I MADE IT! Despite what seemed to be a team effort by myself, the airlines, and the bus system to stop me from coming, I have arrived at the Prodromos Monastery on Mount Menoikeion. I’ll run you through my day to explain to road that led me here:
Flying to Frankfurt from Chicago was splendid, outside of the fact that the plane left about 45 minutes late… With an hour to transfer in Frankfurt I knew I would be in a rush immediately when we took off. I looked at my watch as the plane landed and it was 7:12 local time (my plane was scheduled to leave for Vienna at 7:50). We arrived at gate C13 and I sprinted through passport control and a security check all the way over A40! Somehow I got there and took off about 5 minutes after stepping foot on the plane.
My plane from Thessaloniki was then delayed by a bit over an hour which finally got me there at approximately 3:00… After getting off the city bus at the wrong time and having to get back on to take an multi-city bus to Serres (which is the city nearest to the monastery), I had some financial issues and had to be picked up.
A van picked me up from the bus station and one of my roommates Matt was driving. Up the winding mountain road I asked him questions about the monastery that I was still curious about after all the readings. As this is his 4th year on this trip, he knows quite a bit about the history of this place and monasticism in general.
Once I arrived, I was greeted by my Professor (Nikolas Bakirtzis who I will refer to as Nikos for the rest of the time in this blog) and was served dinner, as everyone else had just finished eating. Because of specific fasting rules, they are limited in what they use. In this case, they couldn’t use butter or milk in any of dishes they made. The seafood soup and casserole they made was composed entirely from scratch and with the ingredients they grow at the monastery. This monastery is almost entirely self-sufficient! The food is incredible and all the nuns are incredibly nice to us
Before heading to bed we had a special opportunity to watch a 10:30 liturgy. There will be another tomorrow that will be longer and have a different priest. From what I understand, the liturgy basically goes through the story of Christ and the priest comes out under the dome in the narthex for the first time once Christ is born. We'll have many more opportunities to watch this unique tradition.
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