Another little trip

Well well, I kind of went into hiding after last week's publishing of this report. My thesis topic is now backed up by so many organisations that I'm worried I won't be able to say anything of interest. The most interesting thing about this is the fact that before the report, I thought I was a genius :-) Anyway, the work is progressing - especially after I spent this weekend in Ioannina where my supervisor lives. He's very good at getting me to structure my thoughts and he's got just as many ideas as me, so by the time we finished working on Saturday we had enough material for a PhD thesis...
This place, Ioannina, was a much needed getaway for me (even though I have hardly been here the past month, hmm...). The city is in the North West of Greece fairly close to the border to Albania and the sea (which I obviously forgot the name of but it is - surprise surprise - on the west coast of Greece), and it's located in a sort of hole in between the mountains leaving room for a huge lake. Really, this place is as beautiful as I have ever seen one... Sunday I spent working for some hours and then venturing out to explore in the afternoon. I soon realised that I had not left my stereotypes and Northern European ideas at the hotel when I walked around the city's castle in search of what I thought was the 'main church' of the city - and found two open-air museums, one around the mosque (not church, me felt ignorant) of Ali Pasha who ruled the city in the 18th century, and another around the Its Kale Citadel which has been in use since 1084 (!!!) as fortress of the city. This place was amazing, showing signs of all kinds of people - Christian, Muslim, kings and queens... I must admit it was a great experience for me for the first time to see remnants of the Ottoman Empire.

I also made friends with the man running the ferry from the city to its little island where according to the local youngsters "we don't have television and make sex to our wives every day"... Hmm, that sort of fits a few stereotypes of mine about Greek men and testosterone... The island is peaceful and quiet which I very much appreciated, and it houses 6 monasteries scattered along the shoreline. I couldn't find any information about these places - but that didn't stop me from enjoying the utter bliss of being all alone walking from one spectacular monastery to the next, feeling the serenity of people who used to get closer to God here. This is the first time I have seen simple and modest buildings of religion in Greece - they are usually ornamented into obscurities and not awe inspiring at all.

Anyway, I just felt like sharing a bit of this soul's journey that brought me well-deserved peace of mind, sitting in the shadow of a big tree, listening to the wind moving them and looking out over the magnitude of the mountains and the lake. For once the constant challenges of my brain was silenced by the fact that I couldn't really think of anything to think of. Skønne timer var det...