C'est un blog

I recently spent one night in this town.

sunset from hotel window

Arrival: I drove in from Ioannina, the largest town in the region, from where I rented a car. To travel around this part of Greece, a car is certainly very useful.

Church/Medieval Castle/Aiminadia Peak: At this curve in the road, I saw the sign to a medieval castle, together with a couple of parked cars so I thought I’d stop too and have a gander. I walk along the path and what do I get to is not a castle, but a church.

me and my mad selfie skillz (view from church)

Nevertheless, the trail continues through the churchyard, so onwards I proceed. Eventually I do find some ruins, which must be the castle the sign is talking about, and still no sign of anyone from the other cars. The trail continues to go upward, and eventually heads to Aiminadia Peak (and beyond), though I don’t know this at the time. Not being prepared for a long hike I return back to the car and the heavens open shortly upon returning.

Road Trip: When the weather clears, I’m sitting in my hotel room listening to the Kiwis roll the Poms on TMS. As enjoyable as that is, it’s not what I’m in Greece to do, so I head out again, along some empty roads, first to Holy Monastery of the Virgin Mary Molybdoskepastos and then to Moni Agion Taxiarchon. The first of these monasteries is in active use, the second looks closed and for some reason has some decaying basketball courts. The best viewpoint I find here is in the town of Aidonochori.

Albania: Despite coming within 400m of Albanian territory, I didn’t enter the country. I’m not doing a very good job of visiting every country in the world.

Moni Panagias Stomiou: There is a hike from the stone bridge along the gorge to this monastery. As it is the most famous and most photographed tourist site in Konitsa, instead I’m going to throw out this image captured from a point along the hike and ask: Who built this wall? Why? How?

There are two routes to the monastery, the easy route and the difficult route, which was the road less travelled and worth taking in one of the directions. And as with the castle, there are trails going beyond the monastery for more serious hiking. And again that is another hike for another day (maybe even for you, dear reader, to undertake). Rather intriguingly, there was one point along the path to the monastery where a trail branched off with a warning sign not to proceed without the proper safety equipment. Is this a third route to the monastery? I don’t know – more research is needed.

Departure: The route out following the Sarantaporos river upstream is a beautiful drive.

Tortoises: No animals were harmed in the production of this blogpost. This is despite the passivity of the two tortoises I found just hanging out on the road that I had to slow down and drive around, as well as the stray dogs essentially doing the same thing (unlike other parts of Greece where cats rule, here dogs are in the ascendancy).

Epilogue (Vikos Gorge): My original plan was to visit this en route from Ioannina to Konitsa, but that was before I even checked the weather forecast. Low cloud and rain didn’t seemed about as far away from the ideal weather as possible, so this got punted to the end of my drive around the region. I returned to Ioannina via staying a night in the mighty metropolis of Vradeto, where I quite likely met every other person staying in the town that evening. That’s not zero people, there was the couple that owned the hotel (and plied me with liquor from a plastic bottle), the people that owned/worked at the restaurant and the two other guests at the hotel. About the gorge itself, it’s about a 30-40 minute walk from Vradeto to the viewpoint. This time, the hike does not continue further, but can still be made longer by starting before Vradeto.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Dominick, who visited this region before I did, told me about it and inspired this visit. (It seems very likely that Dominick had even more fun than me).

Xaco Taco (south of downtown, walking distance). A favourite. It’s good to be in a place again where you can get good Mexican food. Tacos are their main dish (including happy hour tacos between 3-5pm). Their bowls are a great value option, and I’ve heard good things about their margaritas as well. Thanks to Stephen for suggesting this on the first day. 5/5.

Cielito (Thayer St). If you want good Mexican food on a smaller budget then this is the place to go 5/5.

Coldstone Pizza (downtown). Best pizza in town. 5/5.

Quitos (Bristol). Seafood restaurant. Get there by cycling along the East Bay bike path. If you’re a long term visitor to ICERM, Recycle-a-bike is a good place to find a bike for the duration of your visit. They lose half a point because the salmon wasn’t quite worth full marks. 4.5/5.

Mokban (downtown). Korean restaurant. Easily the best Asian cuisine I’ve found in Providence. 4.5/5.

Antonios (Fox Point, or on Thayer St). Pizza by the slice. You want to go here only on Wednesdays, when the pizza is only $3.24/slice, otherwise you’ll pay through the nose. The Fox Point location is superior to the Thayer St one. Look for the square pizza with pepperoni and white dollops of cheese. 4/5.

Den Den (north of ICERM). Another Korean restaurant. I went here once early on and my memory is a bit hazy. Decent food, if not as good as Mokban. 4/5

East Side Pockets (Thayer St). Felafel (and other culturally similar foods). An inexpensive way to fill up. 3.5/5.

Jahunger Providence (Fox Point). Uighur cuisine. Only the second Uighur restaurant I’ve ever been to, so I’m expecting many people may not have had their cuisine. If that’s the case, you should try it and see if it’s for you. 3.5/5.

Congress Tavern (downtown). Look, you’re not here for the food, you’re here because it’s a bar and you’re hoping for a decent burger or similar while you drink. On that note, they do a reasonable job. One unusual thing they do serve is lobster nachos. And these are genuinely good, if you can stomach the steep asking price. 3.5/5.

Geoff’s Superlative Sandwiches (south of ICERM). Standard place to go for a sandwhich. Their menu is extensive, there’s a second blackboard with a beginner version if the first one is overwhelming. Surely you can find something you like here. 3.5/5.

Sura (downtown). Don’t bother going here. It’s not bad, it’s just that Mokban across the road is better. 3.5/5.

Livi’s Pockets (downtown). On the plus side, service was very fast. On the minus side, it felt like a lot of money for a wrap that wasn’t anything special. It’s the same owner as Livi’s Burritos in the same arcade., but the latter was closed so I didn’t get to try that. 3/5.

Baja’s Taqueria (Thayer St). We went for burritos here so I ordered a burrito. I think that personally this is the wrong thing for me to order at a Mexican place, so I’m not rating this one very highly. 3/5.

Filini’s I’ve had one very good slice of pizza here, one very ordinary slice, and half a sandwich that didn’t agree with me. Not worth hoping that you’ll find one of their better pizzas. 2.5/5.

Plant City (south of ICERM). As the name suggests, vegetarian. I had one wrap on their menu and decided that Geoff’s is preferable. 2.5/5.

Jolly Roger Cafe (south of ICERM). I went once here and didn’t vibe with the place. 2.5/5.

Cielito (downtown). Mexican food. I went once and felt I paid too much for a dish that wasn’t really all that tasty. 2/5.

The Malted Barley (downtown). Their main dish is pretzel sandwiches. Yes you heard that correct (the pretzels are the bread, not the filling). The only thing I consider worth eating here is their soup, and only if it’s the clam chowder. Anyway, you’re not here for the food, you’re here because of the trivia, but we learned that this isn’t even the right place to go for trivia – check out The Point Tavern in Fox Point instead. 1/5.

Dune Brothers (south of downtown) So the USA doesn’t seem to understand fish and chips. The price here is something like four times what it costs at home. Given the sticker shock, I went for something else and was seriously disappointed. 0.5/5.

Mala Noodles (Thayer St) This place is crap. 0/5.

Greg’s Breakfast and Lunch (by the Washington secondary trail) Back in my cycle touring days (which lasted until I put my bike on a Fung Wah bus and went home), I had a breakfast in the same set of shops as this place (I think not at Greg’s though). It was a great breakfast, meaning large or immense, but also not in the pejorative sense. So I went to Greg’s wistfully hoping for more of the same. The food was very standard American diner fare. What is really dragging down this review is the ambience. They were playing the radio, and their choice of radio station was a Christian station. Even if you took the lyrics away from the music, looking purely at the rest of the musical composition, it was the lamest possible music you’ve ever heard. I subscribe to the Red Symons rating theory where zero is not a lower bound. -1/5.

Track 15 (downtown) Track 15 is a glorified food court. Apparently the only option there that is edible is the Indian, but if you know me, you’ll know that that is not going to be my first choice of cuisine. They lose marks because when I ordered, I was asked for my phone number. That’s already completely inappropriate, but if the age/gender roles were reversed would be outright creepy. -2/5.