Kali Paschi (Happy Easter)!
Today is Greek Easter. In Rhodes, everyone we met was practically floating with anticipation. Today, they are joyous. Kristos anesti (Christ is risen)! is the greeting of the day, and the response is Alisos anesti (He is risen)! This is like Christmas and New Years and Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July all rolled into one big holiday. Last night, church services started at 11pm. At midnight, the symbolic sepulchre of Christ (which they carried through the streets on Good Friday) is opened and behold! it is empty. Christ is risen! People sing, the church bells ring out in the still midnight air, but all is drowned out in a roar of firecrackers all over town. Christ is risen! Today the world is redeemed!
Today, also, all the stores and most of the restaurants are closed. People are home celebrating with their families. They will eat roast lamb. But Dan and I will drive around the island today.
Calithea is a hot-springs resort that only a slightly romantic early-to-mid-twentieth-century Italian dictator could have built, and possibly only on a remote Greek coast. The site is beautiful.
And the architecture is lush, balanced, and at once grandiose and romantic.
"Do you want to have a child?" our solicitous innkeeper asked us when she was planning our itinerary.
"No!" Dan and I answered at onece, just a little too emphatically. She looked stricken, so we tried to soften the blow. "We already have two children. Two grown children."
Our downcast innkeeper brightened. "How about grandchildren?"
The monastery at Tsambika is, as it turns out, a famous Rhodes pilgrimage site for women trying to conceive. In the old days, women used to crawl to the top. Now, in one of life's modern improvements, they walk.
And the monastery is marvelously effective. It is traditional that when a child is born as a result of such a pilgrimage it is named Tsambika if a girl, and if a boy, Tsambikos. The name is found nowhere else in the world but Rhodes, but here it is a common one--perhaps (if our voluble innkeeper is to be believed) 25% of the population.
The monastery offers us a gift as we start our climb: The opportunity to do a tiny bit of good, a portion of holy work on this Easter morning. At the foot of the path are bags of gravel with a sign in Greek and in English:
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"It is requested that pilgrims who wish to help in the renewing of the monastery of Panagia Kira, to carry the building material up to the monastery. Thank you for your help." |
Dan and I take some bags of gravel with us, and with this act, our excursion has turned into a pilgrimage.
The climb is about three hundred stairs. It's not easy. About three quarters of the way up, a satyr perched halfway up a tree sings American folksongs to the beat of a tambourine. I can't see the goat legs and hoofs because he is wearing jeans and sneakers, but I'm sure they are there. Two or three bends of the path later, an old man sings off key in Greek, accompanying himself on the violin, which he plays quite well.
I feel disoriented. I have entered another world. No--I have fully entered this one. Dan and I place our bags of gravel carefully on the pile of bags at the top.
The expression on the face of the famous miracle-working icon of the Virgin Mary with child, behind protective glass, is beautiful. People kiss her. I don't, but I'm moved almost to tears.
The view in all directions is breathtaking.
On the way down, we pass many people carrying bags of gravel. One young man ascending carries a (much heavier) bag of cement on his shoulder. Like other descending pilgrims, we leave a bit of money for the old man. And for the satyr with the tambourine who has now climbed even higher in his tree. We find, too, that the restaurant near the parking area has begun preparing for Easter: a lamb is roasting on a spit. It is a scene we will see a dozen times or more on this perfect day.
The three ancient cities of Rhodes are Rhodes itself, Lindos, and Kamiros. Lindos, like Rhodes, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It preserves the ancient layout, with its acropolis above (closed for Easter) and the white town hugging the hillside between acropolis and sea. The town's architecture is so harmonious that the law does not allow any structure to be built that is not in keeping with its aesthetic either in the town itself or in any location that can be seen from the town.
The acropolis is closed for Easter, but we decide to have lunch in the town. Then we explore the streets, Ms. Photographer trailing along after Mr. Adventurer.
Here are views from the town inland and toward the lovely beach.
On the way from Lindos to Monolithos, our car gets a flat tire. At another time, in another place, this might be unpleasant, but here in Rhodes, today, Easter, it is a fine (although unplanned) experience. The car has a good spare. Dan changes the tire in less than twenty minutes. And what a lovely location for an unexpected break from driving!
Our next stop is Monolithos, and, yes, that's right: more stairs!
After Tsambika, this is easy! Only another hundred stairs or so, and we are rewarded with splendid views and a tiny church with a haunting virgin.
The acropolis at Kamiros, like the one at Lindos, is closed for Easter. We navigate a maze of poorly marked one-way streets at Archipoli and finally make it to Hepta Piges (Seven Springs) at twilight. But we abandon the attempt to see the Valley of the Butterflies after dark.
