We woke up
at 6:00 am and used the very Spartan bathroom downstairs. I filled up my
water
bottle from water that was gushing through a stone wall on the side of
the mountain. I remembered the horror story Fr. Luke had told us, that a
previous
year someone drank from a stream in the mountains and got a parasite
that he
struggled with for nine months. As I drank the water throughout the
coming day
I kept fearing I would get a parasite, but I was willing to drink the
water
because it was literally coming right out of the mountain. I think
parasites
live in streams, not inside the mountain. But I don't know. Anyway,
there were no side effects :)
We said our morning prayers in the
church around 6:30 and by 7:00 we were ready to go. Some of the bread from the
previous day was eaten the previous evening by some very hungry college
students, and the rest was eaten by some of us after prayers, to hold us over
until our breakfast on the road.
His Eminence set a very quick pace
down the hill from the monastery to the village of Voskopoja. We had trouble
keeping up with him. We also had with us Vladimir (“Ladi”), His Eminence’s
“deacon-in-training,” who was our trusty go-to for everything. We got to the village
around 7:30 and waited around for a bit while we tried to call Lorenz, our bus
driver, to put some of our stuff in the bus. His phone was off. Finally Papa
Thomas showed up. He is the priest of the village who had been with us the
previous night. The girls had stayed adjacent to his house, and they all joined
us in the village. Around 8:00 we set off into the mountains under a blue sky,
much sun, and a few white clouds, along with Markos, our trusty mule who was
carrying all our bags, and his caretaker (I don't remember his name) who is the son of Elias, the
monastery guard. It was a beautiful morning.
Around 9:00 it got darker and a few
rain drops started falling. It “spitted” for probably about 15-20 minutes. Then
the real trouble started.
It was raining. We were several miles
into the mountains with much more ahead of us. Our bags were unsheltered on
Markos. Some had brought umbrellas and rain jackets. I only had my hoodie over
my t-shirt, and a complete change of clothes in my bag, except for shoes. We
walked the rest of the way in the rain, the whole time remembering what His
Eminence had told us the previous night about not complaining. We didn’t
complain. If anything we laughed and marveled. If I could describe the hike in
the rain in two words they would be “pretty awesome.”
Sometimes the trail was very muddy.
In such cases I took it upon myself to find an alternate route, the road less
traveled. I also often took the road less traveled even when the road more
traveled wasn’t muddy. I liked finding alternate routes.
I kept worrying about getting
struck by lightning, especially since we were up in the mountains often with
little tall vegetation around us. I envisioned future groups stopping and
saying somberly: “this is where Manoli was struck by lightning.” Especially since
the road less traveled was often higher than the road more traveled, with short
shrubberies (another. shrrrubbery!
[Monty Python reference, anyone?]). I felt like a mixture of Legolas, a
mountain goat, a hunter, an orc, and a gazelle. I frolicked across a meadow
once. In the rain. That was pretty cool :)
We stopped for breakfast around
10:00 or 10:30 next to some pine trees, underneath Vladimir’s umbrella. His
Eminence and Ladi had brought a box full of fried dough that they
called “Albanian donuts” (I don't remember the actual name). We also had a few bottles of rose jelly with us,
which was interesting. I had it on my first one and didn’t care for it so I
didn’t put any on my second. We were allotted two "donuts" per person but some didn’t
want theirs, or only wanted one, so I ate three and took a fourth in a napkin
in my pocket for later.
At some point we met
Fr. Demetri,
the priest of Vithkuq where we were headed. He and a companion came with
three
horses, lifted the bags off Markos and put them on the three horses who
had
plastic covers to keep the bags a little dryer than they were before.
When we said hello to Papa Demetri, we said goodbye to Papa Thomas, who
went back with Markos and his caretaker. Fr.
Demetri spoke Greek so I talked with him a bit. He has been a priest for
eight
years. He looks to be middle-aged. He is a very rugged guy.
My favorite was him riding sideways on one of the horses in his cassock
- and
leading another horse behind him. I also marveled at His Eminence, not
that he wore his cassock on the hike - of course - but that he wore
black dress pants and a white collared dress shirt underneath, as he
would in his office. We seminarians have to do that for church and class
at school, and I don't like it - imagine for a hike!!
Our next stop was under a tree, a
little after 12:00. Fr. Demetri and his companion, the rugged village people,
somehow knew how to kindle a fire in the rain. I wasn’t there when it started
so I don’t know how they did it. But they kept adding wood and it kept smoking
a lot because of being wet. Apparently the more it smokes, the dryer the wood
gets and the more it lights. The fire was a deep red which one of our guys said means
that it is a relatively low temperature. Understandable. But it was fire
nonetheless. In the rain. We were all floored.
Ladi and Fr. Demetri’s
companion also had a burner of some sort
a few meters away with which they made Turkish coffee, put it in little plastic cups and
gave it to us. When we were done we threw the plastic cups on the fire. Jason
cautioned us, “hey! You can’t do that! That’s toxic!” Apparently no one
listened. Normally we would have read some psalms at this point but since it
was wet some of us who knew it chanted “Blessed is the Man,” and His Eminence
said a few words and then we were off again because the longer you stop in the
rain the colder you get. We noticed it afterwards – we felt colder than before
we stopped.
When we were almost to Vithkuq we came
upon a stream. We had to cross the stream twice and actually follow it for
maybe ½ a kilometer or a little less. The funny thing was that many of us
(myself included) although soaked all the way through – shoes included – took
care not to step in the stream but to find a dryer way across. I should have
just stepped in the stream. I was being so careful that the group got pretty
far ahead of me. It was my bad. They were actually out of sight for a few
minutes while I caught up. When Fr. Luke looked back he scolded me and made me
stick closer to the group.
We ascended a hill and then were
able to see the village of Vithkuq and the Monastery of Ss. Peter and Paul (or
of St. Peter, depending on who you ask) ahead of us on the mountainside. We
were almost there! The end was in sight – literally! The rest of the people
went on a relatively straight path. It had started to clear up but was still raining
lightly. I took advantage of the treeless, flat-ish mountainside and frolicked
in the grass for quite awhile. The entire hike the scenery reminded me of what
I had envisioned when reading Karel Çapek’s novel Hordubal in high school a few years ago – a very weird and
depressing story of an affair that results in the husband’s death. It takes
place in the Czech Republic. If I could have filmed a movie for Hordubal I would have chosen those
mountains!
At the end of a long stretch, and
at the foot of the mountain where the monastery is, we arrived at the old,
unused church of St. Athanasios. Fr. Demetri had a key so we all went inside
and venerated. It’s about the size of an HC/HC dorm room. No iconostasis, but
just icons on the wall and an Altar built into the tiny apse. The original church
was bigger and dated from the 10th century, if I remember correctly.
I don’t remember when this newer, smaller one was built, but it was still pretty old!
We left the horses outside St.
Athanasios and began our steep ascent to the monastery of Ss. Peter and Paul.
The monastery is magnificent! It
was not used by the communists for other purposes because it is so out of the
way. The frescoes are old and not in the best shape but are still intact. They
are magnificent! Outside underneath the dome right outside the door is an icon
of the Κόσμος (world) figure from
the icon of Pentecost, along with signs representing either the twelve months
of the year, or the signs of the Zodiac, or both simultaneously (we weren't sure), around him. Around the dome are a few
scenes from the life of the Prophet Elias (among them is him beheading the false prophets!). A lot of
other awesome icons were around the dome too, and on the wall, but I don’t
remember much else. Hopefully people took pictures and can send them to me!
There was some defacing and graffiti over the icons but you could see most of
them.
Inside the church I
think some of
my favorites were the Akathist Hymn – frescoes of each stanza – as well
as
Enoch and Elias (who never died) being slain by the antichrist – a
prophecy of the end times when they will return and be martyred (I
actually didn’t see this icon but Aaron took a picture and I saw it on
his
phone). My favorite was probably the icon in one of the small domes
right
inside the door of the hymn to the Theotokos from St. Basil’s Liturgy,
“In
thee, O Full of Grace, all creation doth rejoice.” I had never seen an
icon of
this hymn before. This was one of the most detailed icons I’ve ever
seen. It
had the Theotokos, I believe by herself, in the center of the dome.
Around her
was written “Επi σοὶ χαίρει, Κεχαριτωμένη, πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις – In thee, O
Full of
Grace, all creation doth rejoice.”
Then below her in one section of the upper part of the dome was a choir of
angels, and also a choir of people, mainly ascetics. Underneath each of these
was written, “Ἀγγέλων τὸ σύστημα – the company of angels” and “ἀνθρώπων τὸ γένος
– the race of men,”
respectively. There
was also a choir of holy virgins, underneath which was written, “παρθενικὸν
καύχημα – boast of virgins.”
Then it had an icon of the Annunciation, underneath which was written, “ἐξ ἧς Θεός ἐσαρκώθη
– from whom God was incarnate,”
and an icon of the Nativity of Christ, where was written “καὶ παιδίον γέγονεν
– and became a child.”
I don’t remember what icon it had for “τὴν γὰρ σὴν μήτραν θρόνον ἐποίησε
– He made thy womb a throne,”
or for “καὶ
τὴν σὴν γαστέρα πλατυτέραν οὐρανῶν ἀπειργάσατο – and he made thee more spacious
than the heavens.”
It’s not the whole hymn, and some of it had faded with time so I’m sure in its
prime it was unbelievably more gorgeous than it was when I saw it, and more
complete! I was still blown away!
The iconostasis, Fr. Demetri told us, is beautiful and is
in a museum in Tirana, I believe. Right now they just have basic wooden boards
with big hand-painted icons attached to them, and red curtains over the middle
and side entrances to the Altar.
We chanted some hymns inside and then went out to the
little chapel that was built over the monastery ossuary. The chapel is small,
and very low – a tiny bit bigger than an HC/HC dorm room, and the ceiling is
several feet lower. It too is covered in frescoes. It is so small that the
Altar is built into the apse, and on the front of the Altar is a whale spitting
up the Prophet Jonas. The iconostasis also is small – one or two icons on each
side, I don’t remember, and only one side door (curtain) on the north side.
In the
tiny narthex is a staircase going down to the
ossuary. It is very dark down there – no lights, just a small window
underneath
where the Altar is upstairs. There are a lot of skulls lined up on
shelves on either
side of the room, and a lot of other bones in a big square area
underneath the
Altar area. I tried to think of each of these skulls as having skin –
and
probably a beard and a robe and a hat, since it was a monastery ossuary.
Each
of these bones belonged to a monk with a story, a life, and a history in
the monastery. Who were the bishops? The priests? The deacons? The
monks? The novices? The righteous? The sinners? The watchful? The
negligent?
None of
the clergy came down. I would have asked to do a Trisagion service. I chanted the four troparia of the Trisagion, “Among the
spirits of the righteous,” etc. by myself, and then went up the stairs again.
Visiting all these old churches
covered in iconography – I keep thinking of the iconographer. Who was he? What
is his story? Additionally, in the two monastery churches
– the katholikon and the chapel above
the ossuary – with all the iconography, I kept thinking of two friends
from school (the Romanian and the Puerto Rican), both of whom love
iconography and would have been floored by the
wonderful frescoes!
After visiting the chapel and the
ossuary, Stelio and I went back inside the main church with Fr. Demetri, who
talked to us a bit. Stelio took a few pictures. Finally we rushed out because
we realized we were lingering too long. It is a pretty long road down the hill but Fr.
Demetri knew a shortcut – right down the steep side of the mountain, through
the short brush, bypassing the road. It is not a route I would have normally
taken, but we were in a hurry. If Fr. Demetri could do it in his cassock – and
he is at least 25 years older than I – we could definitely do it in pants!
We got to the bus where everyone
was waiting for us (outside St. Athanasios). We all piled into what became a
very dirty-smelling bus with all the rain and mud on us. We drove to a trout
farm to eat lunch – His Eminence’s treat!
Our problem with having
walked in
the rain was that my change of clothes in my backpack was wet. Most
other people had the same problem. It was still
clean, and it wasn’t as soaked as the clothes I was wearing. But it was
still
pretty wet. I don’t remember what order I did these in but I did all of
them – hung
clean clothes by the outdoor fireplace/oven to dry a bit; stood by the
oven
myself to dry a little bit; used the bathroom; changed; stood by the
fire some
more. Then we ate! Standing by the fire we were all steaming because we
were so
wet! I was also worried about my books - prayer book, Psalter, bible,
Abp Anastasios books for class - but aside from a little water on the
edges of some pages, they were fine. They were not ruined, thank God! :)
The trout and all the trimmings
were delicious! Again we took leftover berek to be consumed later.
A little bit dryer, our stomachs
satisfied, we drove back to Korça, to the Metropolis. Ladi showed us our rooms
in the Metropolis guest house. Three of us had a nice room on the third
floor. Some others had typical grill spaceheaters in their rooms which they put
their wet clothes on and put their shoes next to, to dry out. Our room was a bit more of an adventure :) We
had a gas disc heater, complete with the safety features of a big
natural
gas tank, a hose, two knobs and a cigarette lighter (notice the
sarcasm). One of my roommates first figured out how to flush the toilet:
the tank had to be filled
with a metal hose coming out of the wall, and then you had to put your
hand in
the tank to lift up the “doo-hickey” to flush the toilet. Then he turned
his
attention to the heater. He figured out how it worked and then decided
that we
needed a lighter. We searched for one in the kitchen to no avail (Nathan
exclaimed, “does no one smoke around here?!”). When the military man
overheard what we
were doing he said matter-of-factly, “do you need a lighter?” “Yes!!” we
exclaimed. He had one that was wet from the walk. We set it by another
room’s
spaceheater for 20 minutes to dry out, and then took it upstairs. We lit
it
close to the disc and then slowly turned the gas on. The heater lit up
and we
turned the lighter off. Then we noticed that there was a lighter sitting
on the
bookshelf above the heater. We felt stupid.
Our heater, while more rustic,
proved much more efficient than anything else. My shoes were soaked and
wringable. Normally it takes them three days to dry out. By the next morning
they were the tiniest bit damp. Good thing because I didn’t have another pair
of shoes!
The shower was also interesting. No
curtain. That seems to be a European thing. It has a shower hose that sprays
water that detaches from the wall. I’m not an expert at showering European-style
so I managed by getting wet, soaping up, and rinsing off. I don’t know how the
Albanians do it :)
Some people went out around 5:00 to
see the city and buy things. I took my still-soaked shoes and went to the
cathedral at 6:00 for Vespers, but although it was scheduled it didn’t happen.
They told me that one priest was in a meeting with some people and another was
sick, so there was no Vespers. Oh well. The church was gorgeous! It’s very new (relatively speaking), and is about 2/3-3/4 covered in brilliant iconography! A lot of
people took pictures the next day which I hope to share eventually! The
chandelier was massive. Wood! The
bottom layer was either as big or bigger than the chandeliers at Holy Trinity
in Ambridge PA, or at Ss. Cyril and Methodios at Camp Nazareth. But there were
about four layers. As they went up they got smaller but just as intricate!
I left the church around 6:20 and came back to
the room where one roommate was asleep. The other was out. I put my shoes and socks back on chairs in
front of the heater, along with most of the clothes we all weren’t wearing. A
little after 7:00 the rest of the group went out for dinner. I didn’t go with
them for several reasons: 1) my shoes weren’t dry; 2) I wanted to stay in the
room so that the heater could stay on and more clothes could dry. We had already
decided that it was too risky to leave unattended; 3) I
wasn’t too hungry. I had some of the berek from earlier and was fine; 4) I
didn’t want to be out too late – I was tired and wanted to get some reading
done and go to bed early.
Well, I didn’t make the best use of
my time. I opened up a picture book about Albania that happened to be sitting
in the room and perused it for probably 45 minutes. Unfortunately I couldn’t
work on my blog because I had fortunately left my computer in Tirana. If I had
brought it, it may have been ruined on the hike. I did very little catch-up
reading for our missions class (three pages, maybe?). At first I tried to keep the heat in but then
realized that it got way too hot and way too dry to do that so I opened the
balcony door, the inside door, and the hallway window to get a cross-breeze. It
was a little more bearable that way. I put up with the heat and dryness because
I knew our clothes needed to dry :)
The others took forever to get
back. The Italian/Russian couple came back around 9:30 or 10, I believe. Some others went
to an internet café and to go get dessert, I think. Finally around 11:15 I
decided to go to sleep. Most of the clothes were mostly dry so I turned off the
heater, straightened the room a little, left Stelio a note of the status of the
clothes and what time I wanted to get up, and turned the light out.
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