Scoutmaster trip to Eurpoe 2007

Europe 2007 2008

Tuesday, November 5, 2007

I have spent the past two days in Meteora, and although I had never heard of Meteora, many people apparently have. The area has monasteries, and most of them are on the tops of rocky pinnacles in a geologically incredible setting. If you saw the James Bond movie, “For Your Eyes Only,” then you have seen one of the monasteries and you have seen some of the landscape.

The word “meteoros” means suspended in air, and this is exactly how the monasteries appear on the top of huge rock pillars. I visited six monasteries; two of which are for nuns, and the other four are homes to Greek Orthodox monks and priests. Many of the rock pillars have caves that hermit monks lived in as far back as the 11th century C.E., and when the Turks started to conquer Greece, Meteora seemed a perfect place for monks to retreat to. The early monasteries had rope ladders and windlasses to hoist up both people and supplies. The windlasses are still used, but now, all of the monasteries have steep, winding stone stairways.

A 23-year-old French-Canadian studying architecture for a semester in France and I toured the monasteries together. His name in English is William, but in French is something like Gilliam (Guillermo in Spanish). He comes from near Quebec. We met on the bus trip to Meteora from Delphi. At a few of the monasteries French guides explained some of the paintings and other items; I was fortunate to have Gilliam to translate for me. Students spending a semester or more studying at universities in other countries seem to have really caught on. I keep running into them. In Delphi, I met three girls from America studying in Freiburg, Germany, and in Athens, there were about five other American students staying at the hostel.

Each of the monasteries has a central courtyard, a church, living quarters and working spaces. They still use the windlasses to haul things as the stone stairs are not very wide, and it would be difficult to bring anything heavy up the narrow stairs. Every surface in the churches is decorated with paintings, ceiling frescoes, icons, and chandeliers. There is always a door to the sacristy where the priest may go, but where tourists may not. Anything made of wood is ornately carved, like the sacristy doors and like the special throne-like high-back chairs that the priests sit on. The chandeliers are brass; they have marble eggs hanging from them. Some of the eggs are decorated like the ones Faberge made for the Russian Tsars. I learned the symbolism of the eggs; they represent resurrection or new life.

Although the monasteries in Meteora date back to Byzantine times, all have been in continuous use. They are not relics or ruins, but rather living history. The monks have continued to build, reinforce, and maintain their mountain homes and churches, but the basic architecture is hundreds of years old. I think a monk’s life is quite difficult, but with tourism and Hollywood movies, they do have considerable “outside income.”

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Yesterday, I left Meteora and headed to my final destination in Greece, Thessaloniki, also known as Saloniki. It took most of the early part of the day to get to Thessaloniki by bus, but I arrived by 3:00 p.m., and had no trouble finding a very nice place to stay in the center of the city, close to the historic sites and the places of interest. I think Thessaloniki is a nicer looking big city than Athens. It seems like the people took more care rebuilding the city after the Second World War.

Thessalonika is in historic Macedonia. The city’s foremost heroic figure is Alexander the Great; his statue is prominently displayed near the waterfront, and a statue of his father, Phillip of Macedon is just a few blocks back from the waterfront. Thessaloniki is named after Alexander’s half sister who married another Macedonian king. Rome completed the conquest of Greece in 168 B.C.E., and immediately started to build roads. My hotel is on the east-west road leading to Rome; it’s called Egnatia Street here.

Thessalonika’s location has made it an important port and crossroads since ancient times. At one end of the waterfront stands, a 15th century C.E., stone tower, called the “White Tower.” It’s a city landmark. Near the white tower are the Archeology Museum and the Byzantine Culture Museum. Both display fascinating artifacts from Thessaloniki and Macedonian history. There’s a whole room of gold objects from ancient Macedonia, including gold wreaths and jewelry.

Thessaloniki has the other Jewish Museum in Greece; it’s smaller than the one in Athens, and it is, of course, oriented to the history of the Jews of Thessaloniki and Macedonia. I am continuously amazed at how many ways the story of the Jewish people can be told. Here in Thessaloniki, once a predominately Jewish city, the museum tells the story starting in the cemetery! As you walk down the hall, the tombstones, photographs and explanation of this historic place grabs you. The Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki had perhaps three hundred thousand graves. Some were quite elaborate and most were quite simple. To destroy the Jewish community, the Nazis destroyed their cemetery first, and thus severed the people’s link to their historical past. The University of Thessaloniki now occupies the land.

In Thessaloniki, the Jewish cemetery was more than a burial site. Women customarily visited the cemetery; their trips were called “ziyaras,’ which in Turkish means pilgrimage. Those trips were not all serious work, as the women would socialize and gossip on their outings. Before major holidays, whole families would visit the cemetery to honor ancestors. Most of the Jews of Thessaloniki came from Spain, and both the Sephardi traditions and the Ladino language have Spanish origins. Spanish people also have customs that include visiting their ancestors’ graves. There is even a holiday in many Spanish-speaking countries called the “Day of the Dead,” when people go to have a picnic at the grave side of their ancestors.

Many Jews occasionally visit the graves of their ancestors; the practice among the people of Thessaloniki was more important. Most women in Thessaloniki were illiterate, and often hired a Rabbi or other religious man to find the tombstone of an ancestor, and to help read a special prayer at the grave side. These Rabbis and religious men were called “honaci,” another word with a Turkish root meaning a person who “calls out.”

Sephardi Jews in Thessaloniki had another important custom, wearing amulets called “kameoth.” Children often had an amulet pouch that they wore or that was sewn into their clothes. The pouch contained a roll of paper with special prayers and mystical cabalistic symbols and script. Soil from a grave site in the pouch, made it an even more potent amulet. The Jewish museum has displays showing all of these things, and I must admit, I knew very little about any of these practices before visiting Thessaloniki.

Friday, November 9, 2007

I spent the day walking around the city, and visiting some of the old neighborhoods. I saw the dilapidated building that once housed the Jewish Orphanage, and I saw several mansions that belonged to wealthy Jews before the war. Most of these places are in disrepair, but one mansion, the home of a banker named Yako Modiano, houses the Folk Life and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia and Thrace, so it’s in fine condition.

I visited the markets where fresh fish is sold. I enjoyed seeing the variety of octopus and shrimp. Then later in the afternoon, I found a Chinese restaurant. I had hot and sour soup; the soup made a nice change from the Greek food I have enjoyed over the past month.

Now, the time to leave Greece has finally arrived. Tomorrow, I will fly to Naples, Italy, and spend some time with Ron and Gayle O’Grady’s and their children Sean, one of my scouts, and his sister Megan.

Sunday, November 10, 2007

The flight to Naples from Thessalonika yesterday involved changing planes in Rome. Expect for waiting around the airport and a forty-minute delay on take-off, the trip went well. My friends, Ron and Sean O’Grady met me at the airport in Naples, and we drove back to their apartment not far from Naples. Ron is in the Navy and Sean is one of my former scouts. Gayle and Meghan complete the family. Sean is in the eighth grade and Meghan is in the sixth grade; both are good students.

We toured Naples today visiting churches and the great National Archeology Museum. The cathedral has a chapel off to one side that contains some unusual remains of San Gennaro, the patron Saint of Naples, his blood in vials, and part of his skull in a silver bust of his head. The blood congeals and liquefies in front of people who come to see this “miracle.” San Gennaro was martyred in 305 C.E. In another church, San Maggiore, behind the altar, we saw the crypt in a display case. In the case, behind the glass, pieces of bone and other blood vials had been mounted in artificial arms. It is all very strange, and relates to superstitions of the people.

The National Archeology Museum contains fascinating artifacts from both Pompeii and Herculaneum. Cardinal Alessandro Farnese became Pope Paul III in the 1500’s. He collected art, and part of his collection is on display in the National Archeology Museum. The most famous sculpture, the Toro Farnese (Farnese Bull), is a huge marble statue of people struggling with an immense bull. It portrays the story of Dirce who was tied to the bull by the sons of Antiope as punishment for the bad way Dirce treated their mother! The statue came from the home of wealthy Roman, and was carved in Rhodes in the 2nd century B.C.E. The statue was brought from Rome, by ship, to Naples in 1788, under the watchful eye of an armed war ship.

Philip Sternberg
Scoutmaster, Troop 1131