Evening Walk At Exarchos

One day last August, I was in Exarchos (in the Phthiotis Prefecture) and woke up early in the morning and took some photos which I published here, Morning Walk In Exarchos Village. Over the Easter (Orthodox) weekend in 2022, I took quite a few evening walks, including one on Saturday, April 23rd. The weather was wonderful and the sun was bright!

Saturday of the Easter Weekend is an important day in Exarchos – not just for the Church celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection that begins before midnight, followed by lighting candles, fireworks, and lots of “Chronia Polla” along with “Anastesee” and other Greek sayings I don’t remember. It’s also a very important day to prepare for the festivities that will take place on Sunday.

These festivities include lots of traditional Greek music, dancing, alcohol, and lamb barbecues, Greek style. As I ventured out on my walk, one of the first things to see was the big pile of bundles of tree branches recently cut:

In front, and parked right in the middle of the small square made by the way the houses were built, was the Greek style portable barbecue:

If you look close, you’ll see there are wheels on this unit; it’s towed behind a truck or tractor from a field where it’s stored, to any place you want to have a very large barbecue that might include 10 lambs on rotisserie rods. More about that in another post with photos!

I continued on my walk and walked right out of the village! Honestly though, you can walk in almost any direction and in five minutes or so, if you’re walking briskly, you’ll be can be out of the village. You can also walk briskly for ten minutes to be in another part of the village. All depends on which roads you take.

I decided to take the road that eventually goes north toward the Livadia-Atalanti (pronounced “Ataladi”) Rd. The one we generally take when traveling to Exarchos. In the springtime, there is a lot of green – and some have remarked how parts of Greece can look like Ireland, especially when there is a lot of green. But in the hot summer months, it is not so green as this:

Greece Graffiti

You can’t really get away from it – in Athens, much is covered with graffiti, but anywhere you travel in Greece, you’ll find it – even at ancient monuments and sites. Exarchos is no exception, although it is possible who ever owns this place agreed to the graffiti type of “art” on their building. As you approach the village, it’s one of the first things you’ll see:

Moving on further though, and at this time of the year, you’ll see poppies. A LOT of poppies! Poppies growing in fields and along the road. It’s a very pretty sight for sure. This is not a great image but for now, it gives an idea of what you might see in the way of poppies in Central Greece:

There is another plant that flowers at this time of the year – Easter time, and has the related name here that sounds in English like “Pas-halia.” Sometimes written as Paschalia, it is a type of lilac. The one I saw had an abundance of flowers and the way it draped the rock looked really nice in my eyes:

After walking about 2 km, I decided to turn around and head back. As you approach the village of Exarchos from this road, this is the view that meets the eye:

There is another road into Exarchos which I have also walked and at some point may post photos of that view as well.