LOCALadk Magazine
Issue link: https://localadkmagazine.uberflip.com/i/956907
48 Spring 2018 LOCALadk Magazine LOCALadk METEOR A A flight, two taxis, and a train ride later, we arrived in Meteora, an area in northern Greece whose name translates to "suspended in air." Here we discovered 13 monasteries situated at the tops of rocky pinnacles, which seemed to float above the valley. Our sunset drive was wonderful, but it didn't allow us to get quite as close to the beauty of this unique area as we would have liked, so we signed up for a guided hiking tour for the following morning. Along the walk our guide, fluent in the local flora and fauna, also pointed out Game of Thrones filming locations, as a bonus. We got to hike up to the abandoned monaster y of Ypipanti. From beneath the stone cross of its cliff-hugging balcony, we could see the valley below and the mountains beyond, and absorbed the quiet stillness that attracted religious devotees to this remote sanctuar y in the first place. If you squint, the landscape of this particular spot looks a little like the Adirondacks. I'd been reminded of the Adirondacks before during this amaz- ing trip through Greece. On our way out of Kalavr yta at the start of our road trip, we had decided to visit Agia Lavra monaster y. Under a towering shade tree, as tall as the outer walls of the monaster y itself, we were approached simultaneously by the first breeze of the day and by a monk dressed in the customar y black vestments. He bid us welcome and motioned us through the massive wood doors into the monaster y's cloistered halls. He spoke a few lines, and we apol- ogized sincerely that we did not speak Greek. He pardoned himself with a hand on his chest and a small bow of his head and seamless- ly switched to English. He asked where we had traveled from, and my friend Alexa told him we were from New York. The monk's blue- green eyes shone with the twinkle often elicited when I shared this information with locals on the road. Most people thought I meant New York City and would excitedly ask about the city, which is some - thing of an international obsession. We clarified that we were actu- ally from upstate New York, the Adirondacks, a mountainous region much closer to Canada. He paused for a moment, then asked "Platts- burgh? " This kind soul with the twinkling eyes was not simply a monk con- fined to the walls of a monaster y in a remote mountain village of the Peloponnese; we had met a fellow traveler, one who had been to our town, who too had been a stranger in a strange land, and who now reminisced about how lovely the locals were in the Adirondacks. He complimented our land with the same enthusiasm and nostalgia that we showered upon his. It was a reminder of the interconnect- edness of humankind, pulling the fabric of life a bit tighter, showing me how small our world can truly be. After this experience with the monk, I regarded the monaster y and the village in a new light; the more I thought about it, this remote mountain town – an agricultur- al community steeped in histor y, full of hardy locals – was not so different from my own. Perhaps, despite the thousands of miles you travel from home, you're really never too far off.