It is Easter Day and once again the church bells are ringing. When we opened up the van we could smell the charcoal fires, a sign of what is to come today.
When Simon and Katie arrived, Katie had been counting the number of lambs that she had seen spit roasting – 30 in the short distance between their hotel and the campsite. Everyone was roasting more than one lamb, some had three – they were going to have a big party! The roasting is done over very long barbecues (lamb size!) and these days the lambs are normally turned on their long spits using electric motors however Simon and Katie saw three women turning one lamb each by hand in the tradition method. This must be very tedious, which is probably why the men had generously left the women to do the job.
We had spotted a footpath sign opposite the campsite and decided to follow it. We could see that it was going towards two abandoned monasteries and we wanted to see if we could get to them. The first was an ancient hermitage with extensive skeleton wooden structures in a series of caves. The second, more distant and more substantial was a walled-in cave complete with doors and windows.
As we set off across the fields, we spotted a small tortoise and then another and another – we had never seen so many tortoises in such a small area. Katie is very fond of animals (she works as a volunteer at Whipsnade Zoo) and she couldn't resist the temptation to take a closer look at one of the tortoises. She sat on the grass, gently placing the tortoise on her leg and asking Simon to be ready with the camera for when the tortoise emerged from its shell. We all watched and waited. Eventually we saw the tortoise's head move partially out and it stuck out its tongue and waved it around, perhaps to sense what was around? And then things happened rapidly. There was a shout from Katie, the tortoise was placed rapidly, but gently, on the ground and Katie jumped up. Has she been bitten, or scratched by the tortoise's feet we thought? The large wet patch on Katie's leg told the story. Gentle though Katie had been, the tortoise had been frightened! Still, I assured Katie that I had read in my 'A Travelogue in Greece and a Folklore Calendar' book that in Thessaly it is considered very good luck to be peed on by a tortoise on Easter Day. Apparently, it ensures good health and keeps away the evil eye!
We had arrived at Aghios Grigorios with its wooden constructions in the cave when we found that they had completely rebuilt an ancient monastery in one of the caves. I think that it is called Aghios Antonios but I can't be sure. It must have been a huge amount of work but it looked very smart with new new doors and windows, electric power, mains water and sewerage. Potted plants lined the balconies. The remains of the old access ladder were still in place but it was obvious that they had built a more modern and convenient entrance. Walking around the pretty chapel of Panagia we came to a gate that clearly stated 'Monastery of Aghia Trias and Asketerion of St. Nikolas – Entrance is Prohibited'. So the restored building must be Aghia Trias and the cave dwellings must be the Asketerion of St. Nikolas but we weren't going to get a closer look. We couldn't find a route to the higher monastery as the way was blocked by the fences of Aghia Trias but it appeared that it has also been recently restored with new windows and doors and even a radio aerial. I am almost certain that these monasteries have been restored since we last visited Meteora three years ago.
We took the small road to the top of Kastraki and walked down through the town and watched the Easter lunch preparations. The smell of roasting lamb filled the air and we greeted people with “Christos Anesti” and “Kronia Pola”. I took pictures of the roasting lambs and on one such occasion I was invited in and presented with a fork full of Kokoretsi, spit roasted lamb offal – sounds awful but actually delicious. I chatted to one of the men who could speak English and asked him how long it took to cook the lamb – about 6 hours. That is a long time to turn the lambs by hand but these two had electric motors. It is important that the whole family group watches the cooking, just to make sure that goes well and it gives time for much chat and the odd drink or two.
We popped into the 'O Fournos' (the bakers, literally 'the oven') to buy some bread. Yes they were open on Easter morning, it is a hard life being a baker in Greece. In the bakers there were two small lambs that had been cooked in large trays using the residual heat from the bread ovens. This was the traditional way of baking food when most villagers did not have their own ovens.
We walked back to the campsite and prepared the gas barbecue for the lamb souvlaki (kebabs) that had been marinading over night. The lemon potatoes took an hour and a half in the oven, so we had time to enjoy some mezethes (starters) before the main course.
It is a tradition that everyone has red eggs on Easter Day and we had bought a packet of six. However, Simon and Katie had been given one each at breakfast, we had been given four as we left the campsite this morning and we were given another two when we visited Simon and Katie's hotel in the late afternoon. Here the owner insisted on giving us coffee and Easter biscuits as well as the eggs – genuine Greek hospitality – whilst we used their WiFi Internet connection. We bashed some red eggs in the traditional way – Simon was the winner as his egg remained intact and all of ours cracked against his.
We returned to Henrietta for a small snack and a game of cards before wishing Simon and Katie 'Good Night' and 'Kronia Pola'.
Photos: Aghios Grigorios; Aghios Antonios in the same cliff face just a few metres away; The calm before the storm, just before the tortoise incident!; Kokoretsi.
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