From the Oracle of Delphi to the Monasteries of Meteora

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By Roberta Mark Engel


For a special tour during these next two days with Joanna from Los Angeles, she will take the national highway and lead north from Athens to Delphi where she will see farmland consisting of cotton, tomato and watermelon fields.  Approximately 45 minutes later, she makes a quick stop to see the reservoir of Athens and continue traveling through a livadi (meadow) which is surrounded by mountains on both sides.

After Joanna arrives at Delphi, she learns that worshipers believed that they could hear the prose of the god Apollo, spoken through a priestess, or Pythia (over the age of 50 years old). Questioners paid a levy called a pelanos and sacrificed an animal on the altar. The questions were then put to the Pythia by a male priest and she would answer in a trance (unfortunately, the answers were often ambiguous), perhaps induced by vapors from a crack in the ground under her feet.  Joanna says that individuals from all over the ancient world visited Delphi to consult the god on what course of action to take, both in private and public life.  The site and Museum are open from April-October Mon-Fri 7:30 am-3:00 pm and Sat-Sun-8:30 am-3:00 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Next, Joanna and her driver drive travels through the mountains and the Thessaliko Valley.
“How great to see the tomato and watermelon fields!" After a wonderful night’s sleep, we will see six phenomenal monasteries, which were built on top of gigantic rocks in the 14th century.”

Joanna says that Meteora was used as a religious retreat when, in 985, a hermit named Barnabas occupied a cave here.   Rousanou is perched precariously on the very tip of a narrow spire of rock and is he most spectacular of monasteries.

The hours of operation for the monasteries are as follows: Megalo Meteora is open on Monday, Wednesday-Sunday. Rousanou is open daily. Agia Triada is open daily. Agios Stefanos is open Tuesday-Sunday. Varlam is open Monday-Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Agiou Nikolaou is open April-October daily. All monasteries are shut from 1:00-3:00 pm.
Join Joanna on her return  to Athens after you have enjoyed lunch along the way. What did you think of Delphi and Meteora? Did you hear the oracle of Delphi? Did you explore Meteora by walking up those countless stairs? “Meteora is my favorite location. Was it yours?

Life in the German Democratic Republic

This story has been told by my cousin, Lauren. Since travel to Greece requires at least one stop, why not have your stop be Berlin. I was so impressed at Lauren's husband's generosity and kindness during my stay in Berlin. It gave me an opportunity to experience life in Germany post the Berlin Wall. So enjoy this true, yet entertaining story of Chris.

 Chris was born in 1947 and was the youngest of three children. His mother was a divorced high school teacher. This single parent had a daughter and two sons who lived with her in a little town called Henningsdorf. This town is on the outskirts of Berlin. Chris' mother found that taking care of three children was quite taxing so she employed a nanny during the day to take care of the two-year old child, Chris. His mother and her two children then moved to West Berlin while Chris stayed with his nanny in Henninsdorf.

The cold war heated up. Berlin was the center of tension in Germany. A few years later, Chris started the first grade. His mother wanted him to go to school in West Berlin. Chris crossed the border every day alone to go from Henninsdorf to West Berlin and then in the reverse. A year later when Chris was seven, the East German Authorities visited his nanny and demanded a decision as to if he was going to stay in the east or go to the west. Chris was to continue to stay in the east until high school. She attempted to convince his mother of this plan.

In 1961, during his sleep, the Berlin Wall was erected to prevent the further flow of people who fled from the east to seek new lives in the west. Chris, a fourteen year old boy, has remained with his nanny who was sixty-nine years old. Their relationship was a bit strained. She was old and Chris was strong- willed and in the midst of adolescence.

Chris' mother began to urge the nanny to apply for a family reunion through the International Red Cross. She realized that the political situation in East Germany was a time bomb which could easily explode at any given moment and knew it was of fundamental importance to get that child out of the East asquickly as possible. Therefore, Chris' mother followed this advice to save her child from an uncertain destiny in the east.

Ironically, two years after the Berlin Wall was built, Chris was able to legally leave his nanny and be reunited with his mother, sister and brother. It was a truly remarkable and unusual case due to the age of Chris' nanny as well as his age. If she had been younger, the authorities in the east would never ave allowed him to leave for the west. In this case, the East German authorities were afraid that the authorities were afraid that his nanny might soon die or become incapable of caring for him any longer. If that happened, Chris might have been doomed to live in an orphanage.

East Germany made their decision based on an international recognition at that time and wanted to present itself as a civilized state.

Amazingly enough, one and 1/2 years later, Chris left the east and he started his senior year as a high school exchange student in Santa Monica, California. What an ending to Chris' unique life in GDR.

by Roberta Mark Engel