Greek Orthodox Easter in Corfu and Northern Greece Mountain Towns

For those of you who have not made it over here to see the beauty of this area....time is running out.

My two sisters and their husbands came back for a second time for more fun!

I need to insert these two photos from our Albanian hotel on the way to Greece the first night.
Albania need not take a back seat to Greece! In fact the migration is coming back north from Greece to Albania these days.

Kalemi 2 Hotel in Gjirokaster

There is little to compare to the way the Greeks celebrate Easter. We arrived on the island of Corfu where we weren't disappointed by the natural beauty, charming towns and the Easter celebration.

Corfu Town

Let's get to the Easter traditions...
It is a 4 day celebration with church services each day.
Saturday is the throwing of colorful pottery from second story windows for good luck.

On Sunday the restaurants begin roasting the lambs and the woven lamb intestines and organs (yuck) on the spits.

On our way to an orthodox church for the Easter service a restaurant owner waved us into his establishment serving Grappa, olives and sausage at 9:00 am. In this restaurant, one of the employees was shooting off a gun in celebration. Of course everyone gets a bright red hard boiled egg!

We proceeded to a tiny church in this small town.

Everyone holds a lit candle during the service. Many come with very decorated candles to celebrate Easter

Above is the scene as the service begins. One man is listening to the beginning voices inside. Another signals the man doing the bells in the bell tower and below, a man goes crazy striking the bells to summon the towns people.

Floor of the church covered with bay leaves, not palm leaves (though they have plenty of these)

The flowers were in bloom and the small country roads made for wonderful sights.

Visited a beautiful palace. This liberal, romantic intellectual woman, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, resided in this gorgeous place. She had a love of classical and Greek literature, thus statues and frescoes galore. They say she had the smallest waist of any human and she was horrified by fat women. Anyway she was traveling in Geneva and was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist who asasinated her because he missed his chance to kill Prince Phillippe. 

Next stop was a mountain town of Metsovo. The weather was 75 degrees but the snow capped mountains surrounding the town gave it that majestic feel. Before arriving at the town, we stopped at the Vikos Gorge. It is reported by that Guinness Book of World Records to be the deepest gorge in the world.

This is the "stone forest" leading up to the gorge

Metsovo

People in the village....

Lake and mountain region outside of the town of Metsovo

Food....I can't resist

Metsovo famous for it's cheese pies, jams and smoked cheese

Selecting our lunch from the offerings on the stove

Our final stop was in Meteora. This is a unique area with odd geological outcroppings where monks in the 14th-16th century and beyond built monasteries on the top of the rock. Meteora is on the cover of Lonely Planet guide to Greece.

Yes, that is a road below the monastery

Monks would be hauled up and down in a basket

You can tour the monasteries.. On the right is a long board that when struck with a hammer, called the monks to prayer. Everything was dropped and you came to pray. On the left are the metal chimes for a meal. When these were hit with a mallet you came to eat only when you were done with your job. If you were a slow worker or had a big job, you missed the meal

One monastery had posters from WWII as depicted from the monastery. See the priest holding the Greek flag.

I had to put one in. These abundant shrines are often put up by a family and candles lit inside on special days.

Look carefully at the white flags at the top of this rock below. This is the hotel we stayed at. I actually walked up the backside to the flag. Apparently this was the first monk to live by himself up there in the 14th century.

As I was walking up to the flags, I ran across a small group of goats and the Shepard. As I passed by I heard a voice behind me call out. The littlest of the goats, a cute brown one was following me. I encouraged it back to the fold. Again I continued through this wonderful yellow field and again the little goat followed me. Four times this occurred. Finally I walked all the way back to the lazy Shepard and he grabbed the little guy. 

Great trip. I encourage people visiting Greece to consider these northern parts!