In the heart of the Pindos Mountains, in the small village of Tsepelovo, every year in July, Zagori Mountain Running competitions are organized. Sharp guitar screeching at the beginning, then a wind instrument singing, powerful guitar and bass riffs combined with overwhelming drum beats, finally vocals.
Phaistos Disk – one of the most enigmatic objects ever found, a true hero of modern science and, to a greater extent, even popular culture. An object that evokes great emotions and prompts hundreds of people to create more or less meaningful theories, trying to explain it, understand it, and read it.
That day I wanted to cross the mountains. Not high. Separating the central part of the Peloponnese from the eastern coast. It was in the second week of my journey around the great mulberry-leaf shaped Greek peninsula.
One time I bought myself a fridge magnet. Such a small, plaster, pressed with the stamp – a traditional souvenir from holiday travels. There are no sea, no windmills or a Greek donkey on it. There is Socrates and his most famous formula: “I know that I know nothing.”
For the first time I saw it on the road from Litochoro to the Stavros Refuge: Glistrokoumaria – Greek Strawberry Tree. Branches fancifully twisted, color difficult to determine, and above all this skin (because it is not bark) – smooth as velvet, covered as if with a soft fluff, once a little greener, more often turning into pink, red and burgundy.
It is May 2015. The archaeological site of Nestor’s Palace in the southwestern Peloponnese, 15 km from the modern town of Pylos on the shores of the Gulf of Navarino.
It was in the middle of hot summer, the peak of the holiday season. I stood in front of the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion in Crete, among the crowd of tourists. I was delighted by amazing sun of July, the lush nature on the square around and the aesthetic madness of the interior of King Minos’s palace that was about to follow soon.
At the beginning you have to choose a place on the map: Metsovo, Tempi Valley or Vergina. It cannot be too close, the journey must wean you from everyday life, prepare you for what is new and unexpected.
