~3 days left
Sunday, August 29th, 2021AD
Generally good day today. Liturgy this morning was outside and very pretty. It began to rain during the sermon before communion, so after receiving we all three pilgrims decided to go back indoors to our rooms as we were very cold. It turns out that the ἡγούμενος had invited us to lunch afterwards, so we were one course late. It was obvious that the ἡγούμενος didn’t care at all that we were late, but nia gvidanto was pissed off. Frankly that’s his problem.
Lunch was excellent, and afterwards the ἡγούμενος joked with us and gave us a lot of texts and some DVDs. Nia gvidanto made petty and shaming remarks after we left, but again — his problem. Nobody was offended except for him.
We made the first leg of the trip back to the Capitol today. It’s not that far away from the Way monastery and would be only a few hours drive but for the mountains in the way. The drive was like any other, fast and bumpy. We stopped for coffee right after leaving and for snacks around the golden hour (~5pm). My sister and I bought some tubes of chips, one paprika flavored and one “Texas barbecue”. The paprika one is unique to this part of the world as far as I can tell, but the Texas barbecue flavor was similar (but not equivalent) to what we have back home. When nia gvidanto saw that we had barbecue chips, he made some pretty uncalled for remarks about getting “traditional snacks” that you can’t get anywhere else in the world. In another situation I’d agree with him, but through the whole trip he’s been ensuring that we have basically only “traditional food”. He’s also one of these rightoid “muh freedom” guys, so it was bizarre to see him attempt to limit our freedom. I can’t wait to see the last of him at the Capitol Airport in a few days.
It’s all so tiresome.