Showcase Sunday: Holy camping!

Well it's Sunday again, steem is still alive and I am refreshing your memory with one more use of the #showcasesunday tag, an idea of @nonameslefttouse meant to revive old posts. This one is about a hike pretty different than my usual ones and I originally posted it at Apr 17, 2018, here.

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This post is about how a bunch of people found ourselves on the top of Kapsas mountain in Crete, during August’s full moon! The altitude is 900m (2.953 ft) and the reason is this isolated St. John’s little church!

The following morning a priest was going to come (hiking!) to perform a service and since this happens only once a year it is an excellent excuse for a little celebration!
So as the tradition demands, the people of Lastros (the nearby village) are spending the night on the mountain waiting for the priest! This involves food, music and raki (locally brewed spirit), under the stars!

The night was so bright that when everyone fell asleep I couldn’t resist to take some more shots of the magically peaceful scenery! The lights far away are from the city of Agios Nikolaos.

The church is on a plateau that used to be cultivated with vineyards and fruit trees. The villagers had built small houses and they produced excellent wine. Not any more.

Everything is abandoned, the vineyards are gone and only a few trees are still standing, brutally eaten by the goats that occupy the place now.

In front fragments of a long gone past. At the background the future.

Shortly after the sunrise the priest and more people from the village arrived for a short service that concluded with traditional sweet bread and some more raki!

At the descent I was thinking about the unfortunate fate of the plateau and the breathtaking beauty of the mountains!

In less than an hour we approached Lastros, the most beautiful village of the world!
Or am I just saying that because it is my home village?

All the pictures and the words are mine.

Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.

Commenting, upvoting and resteeming are highly appreciated!