Saturday morning’s service, which included Divine Liturgy, went from 2 until 7 AM. Breakfast followed, and then a short rest. It was the most beautiful day yet, so we took another walk toward the eastern shoreline. After about 25 minutes, we arrived at an incredibly tall, imposing tower, which was built by Serbian King Stefan Milutin around 1300. (See top photo.)
The tower is currently undergoing some repairs, and it was not safe to climb up to the very top, but we did climb up about 2/3 of the way to enjoy the spectacular view (see second photo).
The third photo is of our friend Aimilios looking out at the view. I was inside the tower.
Finally, we headed back to the monastery and I gathered my things to make the trip back to Thessaloniki. Before getting on the bus to go to the little port of Jovanica, I stopped in the monastery’s bookstore and stocked up on some little gifts for people. The monk also gave me a bottle of the monastery’s wine, and I bought a bottle of their raki.
The bus left the monastery at 12:20 and took us to the western shore. I got a photo there with a very sweet old priest-monk, who liked trying to speak with me in Greek and English. (He particularly liked the phrase “God Bless America!”) In our photo, you can see the boat approaching in the background. We got on and were back in Ouranpoli before 2 PM. I caught the bus to Thessaloniki at 2:15 and was home by 5 PM.
That's it for this trip! You can see all 107 photos here.
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