Metsovo and Ioannina

They say that getting there is half the fun. I'm not sure who 'they' are, but they're right!

We left the amazing Tzoumerka region and headed towards Metsovo, which was pretty much over the next mountain range. We climbed along more twisty roads and, at the top, found ourselves eyeballing another spectacular valley.

A little further on there was a place to pull over. I stood above a steep drop-off and there was nothing between me and the huge wall of the mountain opposite me. I felt like I was a part of the towering landscape. 

Some parts felt like they were the setting for a fantasy movie. This could be a scene from Avatar or Lord of the Rings.

At the bottom of the gorge was another striking old stone bridge.

As we drove up the other side of the gorge, another car passed us on its way down. It had a sunroof and a passenger was standing up in the car with his head and whole torso sticking out the sunroof. He would have had the most amazing view of this spectacular drive!

We stopped at a monastery on our way. The road in was lined with modern sculptures in a variety of styles. There were huge eyes, stone shapes and these mysterious hooded figures.

There were a couple of sculptures made from scrap metal but this one was the most interesting!

The monastery was very neat and pretty. Living quarters were arranged around the small church.

The church looked fairly modern on the outside but the paintings inside were very old.

Outside the kitchen, these three sleeping kittens snuggled cutely together.

But the reason we came to this monastery was because we head read it had an amazing view. Much to our surprise, we saw signs inside the monastery directing us to the view! The signs led us through a teeny, tiny door.

We walked along a short, pretty path to a place that was clearly constructed to show the view. Once again, it was incredible!

As we left, the writing on the back of the signs that led us to the view wished us a pleasant journey! I'm not sure why this monastery was so set up for people to come in just to see the view but we weren't complaining!

We drove to out next destination, a hotel near the well-known village of Metsovo. Metsovo is a Vlach village, where people speak a different language and are possibly of Romanian descent, although this isn't known for sure. The town was spread out beautifully across the hillside and looked spectacular from a distance. We read though that tourist buses frequently visited and that the village had "shops filled with the most awful tat this side of Athens"! Not surprisingly, although we looked across the valley at it for three days, we never visited it.

We stayed at a bit of a fancy hotel here. We were looking forward to this special place but our room was really just like a nice hotel room. The hotel complex sprawled across multiple levels and, like Fawlty Towers on steroids, we had to catch three separate lifts, each only a few floors, to get from the entrance to our room!

Ironically, this hotel was the first one we've stayed in for ages that had a pool but we were up so high in the mountains that it wasn't hot enough to use it. There are so many times I would have done almost anything for a swim in a pool!

The hotel had a great restaurant though and we really enjoyed the food here. It was amazing!

Sadly, the walking and riding nearby wasn't that exciting. There was only one track leading from the hotel and it started off so steep that John had to push his bike up it. After that, he could ride.

We were at an altitude of about 1,100 metres here. The 'white' lines on the road were yellow and snow poles lined some of the roads. It was still pretty warm though so it felt strange to see this sign.

The one walk and ride we could do from here took us to a windfarm!! Anyway, there were some nice views along the way.

Aoos Springs Dam wasn't too far away, so one day John rode all the way around it and had a great ride. Meanwhile, I walked out onto a peninsula on the lake. John waited until I got safely past a farm house to make sure there were no dogs, then he left. Literally two minutes later, a huge sheepdog that had been sleeping under a tree suddenly saw me and came out barking ferociously. He didn't do any more than that though and I got safely past.

Five minutes later, I came across a car sitting on the track in the middle of nowhere with its doors open. It wasn't until I got right next to it that I saw someone was lying down inside. The old man must have been watching some cows that I could see a bit further away. I said hello and, no sooner were the words out of my mouth than another huge sheepdog came rushing at me from the other side of the car. The owner called it back but it still scared me half to death.

The track headed out onto the peninsula. You can see it in the pic below. There was no shade at all and I got swarmed by flies the whole way. I spent the return trip worrying about the dogs but neither of them appeared, thank goodness!

Two years ago, when we were sitting in Archontoula's incredible old taverna in Olympos village, on the island of Karpathos, we met a young man. He said he owned a taverna in the mountains in Greece and was trying to keep it traditional like Archontoula's taverna was. 

John, having the memory of an elephant, remembered this conversation when it came time to plan this trip. He decided to try to find this young man, whose name we didn't even know, and his taverna. The only info he had to work with was it was a traditional taverna in the mountains somewhere in this region. John searched on Facebook and a taverna immediately came up. Was this a random selection or was it because we had looked up the guy's taverna two years ago when we were with him? We didn't know, but it wasn't far from where we were staying so we went there on a whim. 

A small road led to the village then simply stopped at what looked like a closed taverna. Chairs were stacked up on the edge of the village square. We thought we should check so we parked the car and climbed up some stairs and saw that the taverna wasn't closed at all. Tables and chairs were spread out over a large square under two enormous plane trees. 

We took a seat and were served by a young guy who was studying in Athens but loved coming back to his village for the summer, which was nice to hear. Another man in a black t-shirt, who must have been the owner, was talking to people at another table and was moving in and out of the kitchen. I tried to explain to the young man serving us who we were looking for but he didn't quite understand. He said something about Thanasis cooking in the kitchen. I asked if Thanasis was the man in the black t-shirt. He said yes. My heart sank. The black t-shirt guy wasn't our man. 

Then, another man emerged from the kitchen. John recognised him straight away. It was him! Once we explained where we had met him, he remembered us and he was as happy as we were. I couldn't believe we actually found him!

He poured us a tsipourou each (ughh, in the middle of the day when we have to drive!) and we had a bit of a catchup between his customers needing him.

He had to get back to work but he told us we should check out his village, particularly an old water mill. The old church next to the square was reminiscent of the ones in the Pelion region. Like many buildings in the village, it was built of stone and had a slate roof.

The village was so pretty! Locals took pride in keeping the paths weed-free. It looked like the council had spent a bit of money on it too, which was a bit surprising seeing it was a small village at the end of a dead-end road.

A beautiful stone bridge led over the village's small river.

Nearby, water tumbled down into a beautiful shady spot. It must be wonderful to come here on a hot day. Hang on - this day was a hot day, lol.

Much to our surprise, the mill Thanasis told us about was a recently-built fulling mill! This one was in great working order. Water poured into it in the right way so that the rugs and blankets were spun around to get washed properly.

There were even rugs drying on the line nearby.

We left the village and returned to our hotel. On the way we passed Tsipiani Bridge, built in 1875. The new bridge was built right beside it.

Our hotel was a long way up a hill. At the bottom of the hill was this shed containing what John knew were small milk vats. None of the staff at the hotel knew anything about how this worked. John even met one of the farmers there but he spoke no English. We think that farmers bring their milk to here and a truck comes to pick the milk up. We think it's mostly sheep milk.

We drove to the nearby village of Anilio one day. John rode his bike back up the loooong hill to our hotel while I explored the village. Nestled on the north side of a hill, Anilio doesn't get a lot of sun. Meanwhile, Metsovo was in full sunshine behind it.

I found a few quirky things here. These stairs led all the way up to the eaves of the roof on a house! I have no idea why.

The village was quite rural. There were chickens and very healthy vegie gardens. Strangely, plastic bottles covered each ear of corn in this crop. Maybe it has something to do with helping them ripen?

Another unexpected sight was this old ski-doo sitting outside a house! Even more surprising was the Ontario number plate!

I drove back up to the hotel and came across a couple of large sheep dogs on the way. Further up was a mob of sheep. I was immediately concerned about how John went on the bike. It turned out I had every right to be concerned. John had come across eight of these massive dogs! Most were okay but one went for the bike. Luckily the shepherd was nearby and called the dog off. John had a conversation with the guy, who spoke no English. Yep, it's possible. He thinks the shepherd was saying that he needs lots of dogs to keep the bears away! There are certainly brown bears in the area but nobody we spoke to had ever actually seen one. It might be different if you have sheep though.

We left Metsovo and drove to Ioannina (pronounced Yo-wa-nina). Ioannina is the largest city in this part of Greece, so we booked five days here as we had things we needed to do in the city.

Ioannina is unusual in that it has a walled fortress at the end of the city and inside that fortress is another one! Our small hotel was inside the first set of walls. We drove through one of the arched gateways in the huge stone walls and drove along narrow cobblestoned roads to our hotel. How cool!

The walls dominated the northern end of the town.

A rare early morning photo with no traffic!

There were a handful of gorgeous gates through the walls.

The cobblestoned roads in the gateways were worn smooth from centuries of use.

Inside the spacious fort-inside-a-fort (called Its Kale locally), a few restored buildings stood splendidly. Most were from the Ottoman era. The fort was built centuries ago but most of what we see today was either restored or built by Ali Pasha, a notorious overlord who people either loved or hated.

One of the two old mosques that were beautifully restored.

The old library had gorgeous domed rooves. Apparently thousands of manuscripts were found here.

Some parts were still in ruins, although they look even better this way I think!

The fort ended at a huge lake, Lake Pamvotis. The lake itself formed part of the fortress's protection. The walls used to plunge straight into the water but, these days, a lovely small road and walking/cycling paths runs around the outside.

Cafes sat prettily under shady trees along the lake's edge.

My Greek isn't good enough to read who this guy was but I love his amazing hair, haha!

Much to our amazement, we saw a snake swimming in the lake!

One day John rode right around the lake and I walked a part of it. It was pretty enough.

The thing to do in Ioannina is to take a ferry to an island on the lake. The island's claim to fame is that it's the only lake island in the world without a name! It's just called "the island". The island was settled in the 16th century by refugees from the Peloponnese. Today, about 250 people live there and they mostly seem to survive on tourism.

We stepped off the ferry and started to walk up one of the narrow lanes but were accosted by women trying to sell us stuff. They had (supposedly) home-made goodies but there were shops selling all sorts of ridiculous stuff. Anyone for a genuine, ancient Greek plastic slinky???

We walked right around the island and it was quite pretty. We saw a snake, a fair bit larger than others we've seen.

I wanted to visit the Nikolaou Philanthropinon Monastery. (The Philanthropinon family funded this monastery. I wonder if that's where our word 'philanthropy' comes from?) I had read that it had amazing frescoes from the 13th to 15th centuries. What we found were multiple rooms where every square inch of wall was lined with panels depicting every conceivable way of being killed, which we assume meant martyred. People were stabbed, decapitated, flayed, starved, speared, shot with arrows and, of course, crucified. It was awful! Only the room with the altar was was dedicated to Jesus' life and it seemed tame by comparison! 

The paintings were painted in gorgeous rich colours. We weren't allowed to take photos but we put some coins in as a donation and they gave me some postcards, so I took photos of those. I notice though that none of the postcards contain the gruesome images!

On one wall, (one of the few not dedicated to gruesome deeds) Greek philosophers, including Aristotle (despite being a bugger for the bottle), seemed to be raised to saintly heights by being included here. Paintings in monasteries are usually reserved for saints.

We also went to the Ali Pasha museum (after buying tickets from a lady who was born in Footscray!). Ali Pasha was a lying, cheating, conniving overlord during the Ottoman period. He was supposed to rule for the Turks but he preferred the Greeks and often looked after their wellbeing (when it suited him). He was cruel but apparently charming! I won't list the horrible ways he came up with to kill people but let's say he was creative!

One famous story is that he made advances on a beautiful married woman whose husband was away on business a lot. She rejected him so he had her thrown in the lake with 16 other "adulteresses". Apparently, people couldn't swim much then and they all drowned. 

Ali finally met his end at the ripe old age of 88 when the Turks finally had enough of him. They exiled him on the island but then told him they would kill him anyway. He hid in the upper storey of a building but they shot him through the cracks in the floorboards from the storey above. You can still see the floorboards today. They then chopped his head off to make sure.

We returned to Ioannina and explored more of the old fortress on our way back. Just inside the city walls was the old synagogue with a truly tragic history. Originally there were about 5,000 Jews living in Ioannina. In the early part of the 20th century, about half of them moved to the USA. These turned out to be the lucky ones. In 1943, the Germans rounded up every man, woman and child up and trucked them to Auschwitz. Today, there are plaques inside the synagogue with the names of 1,832 people who never came back. 

The day was a little overwhelming. I tossed and turned a bit that night. How can people be so incredibly cruel? I think people are generally good. I don't know anyone that could do any of the things that we learned about today. Does war change people so much? Does it turn so many Dr Jekylls into Mr Hydes? Does greed fester on people's minds and turn them into monsters? I really don't understand it at all.

On a lighter note, I want to ask the question, what is it with Greeks and directions? One place we stayed at was booked through airbnb and they don't give exact addresses. The owner sent me a link but the pin was set at a taverna. I asked if we go to the taverna. He said no, it's near Lab Espresso Bar. When we arrive we could call or just ring the bottom door bell. We duly arrived at Lab Espresso Bar to find that there were many apartment buildings near it, many of which had door bells. How were we supposed to know which one?

But the lady at our apartment in Pramanta took the cake. Someone had commented on the booking.com reviews that google maps was incorrect so we messaged her in advance to clarify the directions. She spoke English well but replied saying only how easy it was to find. When pushed, she said it was 100 metres from the square. "Which direction?" John asked. (There are a number of roads leading out from the square.) "I don't understand the question!" was the reply! Needless to say, we had to work it out ourselves.
A few days later, when we asked where we should swim she drew a large highlighter mark on a bend in a road on a map we had. She said we would see a bridge and a sign and lots of people would be there. We duly arrived at the spot only to find one other car there. The path was really overgrown though. It looked like a gorgeous spot to swim, if only we could reach the river. We ended up sitting in a shallow part of the river at another location which worked ok. 
The lady later asked how we went swimming and we explained the place seemed to have been overgrown. "But didn't you see the mill?" she asked. "Didn't you see the cafe?" What cafe and mill? Seriously, if she'd just told us these things the first time we would have known we weren't in the right place, even though it was where she marked on the map.
Another younger Greek lady was with her and she was giving us advice too. I asked if she could show us where it was on google maps as she was holding a phone in her hands. She said, "Oh just turn at the end of the village and keep going until...." Seriously? Why is pinpointing a location on google maps so hard? People just don't seem to understand that, as an outsider, we have no idea where these places are.
By this stage the owner clearly thought we were dumb. Her final works of advice, after giving us more very vague directions was, "Follow your gut, not google maps!" Arrgghh!

'Til next time!
Heather and John