Tsepelovo

Hello everyone and happy new year again!
Greece is under a Siberian cold attack and we are all inside the house trying to keep warm.
Yesterday at night it was the coldest night in Thessaloniki for the last 45 years.
We now have -8 degrees but you feel it as -18 as it is blowing hard but we have no snow.
What we also don't have is hot water as the pipes are frozen. At least we still have cold water and heating.My heart goes to all those people around the country, mainly refugees who are in tents under such circumstances.As well as to all those people travelling in frozen roads. Just return home safe!
Anyway as you can see by the title of this blogpost I am going to tell you about our 3-day trip to Tsepelovo, a mountainous village near Ioannina.
The 3-day trip became a 2-day trip in the end,in fact we only stayed at Tsepelovo two nights and one and a half  day because of the weather but I still don't mind. It was enough to see how beautiful the place is and the whole area around it and decide to go again in Spring or Summer.
So we started on Wednesday 4th in the morning.
Although we started with sunshine,

 it soon turned into rain

and we even saw snow on the way.

On the way I wrote a letter

and read a bit on my book Malkin Moonlight by Emma Cox.

The last 30 km of the route are on the mountain with beautiful plants and trees,

 and bridges like this bridge called Captain Arkoudas bridge.

We loved crossing it.

 We also crossed the bigger one,Kokkoris bridge.

As we were arriving at Tsepelovo the weather got worse.

 Finally we arrived at 4 in the afternoon. This was what we saw first.

We had booked at Hotel Kadi so we settled there first. It was just around the corner from the village square. A beautiful clean building.

Here's our room

 and the view from it.

Then we went for a short walk in the village.Unfortunately everything was closed, the gallery,

 the church, the photography museum

 so really there was nothing to see but walk around the beautiful square.

 There was a Christmas tree and a nativity scene

and a huge Santa outside a hotel.

We decided to take our hotel owner's advice and had lunch at Mikri Arktos

It is a beautiful clean restaurant with excellent food.

 The food was delicious.We had the special dish with pork, potatoes and cheeses, beans with green leaves, cabbage and carrot salad, and feta cheese.

Afterwards we took some rest during which fog spread everywhere.

When it cleared we walked around again spotting beautiful things although it was raining heavily.

Then we went for dessert to Iris cafe and dessert shop.It is beautiful inside out.

 The lemon pie and the orange pie were divine!

The next morning the weather seemed to clear a bit more so we hit the road!
Our first stop was at Rongovou monastery which was also closed because it is being renovated.

There we had trouble as the car took a slide at mud but luckily it wasn't very serious.
Our next stop was Kapesovo village.

 I still don't know why I didn't get inside this lovely looking shop and cafe called Sterna, I will definitely next time!!

 The square was lovely too. But we went inside an old cafe to see their old well.

Then we visited the 1865 built Kalogeriko-Plakida bridge.

 There I had the chance to take some macro photos.

We also visited Kipi village (it means gardens)

Then we visited the 1764 built Lazaridi-Kondodimou bridge which had a surprise for us as the river passing underneath it was frozen.

Look at this stone, doesn't it look like it floats?

And look at this heart stone there in between two layers of ice!One on top the other on the bottom!

I loved the diverse plants in the area.

Our next stop was Dilopho village with a most beautiful square.

These boots are made for walking!I am glad I bought new boots before going to the trip.

As it started raining again we decided to stop our tour and return for late lunch at the same restaurant.This time we tried boar and spinach pie.

 We returned to the hotel and spent some time looking around at the books of the beautiful bookcase in the living room of the hotel.What an asset for a hotel that is.

 Again in the evening we went to the same cafe and had coffee and lemon pie as well as ekmek.

 The next morning we had a surprise. It had snowed at night and everything was white. Although that looked great as a view it was a problem for us. So we decided to leave as the weather forecast predicted more snow and very low temperatures.

 The road was white and we were probably the first or second car to go down the 30 km of dangerous road to the highway.

Here's a video to see how we drove on this road.

The highway was no problem.There was no snow on the road but everything was snowed all around. It was -6 all the way and very windy but thank God we arrived safely!

All in all it was an excellent 2-day trip! I really want to go back there under better conditions.
Returning to Thessaloniki the weather got even worse and the low barometric "Ariadne" causes great trouble. It is windy and very very cold in our city, it has been snowing in other parts of Greece, the refugees are in tents under snow, schools are closed, there is no water or electricity in many parts.And it seems that it isn't ending soon! Hope you are safe and warm in your part of the world!