Greetings, travelers and dreamers!
When someone says the magical work "Greece" I bet the most of you instantly imagine blue seas and skies, small islands with whitewashed houses and cozy beaches or luxury but calm hotels with endless almost private beaches.
Well, let me surprise you by telling you about my short visit in the mountain village of Metsovo in the Western part of Greece. This was early June and it was a planned stop on our way back from the photo travel to Albania. Indeed, Metsovo felt quite differently from all other Greek villages, towns and cities I have ever visited. What the usual online maps will not tell you about it, is that it is very high up in the mountains. So once you turn from the E90 highway, there will be plenty of scenery views while your vehicle "climbs" up the steep road towards the village. Our guide told us the village is a famous ski resort in the winter (I have to admit I didn't know there are any ski resorts in Greece as it is very hot there, as you've heard), so I was quite surprised by that fact. But at that altitude, it seemed absolutely possible. So I hope to be able to visit the village in the winter, some day. I guess the views will be quite non-typical for Greece and I will definitely make some nice landscape photographs.
Here is a high-angle view from the Southern outskirts of the village and you could see a bridge from the highway down below.
I instantly fell in love with the architecture there. The roof stone tiles always remind me of the summer vacations I had spent in the village of my grandma and grandpa, a few decades ago. Lots of unforgettable memories.
The typical wooden electrical poles in Greece that always stun me :)
Also something that is very typical for the Balkans architecture when the second stories of the houses go a bit over the narrow streets between them. This is a view from one of their main streets:
Each house has its own unique style and yet somehow all the houses feel in sync, following and embedding some similar elements. So much green, "wrapping" some of the house toughly :)
Yes, Greeks definitely know how to decorate and beautify their houses and yards, even when they are not so big. Or they don't exist. Beautiful earthen pots or such made from old wine barrels now housing blooming flowers. It felt so nice walking those silent streets and breathing in deeply the floral aromas...
As you could possibly tell, it was a hot spring day but the air was so clean and fresh. More stunning views with one of the best color combinations, green and red :) The blue sky with few puffy white clouds only compliments the picture, isn't it? A feast for the eyes!
Few more perspectives with details from the local architecture:
Stone and wood. Beautiful and I am sure, it keeps the warmth inside the house in the winter.
Now can you guess if I touched that wall? :)
It wasn't only a feast for the eyes. Listening to the church bells chime under the shadow of a huge sycamore tree was simply divine.
That was next to a small but quite pleasant park, surrounded by other beautiful houses and souvenir shops. Ah, I almost forgot to tell you that I bought from there a bottle of pomegranate liquor, it was very aromatic and delicious :) Gone too soon, unfortunately :D
Quite an interesting coat of arms above the entrance of that building:
More of those views with stone-tiled roofs I like so much:
And here is how the biggest square looks like, of course, with the street shops for the tourists and the barbeques tempting you to enter the taverns:
It was unavoidable, we spent an hour in one of them taverns. I would like to share another thing, typical for Greece too, the food everywhere is amazing, prepared skillfully and extremely delicious! There are, of course, few dishes that are specific to this lovely village, I've got to try them!
Thank you :) When I was planning this post, I went to check for 
The only thing I didn't like at that day was the fact we only had few hours here because we had to drive back home another 500 km, crossing a border too... Time to go...
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