Done Worse

Throwing rocks into the sea

Today’s adventure involved all of the great elements: sea, sun, rain, mountains and gods.

We started off in Thessaloniki to meet Katerina, who had a work meeting there. Part of our adventure involved walking along the sea where AJ and Ermis scampered around and collected as many rocks to chuck into the ocean as possible. It ended up that they both collected giant rocks, which they stuffed into their pockets — probably about doubling their weight — and then fighting over them, because while AJ had five rocks to Ermis’ two, Ermis had the bigger rock which they both somehow really needed. Now we have seven rocks rolling around on the floor of the car. Winning!

At Olympus waterfall

From there we drove to Mount Olympus, which was grey and overcast and looked ever the part of a home for dark and brooding gods. (Side note: before we started our trip, we read a bunch of books to prepare, including a children’s version of the Greek myths. After finishing AJ had two comments:

1. Are those gods still in Greece, because I don’t want to meet them… they’re really angry and mean.
2. I don’t want to read them again soon because they’re too scary.

Fortunately, we did not meet any gods. We did, however, hike to the holy monastery of St. Dionysius that was built in the 1500s. People hid in it during the Second World War, so it was bombed by the Germans. It’s still really amazing to look at now and is currently being renovated.

Then we walked to a beautiful waterfall and admired the many plants and caterpillars along the path. (Again, mostly it was Kostas and me excited about the plants, but it sounds better if it was all of us, so work with me, people!)

Once again, AJ felt he needed to lead the pack even though he had no idea where we were going. Fortunately the whole family has quickly figured out how he is (not so much for the staying with the group or in sight — especially since he’s way overtired,) and now I have an additional five people to shout after him when he wanders off. Better yet, they sound really cute when they do it as they yell something like “Jacquexxi!!!” It amuses me to no end when they tell him he’s going the wrong way or to come back or listen (what do I know? It’s all Greek to me) and despite the fact that he doesn’t know what they’re saying either, we get the gist of it, and he responds back “yeah yeah, I’m coming.” He was so worried about the language barrier before he got here, but it’s such a non-issue. It turns out that “Get back here, you’re going the wrong way” is universal.

After our hike we drove to Panteleimon, which is an old town built with stone houses that does not allow cars, and requires all new houses to be built in the same way. It’s very charming and has an amazing view of the ocean. Also, bonus, good restaurants.