Monodendri, Greece

July 10, 2014 

After breakfast it was time to say goodbye to our new Greek friends. 

We had taken pictures of Mama the day before when I asked if we could take pictures of her in the kitchen while she prepared our Greek Peppers. We took photos of Costas (Panos' brother) and then Panos came out to take our picture and join us for one of him and us. The only person we missed was Dimitri.

As I hugged Panos goodbye he said "we Greek give two kisses, one on each cheek, beginning with the left" and I then received my first official Greek cheek kiss. Carrie an Annelle weren't left out! We were sad to say good bye.

We drove to our next destination which was Monodendri. It is a small village in the Zagori region of Greece. We had booked a room in a traditional stone house. The village the house is in is very quaint and easy to navigate.

  Lefteris (owner's son) greeted us at the gate and showed us to our room. Moments later he returned with a welcome treat. It was a traditional cheese pie made his mother.

After we settled in we received a great list of suggestions for things to do from Lefteris and we set off to explore an abandoned monastery. 

We had our first view of Vikos Gorge from the monastery. After the hike back up from the monastery we got in the car and drove to Oxia. On the 10 minute drive to Oxia we drove through The Stone Forest. It is literally a forest (inside a regular tree forest) of stone pillars of various sizes. The sun was setting on the rocks and it was beautiful.

We arrived at Oxia, an area with another, more spectacular, view of the gorge. We managed to get some beautiful shots of the sun setting on the rocks surrounding the gorge. We managed to get Annelle leaning over the wall and actually up on the ledge for a few pictures..... Not too scary if you didn't look over the edge!!! 

I found a path around the edge of the gorge and followed it to its end. I kind of scampered out to the end of the path to take in the view. But somehow it was suddenly much narrower on the return trip, and the edge was much closer, and the gorge much deeper.... Funny how that happens!!!

We have been sleeping with our windows open each night and this night we each awakened several times to the torrential downpour going on outside our window. I am so happy that my traveling companions have indulged me in my love of sleeping to the sounds of foreign sounds and voices through the open window.