June 28- early morning bus direct to Ioannina where we rented a car to explore the remote Zagoria villages north of the city. The villages surround the Vikos Gorge, which is the deepest gorge in the world (so they claim) but they are unique in that all the buildings are built entirely of stone from the surrounding mountains- roofs included. Our first stop was Monodendri where we parked the car for a short stroll through the village. There’s only a couple driving roads and you can only really get the feel of the villages if you walk through them. The sidewalks are mostly pieces of stone on the grass between buildings. We followed signs to a monastery – you’d think we’d have seen enough monasteries by now but apparently there is an incredible view of the gorge from this one. No lie there! This village is one of the main starting points for gorge trekkers – a trek that takes 7 ½ hours to complete. The trail starts at this monastery so we thought about going for it…. For about half a second and then laughed really hard. The monastery is in the middle height, closer to the top of the gorge and there’s a path that takes you along the sheer vertical walls of the gorge into caves, etc. That, we could handle. We suggest only going there with someone you really trust with your life!
Next, we carried on to the western villages and found our home for the next 2 nights in Megalo Papingo. The drive up there took us through several villages and up a small road with at least 20 hairpin turns that switchback up the mountain. After settling in, we ate dinner at O Nikos, as recommended by our LP. They had no menu and just told us what they were serving that night. The stuffed peppers and tomatoes were cold and the lamb was dry – one of our worst meals in Greece – and the most expensive. So, we won’t go back there…..
June 29- Next day, off to explore more villages. We cruised thru a few that had only 15-20 houses total. No tevernas or cafes to speak of. We had lunch in Vikos- the second worst meal we’ve had in Greece! We ordered straight off the menu, which was basically the owner telling us what she had. It was a very short list. The pork was obviously boiled or microwaved. Guess there are some bad parts about traveling somewhere during low season. We ended our afternoon at the rock pools between Megalo Papingo and Mikro Papingo (the smaller town next door). There is a stream flowing from the mountain, and at certain points pools were formed over time. The main pool was man-made- a wall to dam the stream a bit. Great chilling and reading place. Of course, Jason found a rock to jump off of too. Dinner that night was much better. We went to one of the other restaurant/cafes in town (there are only 5 or 6 and only 2 or 3 were open). We had a great meal and watched the final game of the Confederations Cup. Brasil beat Argentina (Sorry Patrick). Jason asked if they had any dessert, and of course we were immediately given some sort of dried fruits with sugary syrup coating. MMMMM….(not really). Guess we’ll never know if we were charged for it since the “bill” was simply the owner saying “twenty nine euros”. And of course there was no menu to do a sanity check with! Oh well….
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