Edessa

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On Sunday afternoon, which was another beautiful day, we decided to take a trip out west to Edessa. Originally, we had thought about going to Ormylia, which is east in Halkidiki, but the traffic on the weekends in summer is so atrocious that we decided to play it smart and head the opposite direction, away from the crowds. So we headed west about 1.5 hours to Edessa and its beautiful waterfalls.

When we arrived, we parked next to a little park, so we got out and let the babies move around a little. Just over the past few days, Phoebe is starting to try taking steps. Here, her yiayia is helping her try to take a step.

We then walked over to the top of the waterfalls. The babies were really fascinating with the rushing water. Here, Paul and Benjamin are looking at the water as we stood on a little bridge over it.

Paris and Pelagia with the babies. Here the water is approaching the point where it makes its dramatic drop over the sheer cliff.

Paul and Benjamin checking out the water.

The city of Edessa runs a great restaurant right on the waterfall. Here we are eating lunch there. In between the gate and the building in the background runs the water.

The old city of Edessa is quite rustic. It would make for a nice, quiet getaway.

This is one of the B&Bs at which you can stay. This particular place also has a cafe overlooking the valley below. Inside the cafe, on the ground floor, a large part of the floor is glass, through which you can see a section of the ancient city's wall, which dates to 400 BC.

There are many churches, including two Byzantine churches from the 14th century. Here we are inside the 14th century church dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. You can see the marble columns and capitals, as well as the frescoes above them.

The front of the small little church to Sts. Peter and Paul. To the south is a view over the valley below.

Here our group is coming out from the church and heading down one of the cobblestone alleys.

The 14th century church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos was the former cathedral and now stands adjacent to the offices of the Metropolis of Edessa, Pella, and Almopia. Here, Phoebe is crawling around in the courtyard. Through the gate you can see the Metropolitan's car parked in front of the offices. (You can always tell a Metropolitan's car in Greece because they have a special license plate that reads an abbreviation of their title, in this case "M.E.P.A." It's safe to say they probably don't get pulled over much.

Here's Paul sitting on top of a marble base in the courtyard in front of the church, while Phoebe tries to climb up.

Before heading home, we went for a coffee at a cafe next to the Metropolis, overlooking the valley.

The cafe had a train engine that the babies rode. Here Paul was the conductor while Phoebe looks on.

Paris and Phoebe in front of the offices of the Metropolis as we walked back to the car.

For more photos from the trip, click here.

Constantinople: The Patriarchate

After lingering a rather long time in Hagia Sophia, we then made our way across the street to the Basilica Cistern, where, unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get good photos.

As they seem wont to do in these Byzantine monuments, the Turks were installing some kind of weird modern art exhibit in the cistern when we went. In the photo above, I was trying to capture one of the "artists" (forgive my skepticism) climbing out of the water after he hung some mobiles over the water. You can see the outline of one in the upper right corner of the photo, along with the scaffolding they erected for this purpose.

Here is one of the two famous--and enormous--Medusa heads that serve as column bases.

After the cool of the cistern, we headed back out into the rising heat of the day and took a quick walk through the Grand Bazaar. One of our all-male company (who shall remain anonymous) joked that if we had any women in our group, we'd never leave there.

Above and below--walking through the Grand Bazaar.

Here we are just outside the Grand Bazaar and in front of the one of Istanbul's famous mosques, but to be honest I can't say for sure which one it is.

Another view of the city from that point.

We then walked over the Galata Bridge to head back to our hotel. All along the bridge men stand and fish. There's also a walkway on the lower level with cafes.

Paris standing on the Galata Bridge over the Golden Horn.

We collected our things from the hotel and hopped in the mini-van to head to the Patriarchate on our way out of the city. Here, Paris and I are standing at the entrance, where Patriarch Gregory V was hanged by the Turks for encouraging the Greeks to revolt.

Inside the courtyard, looking at the front of the rather modest St. George's, which is the current seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Fr. Panayiotis and Paris inside the church, venerating the relics of St. Euphemia, among others.

Me standing in front of the ornate iconostasis in St. George's.

After our quick visit there, since it was growing quite late and we had a long drive home ahead of us, we headed out. Unfortunately, we got caught again in the city's horrendous traffic and it probably took two hours for us to get 15 km outside the city. After that, it was smooth sailing. We made only one brief stop, where we caught the last moments of Spain's victory over Germany, which was loved by Greeks, who tended to side with one of their brethren PIGS countries against the despots of the EU, Germany.

We finally rolled into Thessaloniki after over 8 hours in the car around 1:30 AM, but it was a wonderful trip and well worth the effort to venerate the holy sites.

Constantinople: Hagia Sophia

We started our third and final day at Hagia Sophia. Across a beautiful and lush green park lies the Islamic counterpoint to Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, pictured above in the photo taken from the entrance to Hagia Sophia.

Paris and I at Hagia Sophia.

Inside Hagia Sophia. In the center of the photo is the sanctuary of Hagia Sophia, but now most of the elements you see in this photo are from the 500 years it was used as a mosque. On the left is the sultan's loge, from which the sultan could participate in the mosque services with some privacy and, most importantly, protection from assassins. Apparently, the mosque was considered a vulnerable target, since Muslims cannot interrupt their prayer once they have started.

In about the center of the church, a bit off toward the south (i.e., about where the bishop's throne now stands in most Orthodox churches), stands the omphalion, the place where Byzantine emperors were crowned and where they sat on their thrones and followed the services.

A photo from the upper floor. Fr. Panayiotis and one of the guys who came with us, Andreas, are in the lower left hand corner.

A set of windows on the upper floor. On the outside, a crew sits on scaffolding cleaning each pane of glass.

Fr. Panayiotis and Paris admiring one of the incredible mosaics on the upper floor. The one above:

"The Deësis ('Δέησις' in Greek, meaning Entreaty) mosaic probably dates from 1261. It was commissioned to mark the end of 57 years of Roman Catholic use and the return to the Orthodox faith. It is the third panel situated in the imperial enclosure of the upper galleries. It is widely considered the finest in Hagia Sophia, because of the softness of the features, the humane expressions and the tones of the mosaic. The style is close to that of the Italian painters of the late 13th or early 14th century, such as Duccio. In this panel the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist (Ioannes Prodromos), both shown in three-quarters profile, are imploring the intercession of Christ Pantocrator for humanity on Judgment Day. The bottom part of this mosaic is badly deteriorated, probably due to rain since the mosaic is next to the windows. This mosaic is considered as the beginning of the Renaissance in Byzantine pictorial art."

Above is the beautiful Empress Zoe mosaics:

"The Empress Zoe mosaics on the eastern wall of the southern gallery date from the 11th century. Christ Pantocrator, clad in the dark blue robe (as always the custom in Byzantine art), is seated in the middle against a golden background, giving His blessing with the right hand and holding the Bible in His left hand. On either side of His head are the monograms IC and XC, meaning Iēsous Khristos. He is flanked by Constantine IX Monomachus and Empress Zoe, both in ceremonial costumes. He is offering a purse, as symbol of the donation he made to the church, while she is holding a scroll, symbol of the donations she made. The inscription over the head of the emperor says : "Constantine, pious emperor in Christ the God, king of the Romans, Monomachus". The inscription over the head of the empress reads as follows : "Zoë, the very pious Augusta". The previous heads have been scraped off and replaced by the three present ones. Perhaps the earlier mosaic showed her first husbandRomanus III Argyrus or her adopted son Michael IV. Another theory is that these mosaics were made for an earlier emperor and empress, with their heads changed into the present ones."

You can see, especially where the (long) name of the Emperor Constantine is written in the upper left hand corner that originally there was probably a much shorter name there, hence the name is rather squeezed.

Here is some 9th century Runic graffiti carved into the soft marble of the upper floor by the Viking (i.e. Scandanavian) bodyguards of the Byzantine emperor.

Fr. Panayiotis looking down on the narthex of Hagia Sophia from the upper floor. The green discs you see in the upper right of the photo are large wooden discs with (I believe) something written from the Koran. Frankly, the cheapness of the wood construction really clashes with the rest of the magnificent building and has baffled me since my first visit here four years ago.

For more photos from our third and final day, click here.

Constantinople: The Princes' Islands

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On Tuesday, our second day in Constantinople, we headed out to the Princes' Islands , a chain of nine islands just off the coast of the city to the southeast in the Sea of Marmara.

The first stop was the island of Heybeliada, which the Greeks call Halki. The shot above is of the boat pulling out from the dock of the island after we had disembarked.

The Princes' Islands are a popular getaway for residents of the city and the fact that no automobiles are allowed on the island adds to the peacefulness and charm. The only taxis are horse and buggies, which we took up the hill to the famous Halki Theological School, which is also technically a monastery dedicated to the Holy Trinity.

Sadly, the fact is that it is now neither a functioning theological school nor a real monastery. The Turks have closed the school, and there are only a handful of monks there keeping the place open.

In the photo above, Fr. Panayiotis and a parishioner in our group, Andreas, are walking up the stairs into the theological school.

Here I am sitting at one of the desks, in which many saints and patriarchs have sat. The classrooms now sit unused.

In the middle of the C-shaped school complex sits the church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In the photo above, one of the monks, who--it turned out--had gone to the private Orthodox school here in Panorama and knew Fr. Alexios and Fr. Panayiotis, was giving us a tour of the church and explaining some of the history.

The back of the church, with the graves of former patriarchs and headmasters.

Part of the school complex that wraps around the church.

The view from the church. The school sits at the top of the island's hill, with a great view over the ocean.

Here we are walking down the path back to the entrance. The flowers and gardens were quite colorful.

Since it was downhill, we walked back to the port, passing by some of the island's traditional houses, many of which were actually built by Greeks before they were chased out by the Turks during the middle of the last century.

Once we got back to the port, we had to wait for a bit for a boat to come by and ferry us over to Buyukada island, the largest of the nine islands.

From the port, we again took a horse and buggy taxi to the top of the island's hill, where the Monastery of St. George Koudounas sits perched.

The buggies come equipped with rearview mirrors. Here I captured Paris and Fr. Panayiotis in the mirror.

Paris looking at the traditional houses as we made our way up the hill in the buggy.

When we arrived, we went inside the church, which was (and always is) full of a stream of visitors (Orthodox and non-Orthodox), and venerated the wonder-working icon of St. George. St. George has worked countless icons for supplicants there. Be sure to click here for an amazing account of all the miracles worked for the Muslim Turks, who greatly venerate the saint!

After we venerated inside the church, we were invited by the monks to come visit with them for awhile. The monastery had been abandoned, but three years ago, the Ecumenical Patriarch invited an elder and two of his disciples from the Cell of St. Tryphon of the Holy Monastery of Xenophontos on Mt. Athos to come take over the monastery. The monks agreed, and now travel back and forth between this monastery and Mt. Athos. Unfortunately, they are only able to enter Turkey with visitors' visas, so they must leave every 90 days.

It was truly a blessing and a highlight of the trip to visit with these monks, who truly radiated Athonite spirituality, which is a real beacon of Orthodox light in an otherwise dark atmosphere. I hope to visit them in their cell on Mt. Athos some day.

The monastery is one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island, and there's a restaurant next to the monastery that offers traditional food and beautiful views from the highest point on the island. The restaurant is run by the Muslim family which, because of their great veneration for the saint, kept the church from falling into disrepair during the many years it was abandoned. This is the view from where we ate.

Here's where we ate lunch.

Finally, a photo of the hydrofoil boat that took us back to Constantinople after a full day with many blessings.

For more photos from the day, click here.