Have you ever experienced a day so eventful and so fulfilling that leaves you with the impression that it was more like a week rather than a day?
I am sure you have. Days like that tend to happen once in a while. During travels or festivals or big social events. But when @traisto and myself, with the companion of our four-legged friend, left home for a drive on a nearby mountain, we didn't expect it to be nothing more than a casual trip.
It took us about ten hours of driving, taking photos and sightseeing to complete the 227 km (141 miles) circle route that we had chosen and get back with a smile on our face, exclaiming:
What a day!
click here for google directions
Church of Agia Fotini Mantineias
Although I am not much of a religious man, the first stop we made was to see a church. A construction so unique, so special that I just had to see and to take pictures of it of course :)
I have written all about it in my post One of a kind and it is one of a kind indeed!
You can see here a few pictures that weren't included in the first post as well as Marcos (the dog) exploring the plot and our not so happy landlord (the cat) expressing his discomfort :)
Vytina
The second stop was at the village of Vytina, a jewel of the mountains! And I say it both metaphorically since it is so beautiful, as well as literally since we have found a jeweller that we have heard of and @traisto got herself a shinning present!
If those pictures are not enough for you (and take my word for it, they are not) don't worry. I have already written the post Enough to make a difference, with many more pictures and info about this lovely village.
And since we all adored the small spinney that we, so unexpectedly, found, I am posting a few more pictures of it, missing from the original post!
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Dimitsana
Although this is the most popular among the three villages that we meant to visit that day, it is the one I enjoyed the least. Maybe because the light at that particular time of the day made it difficult for me to take the pictures I wanted, maybe because my lunch time had passed and I tend to be grumpy when I am hungry or maybe I actually grasped an unpleasant vibe that annoyed me. I can't tell for sure.
You can read my post Loose ends about it and I can revisit it soon, to see if I was right in the first place or I have to write another post to do it justice :)
Stemnitsa
My personal favourite! It is not easy to explain why this village and not the other two but that's the place that totally earned me! I guess that's why we have to travel and visit places and not just look at pictures or videos of them. Each place is much more than what it looks like. Those three villages are the perfect example. Built with similar architecture and techniques, only a few km apart, on the same magnificent mountain and yet, so different one from another!
Also known as the village of the jewellers, it hosts a school of jewellery making and for sure the presence of large numbers of young people is always a factor that changes the aura of a place. Actually the jeweller that we met in Vytina (the first village that we visited) studied in this very school while many students open their workshops in Stemnitsa and never leave!
I can say so much about this place but I'll just repeat what I said in yesterday's post:
I'll be back :)
Even Marcos looks nostalgic, doesn't he?
I took the last picture as we were driving the last part of our route in the mountains heading to Tripoli and the highway that would brought us home!
Have a lovely weekend ahead and remember. Even one day is enough to recharge your batteries for good and have material for a whole week's posts too :)
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
That looks like a fun road trip. Now I want to drive around to 😅
If you find yourself in Greece, it's a must-do route :)
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