I never got to Mount Athos
Snowy Monastery of Saint Gregory: The Monks Play Snowball Fight Like Little Children and Enjoy the Snow
The Holy Monastery of Saint Gregory is located on the SW side of the Athos Peninsula, built on a rock at a height of 30 m from the sea. It is one of the 20 monasteries of Mount Athos state and one of the 6 rock monasteries that were rebuilt and renovated on the rocks to have natural protection from pirates.
https://www.greecehighdefinition.com/blog/snowy-monastery-of-saint-gregory
D and I talk about what it was like in high school, how you can feel then, bad, etc. I really wasn’t in the best condition. But I wasn’t depressed. I kind of went a different way.
In the summer of ’85, I had dropped out, definitely. I went on a pilgrimage through Europe. The destination of the trip was the monk sanctuary mount Athos. I don’t know what my plans were, I just wanted to see the place. But the ferry that went there didn’t want to let me on board because I was too young. So spent the evening with a tricky unhappy Dutchman at his tent, I remember.
I saw that trip anyway. Le Corbusier’s magnificent chapel in Ronchamp! Lourdes is one of those places of pilgrimage on the border between France and Spain. Paris, of course. Talked to a guy on a train who was going to enlist in the Foreign Legion, to get away from his criminal life. From the police too, perhaps.
Findhorn Gardens in England. Stonehenge. Holy Island and Iona. Loch Ness, a damp, enchanted evening. Met some American who went there every vacation, stayed in a hotel, and after breakfast he took the car to a parking lot with good views to look for the beast. London, sure, but I don’t remember.
A memorable trip. But sometimes I wonder what I could have done for myself as a teenager, if I had met him today.