Waterfalls and Roadside Jesuses

Edessa, Greece

While I recovered from the mysterious illness, we stayed in a hotel in Edessa. It wasn't exactly on our way, as we were planning on going from Thessaloniki straight to Delphi, but it did provide a good few days of relaxation. 

On the morning we left, we went to see Edessa's waterfalls. The one above was the biggest and the closer you walked to the bottom, the more mist you were buffetted with. Those posing for photos before it had their hair soaked from the flying water, which provided a laugh. 

This is a roadside shrine. It's a crappy one. We did see worse, but Greek roads can get treacherous and pulling over can seem impossible at times. I remember distinctly seeing an even crappier shrine that had used to be painted black, and I made a song for it with the tune of Paint It Black. We nearly crashed because Yannick's eyes were streaming from laughter. Oh yes, I am so terribly funny. 

Clearly a better shrine, it's made to look like a tiny church. I couldn't help but imagine children playing with their dolls in it, and then realising that it wasn't children who utilised it, but grown ups. We weren't really sure what was inside. Some had pictures of Jesus and water bottles (holy water?), while some had jars and candles.

I hope you're grateful I went to the trouble of getting this photo - the grass was very dry and pricked my feet. I suppose I could have used a photo from google and you wouldn't have known the difference. Ah well, the worst bit was seeing a good shrine and saying "stahp!" but it was too late to stop. I believe this happened every day for a week and we only got this photo on our last day in Greece. 

On a related note, the ferry from Greece back to Italy took so long that when we thought we were in Italy,we were actually just at a different port in Greece. We were preparing to disembark when we looked out the window and said "You know, that looks an awful lot like Greece." 

I now quote an email I sent to a friend: "Now we're back in Italy after a bloody 22 hour ferry ride. It was meant to be 16 hours (grumble Greek ferries mumble). I will miss the taverna food, but not having to put my toilet paper in a bin." More on those points later.