Dovitel Ioánnina

We move on to Ioaninna. Rained in night & overcast now... not inspiring. As we roll along, however, it starts to brighten up. Good roads and a reasonable journey. Camping turns out to be right on lake, only 1k from town. Sun beats down on us: perfect.
However, dark clouds loom on distant mountains, so we decide to carry macs when we set ...

METSOVO

It is about 550 kms from Athens.

This beautiful village reminds me of Swiss. It has beautiful mountains, nature and it is located in the border of Albania. It snows a lot in winter time, and it surrounded by hight mountains.



I was disappointed however to be honest, because I expected to ...

... Many women from the village, but also from other places were busy also, helping the monks there.

We were offered (lukumia) delights and cold water.

A plastic bag full of freshly cut tomatos were given to the driver of the coach by a monk, for any one of us who wished to have one.

KONITSA



It is a beautiful border area in Greece. Built on the slopes of Trapezitsa Mount, 630 m altitude.



Konitsa is a city of 4.000 inhabitants built according to the traditional style of Epirotic architecture.



Aoos River flows on the right side of the city. It's an area ...

... that were published in the local press of Athens.

Thusly Ioannis and Anna Petrochilou found out about the cave, visit Perama and began systematic exploration and mapping of the cave in order to be developed as a tourist attraction.



Where it is situated.

Situated next to the picturesque lake of Ioannina, it is ...

... let me see how they fry these legs. Just one person from our friends dare taste one.

(Good for me). The menu costs 8.5 euros. It is just the fried legs though without even some chips or anything else.



The last boat leaves for Ioannina at 11pm so after dinner we caught the 10 pm boat as we had to be met by some friends who live here.

VIKOS GORGE

The Vikos Gorge lies in the North Pindus Mountains in the historic area of Epirus, 30 kilometers north of Ioannina and 24 miles from the Albanian border. The area, called the Zagori, has 44 villages called the Zagorohoria. The 12-kilometer gorge itself can be hiked in two or three parts: Monodendri north to Vikos; Vikos to ...

MONODENDRI

This beautiful Zagori village we visit todayy is about 41 km from the city of Ioannina.
It maintains intact the traditional stone-built architecture.
The Church of Agios Athanasios in the central square is of significan historical value.

We come here for lunch. From here are are going to visit the Gorge, but also I have a stroll in the village to take some photos and admire the architecture.

... a really simple code. We read like little kids, sounding out the letters one by one. Often, the word that comes out is very similar to english or italian, or is pretty much self explanatory: πιτσα (pitsa, or pizza), ΕΞΟΔΟΣ (exodus, or exit), τοστ (tost, or toast), πατατε 63; (patates, potatoes) etc. Αντιο σας, Ροβιν

... Santorini, we went back to Athens to visit the archeological museum, where there are many wonderful artifacts. Some of the pictures in this posting are from there. On the way to Meteora, we passed through flat farmland and saw many fields of cotton--most of it harvested by now, as well as olive orchards and many herds of goats and sheep. Meteora is a fascinating, unusual landscape of rocky towers which look as though they have been punched ...