrrh, a sweet-smelling oil that actually beads up on the face of the icon itself and begins to run down it, I think about 40 years ago. When it began, there were many people healed from putting the oil on their wounds and praying here with the icon -- blindness, cancer, barrenness, heart troubles, etc. There have been literally thousands of miracles recorded over the last 30-40 years by the monastery. Also, there have been many instances when a beautiful, tall woman dressed in a dark blue robe has appeared to people around here and in other places sometimes very far away, announcing that she will heal someone, and identifying herself as "the Virgin of Malevi".

It is much larger than when I previously came. A huge church dedicated to the icon stands as a sentinel over the tiny stone chapel which houses the icon in the middle of a kind of courtyard lined with rooms on three sides. If you can imagine, it is like a large square with the huge new church at the top of many marbel stairs, two arms running down either side lined with monastic cells and rooms, and another wall of rooms along the bottom, all open to the large square in the middle where the chapel is, along with probably 200 potted red geraniums and other plants, a large arbor with grapevines running overhead, and a fountain coming out of one wall where clear cool water perpetually runs and people take it to drink.

We arrived in the afternoon, during the resting period of the monastery. Thankfully, the chapel was open and we went in to venerate the icon. The sister there did not speak English, but I understood that the nuns were sleeping and we would have to wait. I had written and received permission to stay there 2 nights, but we had arrived a day early and I wasn't sure we would be able to stay. But waiting was alright....

....for awhile. But awhile became one hour and then two, with really nothing for the kids to do. I tried to check in again about staying. This time, there was an English-speaking nun who said we could stay one night, but would have to wait. 2 more hours. Until 6:30. Until AFTER Vespers. Grandma was tired and so was I. Emma was still upset that she had missed the cats that morning at Mystras. And to really make matters worse, we had driven in the very last leg up to the monastery over freshly tarred roads and our shiny new kokkino auftokinito was now kokkino kei mavri (yellow and black), so I was parked in the shade trying to rub spiderwebs of tar off the sides and back of the car with our extra toilet paper. Woo hoo. We had been talking about just heading to the coast for a couple of days' recreation and it was starting to sound better than more of this. Emma especially just wanted to get someplace where she could swim again. Our bathe in Zakynthos had been VERY lovely, and she had discovered that with goggles she can see all sorts of fish in the warm waters.

So I made an executive decision that we would leave. I wanted to go once more to pray at the icon first. When I went in, though, the gift shop was open. A different nun was in there and she was very kind and talkative, and my mood began to change. Her English was about as good as my Greek, so it was great because it forced me to speak it more, and we both enjoyed the challenge of communicating. I went back down to get Grandma and the kids to come see the gift shop, and when we came back up, this nun asked if we wanted to have a room, and brought us to one. Her name Kseni, and she was very nice. A plain room with 5 beds and a washroom around the corner that I could not figure out (flushing the toilet, that is; you never know until you get there around here.)

We went up to Vespers and Paraklesis and Basil and I sat right by the icon. He did pretty well. After this, we were hoping for dinner, but learned that on Fridays they only eat bread and olives because of the fasting. We still had some power bars we brought from home 2 weeks ago (will they ever go away!?) and grandma and the kids headed down to the room for "dinner". A young woman there who spoke English I think understood that we didn't really have much food, and she must have told them because a few minutes later Kseni told me to bring everyone upstairs where they fed us a tomato-orzo soup, fresh sourdough bread, and the most delicious kalamata olives I've ever had (that is the region we are in).

We had a good night's sleep, except for Grandma and the cough she has developed. Happily, we had Liturgy this morning up in the huge new church. I got up and went to part of Orthros earlier, then went down and roused the kids for Liturgy and we all got to take communion. One nun also gave me some pieces of cotton with the myrrh from the icon. Afterwards, I stayed to take photos of the incredible fresoes all over the church. It is kind of rare to find really excellent contemporarily-painted icons. Many of the modern icons are just that -- a little modern, not quite tradtional, or else not of exceptional artistic value. These were really exquisitely done, and by monks. I was snapping shots of feet, hands, details, faces, until an old nun came up scolding me in Greek and telling me to stop taking pictures.

Ancient icons that are in danger of being damaged from flashes, or very holy icons/relics that the nuns or priests do not want photographed, I have no problem leaving it. But in this case, with freshly-painted icons that are so valuable to have pictures of for an iconographer, I am more apt to follow my icon teacher's point of view. He told me when I last came to Greece that they would disallow me from taking pictures, usually, but his philosophy was to take as many as you can get away with. Again, not to cause any potential damage, but if it is for my own study and my conscience is clean, then these holy images don't really belong to any one person or monastery -- they are for all of us. So, snap I did. And I went back a little later when the church was nearly emptly, looked around for the nun and didn't see her. Snapped happily another 25 more until the lady sweeping called the Policewoman of Holy Things from the altar who chewed me out twice as bad. I'm sorry. I went and asked the Panaghia to forgive me and to ruin all my pictures if I shouldn't have them, as I venerated her icon on my way out.

The trip down the mountain was relatively easy. We stopped once to look at a little tiny roadside shrine, which you find all over greece. Sometimes they are more elaborate, but they are usually just a little glass box on a stand with a cross on top, looking like a tiny glass house or church. Grandma commented that people thought they were garbage cans and she had seen several with old water bottles and such in them. I couldn't believe this, so we stopped to look at one. Inside the tiny shrine was an old water bottle filled with olive oil, a bag of incense, a couple of icons, a lighter, an oil lamp, and some tiny candles. Beautiful. Orea.

We made it down to the sea!! Driving through town, we spotted a few hotels and when we hit the water it was just what we wanted, but no hotels in sight, only condos and apartments. On a pretty bare stretch, we came to a restaurant right on the beach and decided to stop for a meal; then I noticed a sign directly across the street: Hotel Aphrodite. I went in and the woman spoke very good Greek, had an open room with four beds (and a kitchenette and shower/bathroom), air conditioning, and free internet !!!!! Wow! We are in heaven. We can walk across the street to the beach or to eat something, there are umbrellas and beach chairs for grandma, and the ocean is very shallow for a long, long time. We had a great splash this afternoon and now I've gotten to spend time catching you all up on our doings here. Grandma has actually gotten a shower and nap and the kids are pretty comfortable in this great little pensione. I think there are maybe only 6 rooms here; it is like a large house with little apartments. The owner, Maria, has two children, a boy Emma's age and an older girl. We are really having a nice relaxing time now.

4km away is a monastery of women and I will go in a few minutes and see if I can catch some of the Esperinos (Vespers) for Sts. Peter and Paul. We plan to go there for Liturgy tomorrow morning, unless they don't have it, in which case there are two churches in town that we can find.

Well, that is it for now. If you leave a comment or send an email to me I can get it for the next couple of days. Signing off in a cooler, breezy Astros, looking through the door at the Mediterranean sea with Grandma organizing upstairs and the kids playing outside. Macrina

FREEDOM!!!

I wish I could upload the picture of our sporty little yellow kokkino auftokinito (yellow car!), but of course I left the cord that attaches my camera to the computer in Rome, and haven't been able to locate another one. I may get to borrow one tomorrow and fill in the photos for you then from the last few blogs. But let me tell you, we feel like millionaires and the taste of freedom is sweet! Our own set of wheels! Forget waiting hours for the bus and squeezing onto a hot little compartment that costs you $50 with a bunch of other people who stink almost as much as you do! We are FREEEEE!!!!

I am writing from Astros, a beautiful small town on the eastern coast of the Peleponnesus. We arrived earlier today, via a few little adventures.

Leaving Zakynthos Island, we travelled by bus to Corinthos, where we hoped to catch a connecting bus down to Tripoli, which is almost the very center of the Peloponnese. As luck would have it, the wait would be 5 hours. Although I've been advised by several people now to rent a car for this leg of the journey, I was still a little hesitant about driving here where the "rules of the road" are few and far between: basically 1) if you can squeeze through with an inch to spare, it's a go 2) if someone is driving towards you, you better move over a little, and 3) fast is good. However, the prospect of staying with my mother and children at the very bleak bus station in Corinthos with NOTHING really within walking distance except some abandoned cars and a seedy-looking hotel, at the hottest part of the day, was actually a worse option, in my estimation. So I grabbed a toothless cab driver who agreed to play the game of trying to communicate with me and we headed to Loutraki, about 10 minutes away, for a rental car place. We arrived to find it closed, but a quick phone call from him had Mr. Rental driving up on his motorcycle within a few minutes.

The price was not quite as bad as we had worried it would be -- about $100E or $150US dollars for 2 days. I was also afraid it might be an old beater with bad brakes, but it is a brand-new tiny yellow sporty car. Very cute. I was additionally dubious about having to drive a stick shift, but after just a few little jumps going around the block it was just fine. Heading out of town, I suddenly screamed: "Look! Look, down! Everyone!" and that was our encounter with the Corinthian Canal. That thing is WAAAY deep!

We happily headed onto the main highway, (the car guy called it the "autobahn", but I don't think so!) and down the road to Tripoli, revelling in our new-found freedom and the most-welcomed air-conditioner, which we all agree is much better than sliced bread. The roads were perfectly comfortable for me to drive, nothing like the crazy driving in the towns. The sun was setting very slowly and we enjoyed driving through miles and miles of olive groves with silver leaves turning in the breeze, grape vines, charming houses and small family farms. We gradually headed up into the hills, as most of the interior of the Peleponnesus is mountainous. The terrain reminded Emma and I very much of our home in Santa Rosa, and driving south to the monastery in Dunlap. It was simply beautiful.

We stopped at a "Rest Stop" which was actually a very large building housing a restaurant, cafe, bakery, book shop, sundries store, and probably some other things we didn't discover. We spent well over an hour there making calls home, having some dinner, and picking up a few needed items. Grandma Coco discovered souvlaki at this point and she is now a believer; let the record show it. I had some eggplant thing and the kids found gelato again. We decided to drive all the way into Sparta where we wanted to be the next morning for visiting Mystras, an ancient Byzantine town, which was once the administrative center of the Byzantine Empire, under the Paleologos family, I believe. There are some very good frescoes there.

We found a little place called Hotel Cecilia right in town. Basil had had enough travelling for the day and was itching to go to a park. He kept crying and asking for the park we had left back in Rome at Ostello Dante. Even though it was dark by now, and about 9PM, we headed out to go down a few blocks to the little square and fountain nearby. Plenty of people out and about, restaurants just beginning to get lively, like in Italy. Sparta was a much larger and livelier town than I thought it would be. There were a lot of college-age people, lots of modern shops, busy streets. We however, were ready for bed by about 10PM, wanting to get an early start in the morning. As Grandma says, our room was fitting for the place: spartan. Not much besides beds and a tiny bathroom, but it was fine. No mosquitoes, and an air conditioner which we couldn't really figure out.

I got everyone up at 7:00 the next morning and we headed out about 8AM for Mystras, a 10 minute drive. I knew it would be very hot again and terrible on us if we went later in the day. At first, Emilia was tickled with the place. It really is a whole "ghost town" from ancient times, very much intact. Many buildings are well-preserved, and many other little homes and shops are half-falling in. You can, for example, walk up some stairs and stop on a little landing that crumbles away. And there are roads and stairs all over in a honeycomb of antiquity. You can just imagine the bustle, the shops and homes and families that inhabited this place.

Already by 9AM it was getting quite hot and sunny. I was trying to make it to the one active monastery still there and we had been travelling in that direction. The mountain Mystras is on is very steep, thus, all the stairs. They couldn't even have wheeled vehicles here, only donkeys and horses. We could see the monastery but we got to a point where there was a very arduous climb up a series of switchback stairs. Emma had gone ahead and turned back. Basil was insisting he be carried. Grandma needed to rest. I told them to just enjoy the spot there in the shade, a little forested area with lots of places for Emma to explore and climb. I went on up to the monastery myself.

In the old church (from the 1400s? I think?) there was an icon of the Theotokos called "Pantanassa", which is what the monastery is known as. I took pictures of the few fresco fragments and stayed to pray for many people for a little while. I asked the attendant if I could have a blessing from the Gerondissa before heading back down. She brought me down and introduced me to the Abbess, who called one of the English-speaking sisters, Sister Agnes. I actually remembered her from my visit here 12 years ago!

We spoke for some time and she apologized profusely for the restoration mess all around. They gave me some water and juice, and a cookie which I kept for the kids. There are 6 nuns there, and everything they have must be carried up by hand or by their donkey -- all those stairs! I asked Sister Agnes why she chose to come here, and she said that when she began to think of entering the monastic life, this place kept calling to her, so she came. The view from up there of the still plains below, where Sparta lies enrobed in olive fields, was stunningly beautiful. Cats abounded, which she said were important to them because of all the snakes. I asked if there were scorpions and other poisonous things. Of course there were! So I began to think about Emma climbing around those old stones, and decided I had stayed long enough... It was a very refreshing journey.

When I came back down, they had left a note for me under a rock on the path, but were right down below. Emma was SO disappointed that she had not gone with me, especially because of all the friendly cats up there. She wanted so much to go up, but I just didn't have the strength to climb all those stairs again, and it didn't seem like a safe place for Basil and Grandma. A false step would be disastrous -- very sheer drops and no handrails. So we did a little more walking and attitudes and entire worldviews deteriorated with almost every step. The heat was rising, the HUGE red ants were terrifying to Emma, who had on flip-flops, the weird buzzy insects or birds or whatever they are in the trees were ramping up to an intolerable pitch, Basil wanted to be carried again (after leaving his mark on a tree there), and basically, we had had enough of Mystras. We went back to the car and headed down to find something to eat, as we'd had no breakfast really, only coffee.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Notes from Coco (Aka Colleen)

What an experience this has been! Al, your statement that this would be the trip of a lifetime was definitely an understatement! It has been a blast, exhausting, but well worth! Did Shirley/Macrina tell you that on our way to the Monastary to services,
Basil looked up at me and said "you look like a saint, Grandma!" Ha! He had never seen me in a long skirt and scarf on my head I think! And if any of you said anything about how hot it would be was an understatement, too. However, I'm trucking along and enjoying most minutes of it!

Love ya!
Grandma/aunt Coco/friend

Lovely Zante and Holy Dionysios

Hello to all from lovely Zakynthos Island, just off the northwest coast of the Peleponnesus. We are all alive and well, despite having "given blood" without permission. The kids in particular have many many mosquito bites. Grandma and I are apparently not so sweet. We brought insect repellant, but it doesn't work too well. This is, we understand, the high season for mosquitos here.

We had a good trip from Ravenna to Zakynthos, via the Regional train, which was hot but not so hot as before, and the another Eurostar trip. This is the deluxe train with air-conditioning and assigned seats. We sat next to a young lady Rachel's age from Colorado Springs whom we enjoyed talking to very much. She had been in Italy for 3 weeks and had another 5 to go, living on farms for 2 wks at a time and studying local agriculture for a cookbook she is writing which de-emphasizes wheat products. An interesting hyphothesis in Italy -- land of the carbfest.

From the train, we walked an exhausting several blocks to find the bus to Zakynthos. We couldn't find the way OUT of the port, initially, and had to squeeze through a locked gate, but after about 15 minutes we reached the little shop with a stop for Zakynthos and got our tickets. Only had to wait an hour for the bus and it was nice and air-conditioned. When we reached the town of Killini an hour away, we got off the bus and walked onto the ferry, leaving our bags. On the other side, we boarded the bus again and it took us to a station where we were able to catch a taxi easily to take us to the monastery Eleftherotria.

I had visited this monastery 12 years ago on my other pilgrimage to Greece. Intending to stay for a few days, I found a great treasure in the elder here, Gerondas Chrysostomos, and ended up staying more than a week with them. Zakynthos Island was occupied by the Venetians for some time and one thing that characterizes the culture here is singing. Among all the monasteries I stayed in on that former trip, this is the one that I felt the most at home in. The nuns sing a lot, there is a lot of laughter and a wonderful "family" feel. The Gerondas, Chrysostomos, had a special love for me when I was last here and I for him. I was so happy to learn that he was still alive and was most anxious to arrive here again.

The great draw of Zakynthos, spiritually, is the much-revered Saint Dionysios, whose relics are found in the large central church. There have been very many healings associated with him, and during his feast day, they carry his relics through the major streets of the town and many who are ill and troubled lay down in the street to have the relics carried over them.

Gerondas was a monk for 50 years attending in this main church with the relics and saw a couple of miracles firsthand. One was a young girl who was born with a spinal defect in which the vertebrae were not properly fused or something (I could not exactly understand). At any rate, she could not stand or sit straight up. She lived in California. She and her mother both had simultaneous dreams in which a man appeared to them and told them to come to Zakynthos where a certain doctor could heal her. After several dreams, they decided to come. They arrived, not speaking Greek, and sought out an English-speaking doctor. He was amazed they would come to Zakynthos seeking medical help when better help would be available in California. But as he listened to their story, he realized that it was St. Dionysios who had called them and he instructed them to go to the church.

When the young girl arrived and entered and saw the relics and icons of St. Dionysios, she jumped from her wheelchair and ran to embrace his relics, saying he was the man who had appeared to her. Many people saw this happen and Gerondas was assigned to the church at this time and saw her, too.

Another man, whom Gerondas knew, was a local boy who had a bad accident. He was shot in the eyes by a hunter when he was a young child. The parents had two choices: one was to operate and remove the eyeballs. This was recommended. The other was to leave the eyeballs intact and risk infection, and thus, his life. They elected to have his eyeballs removed and Gerondas knew him as a blind man in the town here. Twenty years passed and one day on St. Dionysios' feast day, this young man, now grown, laid down with the infirm to have the relics passed over him. As he felt the relics come, he reached up and grabbed the saints' legs (they carry his relics upright in a glass "coffin" during the procession). The police tried to come and dissipate the scene he was creating, but he began yelling: "Give me my sight! St. Dionysios, I will not let go until you give me back my sight!" He was a strong man and they had trouble making him let go. Suddenly, his eyesight was restored and actually new eyeballs appeared in the sockets of his eyes. This was an incredible miracle. The young man was speechless and many, many people came to see his new eyes, including Gerondas.

In 1962 Gerondas decided to build the present monastery. He gathered some nuns and began saving all the money he could to put towards the building. He would take the bus out and dig the foundation for it with his own hands. His shoes were so worn with holes that he put plastic bags inside to protect the soles of his feet.

When you see the monastery today, it is unbelievable to think of him doing this. It is a very imposing structure, beautifully laid out and very large. Like the Elder Ephraim's monasteries I have visited, much care is given to creating a very beautiful space - both interior and exterior. Lovely marble stairs and porticoes, mosaics, frescoes, and decorative paintings, a graceful rose garden, and many lovely bookcases filled with liturgical items such as chalices and Gospel books, as well as patristic writings.

The church is unique. The monastery is named for the Theotokos (Mother of God, Mary) Eleftherotria, which means "freedom". A very large icon painted with oils is central in the church. The painter was in World War II and had a vision of the Mother of God rising above the soldiers and protecting them, covering them, and taking herself the bullets and other weapons that would have wounded them. In the icon which he painted, her robes appear to be moving back like she is in motion, and she has two emblems on her shoulders that look like part of a military uniform. When I was here before, this icon was also here and I remembered it.

But Gerondas has decided to build another church exactly beside the first; they share a wall in common, and a doorway opens between them. The icon Eleftherotria is in one church, and another icon whose history I cannot remember right now is in the second church. It is quite amazing. During the services, one can sit in either church and hear what is being prayed.

They graciously gave us a blessing to stay in the house just behind the monastery grounds which is reserved for family of the sisters who live there. It is very comfortable. We have 2 bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen, and bathroom -- the whole upstairs. It is a 5 minute walk down to the monastery front gate and just about 2 minutes to the back gate which goes through the vegetable garden and the place where they keep the animals - goats, rabbits, lots of cats, chickens. We have large windows which open like a door to reveal a pair of shutters. These can also be opened to let in the fresh air and show the incredible view of the plains full of olive trees and grapes down below the monastery. I keenly remember this sight during our prayers of Apothipnos (evening prayers, or Compline, I think) which I loved at the end of the day on my last trip. Instead of looking at the icons, we ended the days by gazing at the loveliness of God's creation.

We were expected and greeted very warmly on our arrival, shown our rooms and then walked back down to the monastery to greet Gerondissa Magdalini and Gerondas Chrysostomos and all the sisters. These are titles given to the Abbot/ Abbess of the monastery. We say YEH-rohn-das, or Yeh-ROHN-diss-sah, to mean, spiritual Father/Mother. Gerondissa here is named for St. Mary Magdalene, from the Scriptures. And Gerondas is named for St. John Chrysostom (or, "golden-mouth" for his gift of eloquent speaking). The nun who escorted us was named Kyriaki and speaks perfect English, as do several of the others.

I was so happy to see Gerondissa again and to sit with her and talk a little, and I was overjoyed to finally see Gerondas coming down the hall to see us. He is now 95 years old, but still in good shape. He is hard of hearing, and he says his knees bother him now, but he looked just the same to me. He took to Basil very quickly (as do many people on our trip) and picked him up, played with him. They brought us some dinner -- fried potatoes, Greek salad (cucumber, tomato, fresh onion, olive oil), bread & honey, olives. It was so delicious. Gerondas stayed with us and fed Basil. We had huge chunks of fresh watermelon and all of us finished every drop. It seems ages since we have had fresh fruit!

We walked back up to our home and got showers. In Greece a shower is a tile square on the floor with a hand-held shower nozzle. Functional, and the cool water felt so good. Getting to sleep was quite another matter. It was SO HOT!!!! Lying on the bed doing nothing was uncomfortable and sticky. There was little breeze and we were told there were mosquitoes, so we didn't really have the windows all open, anyway. I didn't care too much about all these things, because I was so happy to be here. But it was hard for all of us to get to sleep.

The other major sleep-inhibitor was the noise. Here we are in the middle of a Greek island, well away from the tourist sections, next to a monastery that is like a spiritual oasis after our hectic sojourns through Italy. And what is next door? Some kind of major party with live music. I rather liked it -- folk music mostly, but at times it was awfully loud. There were other noises, too, like fireworks, occassionally. Underneath these louder human noises were all the animal noises -- dogs barking, birds chirping, and cats yowling. I thought about how happy Christopher would be to try and sleep in that (ha ha). There was also the incessant squeak of the shutters slowly blowing back and forth.

As I was finally settling into the reptilian feeling of wet skin no matter which side I laid on, I was pushed out of bed and onto my feet by a huge BANG! that I thought was someone coming in the door downstairs. We've read too much history of barbarians invading, pillaging, burning, and wreaking havoc throughout these places. I went down and checked the door. Everyone else was sleeping by this point, so I got back in bed. Listening, I heard more of the same sound, but further away. A canon? I swear it was.

Next morning, we got up on the early side and headed down the the monastery for Liturgy. I was so happy for this opportunity since we had missed it on Sunday, there being no Orthodox churches in Ravenna, and no time at any rate. I loved standing in the dark church with the sun beams illuminating the marble floors and faced of countless icons, listening to the Byzantine chant. I could follow quite well where we were in the service and some of the melodies were even a little familiar. I hummed along an ison some of the time. The children and I had communion after all the nuns. We venerated a relic which was out in the middle and I asked who it was at the end. It was St. John the Baptist! I very large piece of bone, about the size of half of my finger. I am used to seeing tiny chips and was amazed that we were venerating his actual bone. Can you imagine that this has stayed intact for 2,000 years?!

After this, Emma went with one of the sisters to help prepare our breakfast. They really have taken her under their wing, and they love her very much. They are extremely affectionate with both children, hugging and caressing them, kissing them, and playing with them. They are both very happy here, and Emilia loves it. She wants to come back again.

Mom and I spent time with Basil in the rose garden and then Gerondas, who had some guests he was chatting with, had us sing some things for him. We sang "The Angel Cried" and some "Christ is Risen" verses. They all liked to hear Emma sing very much. Basil did the ABCs. He asks a lot about icons I am painting, wants to know if I have any orders, and keeps telling me to paint beautiful icons. When I was here before, he had me paint an illumination for a huge book of Prayers and one of the Gospels that he was writing by hand. I also painted another icon of the Theotokos to fit inside a silver repousse icon he had. I asked one of the sisters what all the noise was from the night before -- it was all for the feast of St. John!

We went up for breakfast and then spent some more hours in and around the church, purchasing some things from the gift shop, and spending time with the sisters, especially Kiriaki and Argyros, who speak English very well.

We had a rest in the afternoon and all fell asleep, in spite of the heat. I think it was at this time that the kids basically got eaten alive with bites. I think Emma counted 96 this morning! Emma woke up a little before Basil and Grandma, about 4PM, and went back down to the monastery. We followed a little later, in time for Esperinos (Vespers) at 5PM. After this they went into the other chapel of Eleftherotria and sang the Paraklesis, which they do every night.

Gerondas stopped us in the church afterwards and was talking about Emilia. I cannot understand him, as he does not speak Greek, but Kyriaki was translating for us. He was saying that Emilia is a very good girl, a very beautiful girl. He was telling me that I must dedicate her to God, and that a life in God is better than anything. Kyriaki was crying and so was I. It was a very moving moment. He said that he sees something of what her life will be, or who she will become.

Gerondas then took us with him to show us the Evangelismos (Gospel Book) he had finished. I had asked especially to see it, since it was in progress 12 years ago. It took him 4 years of steady work to write this all out by hand, and every page has beautiful illuminations on it. The book weighs 18 kilos (probably 15 lbs) and is huge -- about 24" x 30" or so. It was bound with a cover that was a piece of art itself with all the metal work showing icons of the life of Christ.

After this, he took us upstairs into the room I spent so much time in before, an enclosed porch which overlooks the olive groves. There, he gave us an icon and gave a small icon of the Theotokos in particular to Emma, saying that he wants her to put it by her bed. He reiterated what he had said to me downstairs and also spoke very directly to her saying, "I want you to remember me when you see this icon. I want you to pray for me." She began to weep. Then I asked if he might give me his compeskini (prayer rope) as he had done this last time and I'd lost it in the airport. He called me to him and gave it to me off his wrist, holding my hand and saying, "Hold this. Hold onto this; pray with it. Pray for me and remember me, for I will die soon. You will be back here, but I will be gone. Remember to pray for me." Kyriaki and I were both crying at this time and I was deeply moved.

We visited for some time longer and then had our dinner. Fried potatoes from their garden again, and "horta" or greens as a special request. They had wanted to know what we would especially like, and it is what came to my mind. The food here has been so simple and so delicious. It is a fasting period, so it is all vegetables. For this night, they had found beets in the garden and cooked the greens with the roots for us. It really hit the spot!

We passed another night with all the mosquitoes and poor Emma was quite miserable. Grandma is enduring the heat pretty well, although it is tough on all of us. Today we got up and after breakfast they called a taxi for us. We went and venerated St. Dionysios in the big church and then went into town, in search of a cell phone. No can do. They don't have any until Friday. So we got a phone card instead and will try to make calls later tonight. Lively town here, pretty fun. Emma cannot wait to get to the beach. Grandma and I probably can, as it sounds like there is not much shade there. Well, we will see. We head back to the monastery for Vespers and dinner, then tomorrow we depart Zakynthos.

We will probably take everyone's advice and get a car tomorrow in Patras. By bus, it is virtually impossible to get around to both Sparta (where Emma really wants to go) and then on to Malevi Monastery, where they are expecting us. The nuns say they will feel "safer" for us to have our own car while on the Pelepponesus. So extra prayers are requested!!

Well, I will sign off on this long post. We have really enjoyed our first leg of the Greece Adventure and look forward to seeing Nikos, Maria, Fr. Nicholas, Gabriel, and of course Christopher in less than a week now.

Signing off from a cute little internet cafe in Zante. It is hot, yes!
Macrina

Monday, June 23, 2008

En route to Greece

We said goodbye to Ostello Dante yesterday, but I think we took a lasting reminder with us in the form of bedbugs. Emma in particular has a number of large bites, Basil and I both have a couple of them. We found a spider in our bed as we were leaving and hopefully that's all we've got. I've read that bedbugs are pretty bad and sometimes hard to get rid of. At least the bites are not bothering us.

Other than that, I can say that we all enjoyed our stay there. Walking up to it, even I was rather dubious, but it proved to be very homey and so nice to be able to spread out. The living room area was spread with large Middle Eastern pillows and wall hangings, there was a large cafeteria-style dining room and a huge gameroom with foosball and an area with toys for Basil to play, not to mention the park on one side and the grocery store on the other. All in all it was very convenient. We briefly considered staying a little longer, but as it would have meant cutting something else out, we decided to press on. We took the train into Ancona on Sunday morning. I had hoped we could visit a Catholic church in the morning (no Orthodox churches in Ravenna!) but there were none close enough for us to walk, and we left on the early side.


I am now writing from the ship en route to Greece. I have never been on such a luxury rig before. It is extremely comfortable here. We were upgraded to a 4-bunk cabin from a 2-bed one, because of the kids. The room is small, but certainly enough for us. There is a pool onboard with saltwater and a few options for meals. The cost of things is exorbitant -- I'm paying ten dollars US for an hour on the computer and our dinner last night cost 75 US for 3 orders of potatoes, 2 chicken, 1 pork, a plate of tzatziki, a salad, and 2 desserts, all taken cafeteria style. We saved over some extra chicken and the tzatziki and one dessert which I will have for lunch while the rest share a gyro. Money goes way too fast here, of course, but we have been fairly conscientious and careful about not over-spending.

Our trip on the train from Ravenna to Ancona, where we caught the boat, was much better than the ride from Rome to Ravenna. It seems by leaving earlier in the day we missed the ''Hades Express''. It was still hot, but not THAT hot. Also, handling the stairs up and down was easier, partly because it was the first of the day, and partly because we knew what to expect. You basically have to go down one level below the street to come back up on the proper track line. In the major cities they are apt to have an escalator for this journey, but in the smaller towns it is just stairs. I guess handicapped people just can't ride the trains here in the smaller towns.

After transferring in Rimini, we sat near a very nice student from America who Grandma, in particular, really enjoyed talking to. She was travelling around to spend a few weeks at various farms throughout Italy, studying food and cultivation. Her goal was to write a gluten-free Italian cookbook. Interesting thesis, in the land of the Great Carb! It was very refreshing to talk with someone who spoke our language, though!

I slept for 12 hours last night and could have stayed in bed even longer. I guess the exhaustion caught up with me. But this morning we are all feeling pretty good. Emma has made some friends here. Smiles and play are universal languages, too. It is a very international travel experience and the announcements are given in Greek, Italian, German, English, and French.

The sea around us stretches as far as you can see, a beautiful deep blue. I am not seasick, thank God, as I am prone to it.

One thing I did not mention before is that live musicians come around periodically in Italy. While we were eating dinner, and even on the subway, men came around with accordians, singing and playing, then passing a hat around for a tip. It was actually very charming. We also had people selling whatever they could carry coming around to our tables at dinner one night. This surprised me as we were not in a tourist area. It was a great experience in Italy, but I am looking forward to getting onto ''Greek soil'' as our friend Maria says.


Macrina singing off from the Aegean Blue, in a nicely air-conditioned ship.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Day in Ravenna

This morning we decided to take our time. Grandma and the kids got laundry going and played over in the park next door during the mandatory time of leaving the hostel (11 - 2:30). I took the bus into town to find the lay of the land, so to speak.

The receptionist here kept assuring me yesterday that it was an easy walk into town, 15 - 20 minutes, and that once there things would be obvious. Well, not so for me. Luckily, I decided to take the bus anyway and am very glad I did.

The center of Ravenna is really wonderful. Cars are not allowed on many of the streets and a large percentage ride bicycles. The narrow streets are lined with cute boutiques and shop, peppered with lively squares where people gather to chat, and of course the incredible monuments that people come to see: 5 major churches from around the 5th- 8th centuries housing some of the best Byzantine mosaics in the world.
Click here for a larger view.
I made my way to St. Apollinaire and Galla Placidia, which you can look up on the internet and get lots of information for. The interior space of St. Apollinaire is incredible. It is a HUGE church and it has not only the famous mosaics of Sts. Justinian and Theodora, but also incredible designs all over the floor, including the model that Emma and I used to do a mosaic project in our homeschooling. That was pretty incredible to see. Galla Placidia is a tiny little chapel just a short walk across the lawn, very intimate. This is the one with all the lovely doves drinking from bowls, and the Christ the Good Shepherd. When you first walk into the nave and look up at the low ceiling it is covered with brilliant stars on a dark blue background. Just stunning.

Leaving the church, I needed to get back to Grandma and the kids and tried to follow directions to a bus, which I'd gotten at the information center where I was able to borrow a bike and get around a little better. My feet were hurting already from some blisters. I could not find either a place to buy the bus ticket, or the bus stop. So I walked in what I thought was a good direction.

However, I got out of the quaint old town and down a boring, hot residential highway-street with nothing to commend itself. It took me an extra long way around the city center before I got back to the train terminal where both buses and taxis can be gotten. I'd say it was probably a 3 mile walk altogether, which I should be able to take in stride, but I am so far behind in the fitness department with my break a few weeks ago from all walking, that it was quite arduous.


At any rate, I did get back at long last and hired a cab to take me "home". A little later, we all made it back down into town and visited a couple of the churches with mosaics and just enjoyed hanging out in the squares and having some more gelato and the local specialty, padina, which is a kind of folded over sandwich which was very good. Alas, we could not find a restaurant for our last Italian meal. I had been looking forward to ordering saltimbocca, but we were just too tired and ended up with roasted chicken from the grocery store. It hit the spot.

For now, that's it. Signing off in a warm but alright Ravenna at almost 9PM. I am so sticky you wouldn't believe it! As Grandma says: I won't really be clean and dry until I get back to Seattle. Ain't that the truth!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Catacombs, Dante's Inferno, and Total Funk

After rather a push, we did get all packed up Thurs. evening so that we could get an early start the next morning. We didn't get to bed until after midnight. We had semi-Turkish take-away for a quick meal because we had to walk down to the restaurant of the night before and retrieve Emma's backpack. At any rate, we slept, woke, and hit the road again.

By now we are quite proficient with the bus system in Rome and we know the numbers of those that come near our hotel. We have also gotten the system of hefting ourselves up into the bus without mishap. Basil narrowly missed getting shut in the door getting off once, but thankfully his guardian angel was watching. A ticket has to be purchased beforehand from the Tabbachiano or "tabacco store" where they sell all sorts of odds and ends.

So Friday morning we stopped in and got a little typical Italian breakfast at the cafe 2 doors down from our hotel. Filled croissant and a drink. We got a latte and it comes in a little cup which you simply drink at the bar and go on your way. It was very good. Italians don't go in much for breakfast, I understand. At our hotel they provided a breakfast of the same croissants filled with jams and then some panini bread, cured meats, hard cheese, hard little toasts (kind of like large melba toast) and jam/butter. The way they made the coffee was in one of those silver espresso makers that go on the stove. It was served as a shot of espresso with a pitcher of warm milk that you can add in yourself.

We got to San Giovanni square where we made a connection to another bus. That sounds so simple, doesn't it? But actually, this is what it was like. Here comes the number 3; it is very full. Okay, Basil! Get out of your stroller right away and hold grandma's hand. Emma, get ready to hop up quick before they leave without us. Okay, grandma, get Basil, I'm getting the stroller folded up and the bag slung on my shoulder. We all hop up and grab a bar just in time before the bus lurches forward pitching all bodies backwards violently and then forwards. It's rather a miracle that none of us fell the entire time. You'd think a bus, being a large mass, would perhaps drive a little more gingerly in Italy, right? Well, no. It's really crazy. Meanwhile, I have to make my way up to the front to get our ticket punched. It took me quite some time and some help from bystanders to get it into the machine initially, but now I've got it down.

Mom: Now where are we getting off?
Macrina: San Giovanni Square.
Mom: Where is that?
Macrina: I don't know.

Thus commences the process of trying to communicate to those around me until I'm relatively sure I've both been A) properly undrstood and B) the informant has a higher chance of being right than wrong. We did, however, make it without mishap onto the next bus, which took us to the Catacomb of San Callixtus.

I cannot describe the experience of this marvel fully in the brief time I have this morning. It was as profound as I knew it would be. The grounds around the Catacomb are beautiful and peaceful. There are several different excavations around the Appian Way, or the ancient road out of Rome. It is on this road that Christ appeared to St. Peter as he was fleeing his martyrdom. Christ told him, "I will be crucified twice if you flee." and he returned to face it in the square we saw the previous day at St. Peter's Basillica/Vatican. The excellent guide we had described the scene to us: The Emperor had constructed a huge track for games and part of the "halftime entertainment" was the execution of the Christians. There had been a terrible fire in the city and the people had risen against Nero, who had probably planted the fires in order to re-build Rome. He turned to the strange cult of the Christians as a scapegoat - those strangers who were cannibalistic, as they were commonly misunderstood then. So during the games he ordered executions en masse, and sometimes even used bodies of Christians dipped in tar to provide illumination at night. At any rate, St. Peter's turn came there and he was crucified upside-down at his request, feeling he was unworthy to die in the same manner as his Lord.

During these years of the Roman Empire generally from the 3rd to 5th Centuries, the bodies of martyrs and the early popes were buried in the Catacombs, labyrinthine tunnels dug into the ground. Roman law forbid people from being buried within the city walls. They also considered burial ground as sacred space, whether for Jews, Christians, or others. This made it a place where the Christians could gather to worship as well as pay their respects to those who had died.

On our guided tour we climbed down about 1.5 flights of stairs into the underground tunnels. We saw many of the shelves and enclaves where bodies would have been placed horizontally with a marble slab put in place like a cap over the opening. These often bore the names of the dead, carved in Latin or Greek, according to the needs of the families. The gravediggers also sometimes added paintings and some of the earliest Christian frescoes that we know of are here AND WE SAW THEM!!!! We saw the 3 boys in the fiery furnace, fish symbols, the Good Shepherd, and some orans figures (in the position of prayer with arms upraised). This is also the tomb in which the martyr St. Cecilia was buried. She has an amazing story which I won't recount here. A sculpture of her body in the position it had been found when first opened was laying in a crypt with lampadas hung above it. It was an amazing experience. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they are not allowed.
Click here for a larger view.

After a 30 minute tour, we walked down about 3/4 mile to the church of Quo Vadis? whereChrist appeared to St. Peter during his flight. We had several minutes to Click here for a larger view.kneel in the quiet church and pray for people. I was really enjoying this and beginning through a long list of people to pray for: Eleni, Peter, Maria, Fr. Brendan, Mat. Magdalen... and then Basil says: I have to go potty. Now he has been potty-trained over the last 2 weeks and when he has to go, it has to be done. So out of the church he and I went, in search of a bathroom.

The church is on an extremely busy street (Appia Antica) of cobblestones with a sliver of sidewalk and cars whizzing past. It's beautiful countryside around, but this is a pretty busy vein of traffic and walls rise on either side of the highway (very old ones). There are not many other buildings in site. I realize with the flash of inspiration, that Basil is a BOY!! And boys have certain conveniences that girls do not. Great!, I think. This will be a snap. There is a convenient corner next to a gate so we troop over. Okay, Basil, here is a defining milestone for you. He seemed somewhat bewildered, but I assured him that yes, he could go potty RIGHT here. How hard could it be? Harder than I thought, having never done this before. We really missed Daddy at this moment. I didn't realize that there is a certain skill of aiming that must be cultivated in the young male. Needless to say, the back of his pants and one shoe were completely saturated, but I think we did manage to get some of it on the ground. Better luck next time.

It took some doing to find the bus stop back into town. We were at a different location because of our walk and I excitedly announced that we'd be passing the Pyramid (burial chamber for some wealthy Roman -- covered in marble and about 2 stories high in the middle of Rome!) which Emma had really wanted to see, AND we would be taking the METRO!! Grandma's face was less than anticipatory at this thought, but it seemed to me like one of those things one ought to do before leaving. Pyramid was pretty neat. Metro was not. (And who would have expected it to be?) Dirty, dingy, fast, and functional. I was fine with it, the kids were oblivious, and Grandma was pretty mortified. Well, at least it was short and... um.... savory.

We transferred to yet another bus and made it back "home". Our host Dominic gave us our held-over breakfast to have for lunch, called us a cab, and carried our bags down for us. We arrived at the railway in good time.

Inside, a man from Macedonia begged for a penny from me for bread (not sure whether it was for him or for children there) Anyhow, I gave him a Euro (Actually, my friend Dominica gave him a Euro!) and then asked if he could tell us where some seats were. My Mom was quite tired and I didn't want to make her stand for an hour. He escorted us to the Mc Donald's downstairs where we bought 2 drinks and a small ice cream for about $8, but I would have paid $10 for the seats. In good time we made it up to our train and found the right car to get onto. Now, we are supposed to be travelling "light" but this is what we have: I carry a backback that is now probably 20lbs. Basil's stroller (when we can use it) carries a shoulder bag with essentials like my camera and instructions of where we're going that weighs another 3-4lbs. and his small backpack with his essentials. Emma has a roller bag and whatever food bag we are currently toting. Grandma has a roller bag with detatchable backpack that probably weighs 25lbs altogether. And we have an additional backpack of stuff that won't fit in the other bags. This is an awful lot to heft around, sometimes up and down very steep stairs.

At the proper car, we got in the first door, only to find that we had to squeeze down the TINY passageway (like in an airplane) with all our baggage to the last seats right near the door at the back of the car. Duh! This train ride was fine, in an airconditioned car (which means something a little different than what we are used to -- by about 15 degrees). The next train ride, however, was our own personal descent into hell.

Now, Dante is buried in Ravenna. This fact excites me a little, and I do hope we will be able to see his grave today. As you must know, he is famous for writing the great works of Paradise and the Inferno, in which he describes the various levels of hell quite graphically. I am sure on another reading of the Inferno, I would find the local Italian trains listed there somewhere. Maybe around the 4th or 5th level. Although on paper it looked like a short final leg of the journey from Rome to Ravenna, in reality it entailed getting to the other platform for the train -- down a large flight with all those bags and back up another with all those bags, and then getting on a new sauna disguised as a train. Really, it was. I'd say it must have been at least 90-95 degrees in there. No sun, sure, but it was like a sardine can (yes, it was, really, at least in our compartment. It's funny, you pass by these chic Italiano women and there is a faint cloud of pleasant scent. We haven't gotten that part, Mom and I.) My poor Mom was literally dripping.

Click here for a larger view.

I was, too; Basil's hair was sopping wet and plastered to his head. There was nothing to do but sit and wait for 1.5 hours for our stop. We sang "Bingo" and the "Monkeys on the Bed". At one point, I'm not sure if Basil was delirious or not, but he started singing his own version of this rhyme: "5 little monkeys, jumping on the bed. One is named Michael and hit his little head. Another little monkey named St. Peter....."

We finally made it off the bus and up yet another taxing flight of stairs (which I still have to take one at a time because of my broken leg, but it's getting better and I can almost do them normally now , a few more days I think). Outside in the Italian heat of the day it felt like a refigerator to us. We got in a lovely airconditioned new cab and he turned on English rock and roll. Yeah. That was alright! He drove us to our hostel and Mom said, "THIS is it??! Oh, uh, it looks interesting." After a drive through this charming, calm town lined with trees, we arrived at a building that was rather dilapidated-looking, a transplant from the worst era of architecture, if you can call it that, of the early 70's. Big boxy windows, tired old cubes of concrete, covered in dinge. I was afraid that either they wouldn't have our reservation or else it would be simply intolerable. Neither proved true, thank God. I did have a small moment of breakdown while telling the "receptionist" (who has a sign saying "If I end up in hell, at least all my friends will be there." on her wall.) that we just couldn't go up another flight of stairs. I got a little weepy. But she said they have a lift (elevator) here, which solved it.

She gave us the largest room with 5 beds so we have plenty of space to spread out. Emma and I went across the street to the grocery store and got a simple collection for dinner: grilled veggies (yes!) and lasagna from the deli, a hunk of parmesan for Emma, some yogurt, weird-looking cookies, limonata drink, some fresh mascarpone.
Click here for a larger view.

There is a large complex of common area here on the main floor with lots of things for us to use, a washing machine downstairs, and a huge park right next door that the kids got to go play in late last night for a few minutes.

We had a good night's sleep and will have a pretty relaxing day today. This is a totally funky place, but our jaws dropped when we heard that the total for 2 nights was 101E (about $150) which is an incredibly good deal for what we are getting, for all of us.

I need to sign off now. Grandma is having a hard time deciphering the washing machine, and Emma is itching to go to the park. I am anxious to get out and find the way into town so we can go down and see the mosaics.

Ciao for now!

In peaceful, pretty Ravenna, where we'd like to stay another night.... maybe we will alter our plans, maybe not. Trees and open space... ahhh. Muggy already at 9AM. Macrina

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Rome Day 2: Vatican




We changed our minds and did end up going to the Vatican today. We are all glad we did. First let me say that we had a really wonderful typical Italian meal the night before. It was a pretty interesting walk around our neighborhood here before we found it. Initially Mom had been dubious about going out at night, but we decided to "While in Rome... do as the Roman's" and give it a try. Most people (of all ages) come out in the cooler evening hours and it is pretty common for people to have dinner after 8PM. It is a very different way of life from what we are used to. But we found it works very well in this climate. Emma loved her Spaghetti Blanco. Mom had another pasta with tomato and basil, and I had a pesto on orichette "little ears" which was made with walnut. It was delicious.

After that, we made the much-anticipated run for gelati. Emma chose strawberry, Grandma got coffee, I got Nutella, and Basil got chocolate, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

After a good night with quite a bit of sleep, we went the next day to the Vatican. We are short on time, since we missed the Catacombs yesterday. We already bought tickets for our train to Ravenna this afternoon and we need to get going so that we have a little time there before heading back to say "ciao" to Rome. The Vatican really was amazing. We had a fabulous tour and viewed a number of the art pieces. She gave us a lot of history and a great appreciation for the Sistine Chapel before we viewed it. The highlight for Emma and I was going down into the crypt where all the popes are buried, along with the tomb of St. Peter. It was a very moving experience for both of us. Unlike the magnificent church above, we both felt that this simple chapel underground was the real heart of the Vatican and it brought us to tears.

We also rode the open air bus tour 2 full times and got a great overview of the city. We got off in the afternoon after a long day and found another gelato shop near the Trevi Fountain, which was more beautiful than I thought it would be.
Signing off in sunny Rome at 7AM! Macrina

P.S. All the waitresses here love Basil and pick him up and pinch his cheeks and everything. They all try to get him to say simple words like "Ciao", which of course means "Bye" (and also "Hi" I think). He has sort of half-gotten it and says: "Bye-bye chow!".

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

First Day in Rome: AKA The Marathon

Here is the lovely beginning of a pretty incredible day that was more arduous than we realized it would be. Our first night in Rome passed well but with our bodies raring to go at around 3-4AM we were a little behind at the get-go of our tour of the ancient core of Rome: The Palatine Hill, Forum, and Colloseum. Let it be known that I was not really dumb enough to choose a walking tour like this on our first day. However, the tour was full on Thurs. and this was our only choice.

After getting on the bus going the wrong way, we finished our unexpected tour of the outside of the Borghese area. I pointed out the hotels without graffiti that we could have stayed in for hundreds of dollars per night. Very posh area. And beautiful. We made it down to the Colloseum. It is true: the first side of that edifice is absolutely breathtaking and beautiful.

We had a really incredible walk up the Palatine Hill to begin with. Our guide, Graham, showing us the sites of the imperial palaces and recounting historical tidbits along the way. The hill is rich with history, beginning with the legend of Romulus and Remus beginning here with the spot where the she-wolf found the twin boys and nursed them.

It is a bit of a hike with stroller and 3-year old, but not strenuous, and the stroller went well over this part of the journey. It was still morning and really a beautiful walk. An unexpected thrill was seeing a newly-excavated home of Augustus, which contains incredible fresco fragments. The well-preserved reds were brilliant, and some very delicate fairy-like mythological figures and whisps of horses were visible along the top. Incredible ruins and fragments of ancient history were all around us. The kids clambered on pieces of columns probably more than 2,000 years old.

One of the more memorable sites pointed out to us was the Vomitorium. No kidding. Exactly what it sounds like. And entire room was devoted to helping the Emporer's guests make it through some of the more sumptuous banquets -serious gastronomique marathons which entailed getting through 40-50 courses over many hours, each dish representing a territory Rome had conquered. This is it to the left. In order to make it through, guests would retire to the Vomitarium when completely satieted partway through their meal and slaves with long sticks tipped with feathers would, as Emma elegantly puts it, "tickle it out". After that, they'd go back and do it again... repeatedly. Just unbelievable that these kinds of extreme excesses were the norm for humans at any time in history!

At the top of the hill, we were rewarded with incredible views of both the city of Rome and the Forum down below us. At this point, the sun was really beating down and it was approaching 11AM. We were all feeling laggy at this point and little did we know the more difficult half lay in front of us.
We descended the Palatine Hill, which was actually more difficult for me due to my broken leg of 5 weeks ago than the ascent had been. It has been going very well so far, with just a little tenderness left over, but the thing that has not fully healed is my ankle and I still have to take stairs one step at a time. We were hot and sweaty by this time, and beginning to tire.

I wish I'd been more alert for the next part of the tour, the Ancient Forum ruins. Huge paving stones which were actually part of the ancient Via Sacra (Holy Way) which Emperors and triumphant generals trod in pomp and circumstance, are still intact, and most unfriendly to strollers. Basil was a real trouper, as was Emma, and neither complained in the oppressive heat and all the walking. I haven't time to recount the incredible history and ruins we saw, but here are just a couple more pictures.

After the Forum, we had the great privilege of visiting the Mamartine Prison, in which St. Peter was imprisoned when the angel came and miraculously broke his chains. It is known as St. Peter in Chains. Stairs descend to a small grotto with a very low ceiling. I didn't catch what everything was there, but it was most obviously a small prison. A hole in the ceiling is where prisoners were let down - in St. Peter's day it was the only entrance.

Our guide announced that we would now leave for our final destination: the Colloseum. Had I known that it would be such a long walk in the blazing sun down the sidewalk of a major street, I probably would have said goodbye to the small group and cut our losses. We were all extremely tired by this point. To me, that walk literally felt like the final leg of a marathon. Everything ached, I was tired, hot and sweaty. We had not eaten much that morning, trying to get out as early as we could, so the yogurt was long gone by that time and it was 1PM.

We finally did make it, however, and I must say it was absolutely awe-inspiring. Thinking of all the martyrs who died here, the soberness of the place coupled with the grandeur of the building itself really was something I will remember for a long time.

We had a wonderful evening back near our hotel which I'll write more about later. For now, it is already 8AM and we are going to grab some breakfast here then head off for our next day of adventure. We are considering axing the Vatican. I know it's a shame, but our pace is not very swift and if we need to rest again in the afternoon, we can only choose one thing to see. My priority is the Catacombs, so we plan to head out there this morning.

Macrina signing off in a very pleasant and sunny Rome.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Some photos En Route and Arrival in Rome


Here we are all ready to go at about 5:30AM from Seattle. Don.t we look chipper?







By the way, Daddy, Emma wanted her hair cut before we left. It was a quick job at 5AM, but she looks like a pixie again, which isn.t a bad thing. Maybe next month Michael can tidy it up for her, since he is the resident hairdresser.

It was a very long day of travelling. In all, it was 27 hours of travelling with a rather difficult night.s sleep the night before and only about 3 hrs of pretty good sleep en route. Basil got a bit more.


Basil with his cute little backpack boarding the plane. And then keeping busy like a good boy at the airport. He ran around that fountain about 100 times.







Arrival at our hotel. The "view" out our window.

Sorry for the sideways photos. I.ll try to figure that out later. This is the street we are on, which was so hard for the taxi driver to find. Small wonder. I could never have found it.







This is the building across the street from us, and looks similar to our own front door. It looks worse from the outside than it does from the inside. As my friend Kathy wrote: 3 cheers for Grandma Coco!! I was remembering last night how my Dad.s first comment to Mom after her announcement that she wanted to come with us: "This isn.t going to be the kind of travel you.ve ever done before. It.s not going to be a cruise." Travelling this way is what is allowing us to make this trip, anyway. We couldn.t afford a lot of the touristy places. Rome is a very expensive city, and most especially there.

Although the neighborhood does look rough, it doesn.t feel that way to me. Lots of college kids and a true working class neighborhood. It is so much more fun to be with real Italians than with a bunch of tourists like us. We have plenty of that society en route from one place to another. We went out and had our first Italian "fast food" last night which was about 12 kinds of different pizza we just pointed at to order. Here is Grandma enjoying a piece and probably talking about that taxi driver. It was great. I had something with eggplant and some spicy little pockets, maybe some anchovy. The rest had plain cheese. Our host Dominic was very helpful and got us all set up with great maps for the local busses. Our room is very comfortable.
Here is a not-great view of our room. It is actually very nice and the beds were comfortable. We all went to bed at 10pm and we all woke up around 3-4 AM basically ready to get up, especially Basil. We all snoozed until about 5AM and have been getting ready this morning. Lots of night noise, especially traffic but also people cheering now and then probably from a local taverna. It didn.t really quiet down until about 2AM.
Our digits and limbs tally is not the greatest, but it could be worse. Mom's (HEY I just found the apostrophe! Yea!) finger was worse this morning and we did some small operations on it. We've salved it with antibiotic ointment from the pharmacist and St. John's holy oil. My leg-foot is doing very well. Both kids have all fingers and toes intact. We are off to say prayers and then out into Rome!

Signing off at 7AM in a muggy but not hot, graffiti-filled Rome.