That Monastary........

[fatcat]

You either love it or you don't........

After doing the castle a few times and walking over to the barracks on Alimnia we thought we would give the monastary a go........, so we planned a 'romantic' stay up and the monastary, staying in a cell we set off on a 'cool' evening, we packed a bedsheet, no food (as we will buy something up there) and bottle of local wine.
The journey was epic (in every sense of the word) and after a few hours very hard slog we made it.
Unfortunately, we arrived as low cloud set in and the humidity was very high and as we were all 'sweaty' we could never really dry out.
We had a bite to eat, drank the wine (!) and wandered off to try and see some stars - no luck, the cloud was low and we just saw the odd twinkling star between the clouds.
We set back to our cell only to be berated by a local shouting on his mobile phone and testing out his ringtones - surely this cannot get any worse........

We found our bed for the night and we glad we brought a seperate sheet, the night was cold, we were cold and clammy and it was very windy (remember this was July.......).
We used the toilet in the middle of the night and were very surprised, one - to find them and two, they we sooooooo clean and modern.

We did not sleep a wink and set off back down the mountain before dawn.

If there is a lesson to be learned, then think twice before staying over (unless you are hard as nails).

A great experience and very glad we did it, but I think we will give it a miss this year.

;D

[Jennifer]

Thanks for sharing this. It's something we've always meant to do but never got round to. We almost took the bus up with the intention of walking down earlier this year but when push came to shove we just couldn't be bothered to levae the terrace - a perennial problem on Halki we find

Just out of interest, does anyone know if the monastery is still 'off limits' because of the bees. I seem to remember earlier this year the advice was to go no further than the castle?

[Liz]

The last time we were on Halki we went up to the castle......in the taxi .....that was far enough for me !

[daisy]

We did the monastery last year but with the mini bus. It was a good trip as the views are fantastic on the way up.

The bus stops off at the castle on the way down and I think we had about 20 mins there or you could just not get back on the bus and stay longer and walk down

[fatcat]

Jennifer, Liz, Daisy - you are all lightweights.........

[Jennifer]

Guilty as charged!

I find it hard to summon up the energy to read a book on Halki, let allow walk to the monastery

Mind you, in previous years we have dragged our children up to the castle - the first time when DS was only 5 so I'm not a complete sun-bed potato

[cathy]

its worth getting a lift up and walking back, too much like hard work to walk up!

[Liz]

Aug 5, 2008 13:13:33 GMT fatcat said:

Jennifer, Liz, Daisy - you are all lightweights.........

Yep !! ;D ;D

[lisa]

I woul ;)d really recommend walking, yes I said, walking up there very early morning, it's beautiful as the sun is rising behind you. take an hour out up there and then plod back again. I realise that this is not for everyone but have thorougly enjoyed it a couple of times.

As for staying over, well that's completely different. My friend and I walked up there one evening several years ago to be greeted by Dimitris who was just about to come back to the harbour for the evening. All credit to him, he fed us bread and olives and we washed it down with retsina. It was very cold up there (it was May). We were planning on sitting very quietly and watching the stars, Dimitris had other ideas and got his ghetto blaster out and proceeded to play Greek music extremely loudly. we made our excuses about 9pm and retired to our cell. we were glad that we had taken a sheet as it was very damp. my friend was too scared to have the light out so the paraffin fumes should have helped us sleep! Needless to say we did'nt get much sleep and we were up at extremely early to be greeted by Dimitris with coffee. We walked down and stopped on the way to eat the fruit and bread that we had taken with us. The views and the sunrise were fantastic. Would I stay over again - probably not!

If you are lucky enough to be taken up there for food with some of the locals then you are in for a treat. Stamatia's spaghetti bolonese is great and we've also been lucky enough to have stuffed lamb up there. Have a fantastic photo of Dimitris (baker) stuffing his face.

Whichever route you decide, the monadtery is worth a visit (even ough not much there). you have to do it some time.

[lisa]

Sorry just noticed my apalling spelling - time for bed me thinks. This time in 4 weeks will be so excited that I won't be able to sleep!

[daisy]

Have you been on the old retsina Lisa. See knew it wouldn't be long before that firm old favourite reared it's head again. ;D

Yep fatcat I agree wholeheartedly I am a definite lightweight.

Just been on the avators post and see Di has already raised the drink topic ;D

[lynn]

I will relate the story of last year's trip to the monastery.

It was decided that a small number would meet at Theodosia's early and walk up. (This included Lisa). Another small number of us would get a lift up with Galandis when he went to pick up Theodisia. Apparently when they arrived at Theodisia's she was all ready for them with coffee on. Our lot dressed in their best Nike walking shoes etc. Jim thought it would take 1.45 mins to walk up but Theodosia said "no, it will take more like 3 hours". They were a bit bemused by this until she walked out of the cafe with a blue plastic bag over one arm with food in it and a cup of coffe in the other hand and her flip flops on.

She was right it took her and Jim hours to get there as they had to keep stopping for her to have a cigarette and swig of coffee plus you don't walk very fast in a pair of flip-flops. I believe Lisa and some of the others walked on but when us lazy lot (eh! Cathy) got to the monastery Jim and Theodosia had only just arrived.

We all walked back together which was great fun and stopped at Pondamos for a beer and swim.

You really all should at least try the walk back it's beautiful.

[cathy]

I had forgotten about Theodosia and her flip flops! We are not lazy at all Lynn just maybe not quite as fit as the others and as far as I'm concerned allergic to the early start in the morning, even 9 o'clock for the drive up was a bit early for me! I would do it again though, the walk down was thoroughly enjoyable.