Kastoria

Kastoria is a beautiful city by a lake in Northwestern Greece.
We went there last weekend with the Teachers' Association Drama Club invited by the local Teachers' Association to present our adult play, Griothesia.
The weather was fantastic all Spring and beauty!
That's what I was reading on the way.The story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. An excellent read so far with great insight on dogs!

We decided we should do some sightseeing  since we were visiting the area.
Our first stop was at Dispilio a 5.500 BC settlement.

We found the settlement very interesting with all the constructed huts and the birds in the lake.

This amazing wooden inscription of 5260 BC is one of the amazing finds in the area.

The group of actors and actresses accompanied by partners and children!We make a great team!

This little clay bird whistle (lalitsa) I bought there to remind me of our visit!

We then settled to our hotel Tsamis

We had a great view of the lake from our room!

And there were swans and ducks and geese in the lake!

This is the poster of the play and the whole event.The money collected was given to charity.
The theatre at Argos Orestiko where we played was of amazing quality!

And the play was a success once again!

After a great dinner we had a very good night's sleep.

The next morning we continued sightseeing.We went round the lake.

We visited Panagia Mavriotissa Monastery.

The lake was filled with birds.We saw pelicans and swans.

We then visited the Cave of the Dragon which was spectacular!

We then walked around the old part of the town of Kastoria with its amazing Byzantine churches.

This one was open too.

The view from the top of the hill was stunning.

And so was the flora all around the area.

We found a small ceramics shop while walking and I had to see what they made.It's the
Archeo Art Gallery 

And this was one of the pieces I bought.

We then had an hour free for coffee by the lake and what a coincidence to meet my niece Olia and her husband Polys!So we had coffee together and it was so great meeting them again!

Final stop was at a restaurant by the lake called The island of the cormorants.

The food was ok but what really impressed me were the birds all around.

I even managed to catch a glimpse of the taking off of the pelicans!

I hadn't been to Kastoria for 25 years and I really loved visiting it again!I really want to go back!

On the way back all the trees were blooming and the pinks and purples of the flowers were superb but I wasn't able to catch the real colours with my camera.

What I brought back apart from beautiful pictures!

And this was a gift from my friend Irene who makes beautiful handcrocheted gifts!

You can find them here and at Doroiko shop!

Hopefully we will manage another trip like that with the drama team!