Why, yes, that IS me in a pink wig...

Well hey there! So, right off the bat, I'll explain the title. And what better way than with a picture?!

So here we all are, in our wigs and disguises. But WHY?! I'll tell you. Last Thursday was Τσικνοπέμπτη  (Tsiknopempti) or Barbecue Thursday. I'm sure you've all heard of Carnival, the time before Lent where everywhere goes crazy with parades and floats and stuff. Like Marti Gras, but better. Because it's in Europe! Anyway, here in Greece they don't eat meat starting on the third Friday of February. So "Barbecue Thursday" is the day they stuff their faces with meat before they can't anymore. And downtown there is a giant barbecue and all the restaurants bring their food out and grill it outside and it smells DELICIOUS! So for some reason, on Tsiknopempti everyone dresses up like Halloween. I don't really know why and I'm not sure if the Greeks know why either. But we all made our way to the costume store and bought masks or wigs or ears. So I got a hot pink WIG! (That's me 2nd from the left.) My college hosted a party, so we went there after dressing up. We rode the public bus there and a little old lady patted my arm and said something in Greek that was probably something like, "Look at you and your pink hair!" At about ten o'clock we went downtown to see some of the other festivities, but because of a series of unfortunate events missed all of them. That was pretty disappointing because I wanted to see the bike parade and all the locals dressed up. But what's past is past, that just means I'll have to come back some day! So the night ended with a gyro and bed. Gyros can make anything better.

Here's a Carnival party we stumbled upon!

This weekend we went on our first major field trip. It was AMAZING! We left early Saturday morning and traveled first to Perama, which is a little village that houses a BIG cave. Here's a pic of that:

So after climbing the FIVE BILLION steps to get out of this cave (and believe me, my calves are still so tight I can barely walk) we hopped back on the bus to go to our next destination. Which was....Ioannina! Here we saw an old Turkish castle with a lovely view of a lake and then we walked around the town and ate lunch. Here's the lake.

Very beautiful

So then we ate our gyros (of course we got gyros) and then back on the bus to Metsovo, our next destination. Metsovo is the cutest little town in the world and it was covered in a layer of fresh snow. We checked in to our hotel and then a group of us went exploring. I'm so glad we did because we were just in time to catch the sunset. And who wouldn't want to see this in person?

I made this one bigger cuz it's so darn pretty

So after a night in a wonderful hotel, (they had a HEATING RACK in the bathroom!!) we set off for the main reason for the field trip.
METEORA!
Have you heard of Meteora? I hadn't before I googled it before coming here. It means "suspended rocks," if that tells you anything. But it should be one of the wonders of the world. Meteora consists of ancient monasteries build on the top of giant rocks. The rocks were formed millions of years ago when the whole area was underwater. Later, monks (or hermits, rather) lived in isolation in the many caves that can be found in these giant rocks. One day they decided to build on top of the rocks and BOOM. Meteora. It took years to build the whole monastery because they had to haul everything up by hand or with a basket thing. At one time there was over 20 around Meteora, but now only 6 remain. We did see the ruins of some while driving by, though. The first one we went to was Aghios Stefanos monastery. While there we saw a little old nun walking back to her quarters and my heart melted, she was so cute. They split their day into three parts. Eight hours is spent working, eight hours is praying, and the last eight is whatever they want, including sleep. I couldn't live the life of a nun, I'll tell you that. Complete obedience is needed, plus I doubt they have facebook.
The second monastery we visited was Megalo Meteoro monastery, which is the biggest one that's still around. When we drove up it was on the same level as us, but when we approached on foot, we noticed you had to walk WAY down and then back up. Here's a picture of these lovely stairs:

See where it comes out of the rock in the bottom? Yeah.

We had a guide around this monastery and got to see into the wine cellar and see the skulls. Wait, what?! Skulls?? Yes, that's right, there was a room full of bones. See, the monks and nuns have to be buried on the premise, and obviously they ran out of room, being on a rock and all. Their solution? Bury them, dig them up in seven years and stack their bones neatly with all the others!

Our little group of girls somehow got lost from all the other people on the tour, so we naturally wandered around till we happened across this great view:

Oh yeah, we had to wear these skirts!
(Which I actually thought were pretty cute, for being appropriate for nuns and such...)

So Meteora was an awe-inspiring, something I've never seen before, AMAZING experience.

 After Metora, we headed home, stopping in the town Kalambaka for lunch. I ate a whole pizza by myself. It was a mini pizza, but still. It was delicious.

So that was my amazing weekend!

Yesterday was school. Boo. And now I have to do homework for that school (double boo) so I'll say farewell.

Oh! I baked a chicken today. (Be proud, Mom!) I bought the chicken at the market for 2.60 Euros (from a man who kept talking and talking about Donald Trump and some other guy and saying that "You must come back and tell me!" while  writing a website and his name and number down on a sticky note---I have NO IDEA what that was about but I'm going to avoid that area now) and I baked it in our tiny oven! And you know what? I DIDN'T BURN ANYTHING DOWN! And I don't think we'll get salmonella either. WIN!

Later,

Emily