17. Sep 2023

Kastoria - Pelekanos

I often wonder how many times a person might see me walking through thier country. Today towards noon I walked through a village and saw a taxi driver outside his car talking to a woman pulling out from the driveway. I greeted him in Greek and the woman heard me. She stopped, rolled down the window and asked in perfect English: "How are you doing?" I guess it was obvious that I was not from there. The taxi driver was her husband, and she was off to pick up her children from school. She had lived though for 15 years in New York. She said she saw me two days ago walking towards Kastoria and this morning away from Kastoria. Now three hours latet I was walking through her village. She was curious and wanted to know where I was going. I explained that I was a pilgrim, walking from Munich to Athens, and praying for the countries and people along the way. She said that Greece needs many prayers. I asked if I could pray for her and her family. She gratefully accepted the offer. Talk-and-Pray.

Photo 1: A sign warning drivers of a possible bear crossing that I saw as I left Kastoria.

Photo 2: I much rather see creatures like this while I am walking.

Photo 3: Practicing reading Greek by way of the street signs

Photo 4: Much of the day was walking on the road, but fortunately there was not so much traffic.

Photo 5: There was no place to stay at the end of the stretch. I had food and water with me, so I put my tent up under the roof to the entry of this small church on the side of the road. It gave me some protection from the rain that came in the night and morning. Just as I got into my sleeping bag, I could hear wolves howling in the distance. Dogs up the road started barking. This went on for about fifteen minutes, and then the howling stopped. It was the first time on this trip that I was glad ro hear barking dogs.

Milestone: 4x Mt. Everest altitude meters