I couldn’t find much information out there in English so I’m putting this online for anyone who needs it.

I am, of course, not responsible for any damage done to your device.
Information is derived from these sources, primarily copied and clarified from the first:

http://discuz.servehttp.com/viewthread.php?action=printable&tid=42863

http://www.droid-style.com/

http://freebiesno1.com/2011/11/user-root-an-increase-of-rom-lenovo-ideapad-a1/

a. Download ClockModRecovery. The direct link is http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AO4M7NKX (Decompress password is “http://www.droid-style.com”).
b. Decompress the zip file, and you will have these two files (Do not decompress them) “lepad-a1-rooter_signed.zip” and “update.zip” . Save the two zip files into the root folder of MicroSD card.

e. Shutdown the Pad.

f. Turn on the Pad by holding “Power” + “Volume down”, wait until “Lenovo” logo disappears, hold buttons for around 10 seconds, and then release buttons.

g. Press “Power” + “Volume down” again and hold until you see a green Google App installation logo, then release buttons. You will see ClockModRecovery recovery mode.

h. Press and hold “Volume down” until you see “Back Menu Button Enabled” at the bottom.

i. Press “Volume down” to select “install zip from sdcard”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.

j. Press “Volume down” to “choose zip from sdcard”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.

k. Find and choose file “lepad-a1-rooter_signed.zip”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.

j. Find and choose “yes”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.
k. Find and choose “Go Back”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.
l. Find and choose “reboot system now”, and then press “Power” button to confirm.

If you need to install market, download the latest Google Apps package from http://goo-inside.me/gapps/gapps-gb-20110828-signed.zip (29 Aug 2011 version) and repeat the process.

Back in January, I met a Romanian woman named Romina online. We started corresponding and decided to meet when I was in Europe for the HCHC senior trip. After the trip ended, I flew to Romania and spent three weeks with her and her family. Things went brilliantly and we’re together now. After the three weeks were up, we didn’t want to say goodbye to each other quite yet so we visited the resort town of Sinaia together. Sinaia is a popular skiing spot, but it’s just as lovely in the summer. Romina and I spent three days there walking the hills, seeing the sights, and just being together.

When we finally had to part, I went alone to the city of Suceava. Nearby Sucheava are the painted monasteries of Buchovina. One of my seminary professors from Romania, Fr. Pentiuc, seeing on Facebook that I was in Romania, suggested I visit. It was out of the way, but worth the trip. I only spent two days in Sucheava before moving on to do the Camino de Santiago in Spain.

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It looked like a party. I thought it was a wedding, but I was told they just like to have fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elaborate houses of a gypsy neighborhood in a small village.

Later we visited a small, pretty little parish in the area.

Unique icon of St. Paul not bald. Maybe he'll bless this parish especially well for that.

 

Never seen an icon encircled by a rainbow before.

 

 

Horses in the village.

Several houses still had wells in front of them, even though most people had running water.

 

 

 

We went to the town of Sinaia for a few days.

And took a lift up a mountain.

Like a sea of clouds.

 

Just bragging.

 

 

 

 

Romina is not a common name, so we were surprised to find that another had been here.

 

 

 

 

At an outdoor barbeque restaurant. Good ribs that day.

Peles Castle from the lift.

 

Peles Castle, the former summer home of Romania's kings.

 

One of the hundred-plus year old houses of Sinaia.

The chapel of Sinaia Monastery

Bell tower.

 

 

 

Dome of the old chapel's exonarthex.

Inside dome of the old chapel.

Entry to the Solea

Horses and carts are still used in villages in Romania. This one was working in front of Sucevita Monastery.

The painted chapel of Sucevita Monastery.

 

 

 

Icon of the Ladder of Divine Accent.

Seraphim and cherubim.

 

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Stopped by the side of the road between monasteries.

 

 

At Moldovita Monastery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painting of the fall of Constantinople, just around 100 years after the fall.

 

 

 

 

At Voronet Monastery.

Icon of the Last Judgement at the front of the church. The entrance was to the side of some of the chapels.

 

 

 

 

 

The bull is the symbol of Bucovina Province, once it's own principality.

 

At Humor Monastery.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Taken from inside the bell tower.

 

 

Outside the monastery.

Traditional wooden Romanian houses.

 

Full album of the whirling dervish dance I attended my last night in Istanbul.

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The seven days I was in Constantinople/Istanbul was the most moving, exhausting, and colorful part of the pilgrimage. We arrived by bus and went for lunch at the Phanar. Then we visited the small Church of St. Nicholas, one of the 75 still functioning Orthodox churches (served by just 24 priests) in Istanbul. The single men stayed at the Halki Seminary on an island in the Bosphorus. Halki was closed in the 70′s and the Turkish gov’t refuse to allow it to be reopened. It still functions as a monastery where there is only a handful of monks and staff. The seminary was on top of a hill, and since there were no vehicles on the island the only way there was to walk or go by horse carriage.

During the course of the trip we visited a number of churches which had been turned into mosques, the most famous of which were Hagia Sophia and Chora. We also visited Agia Irini, a church which had been closed. It was on the grounds of the Topkopi Palace and had never been turned into a mosque. The church was opened on occasion for concerts, and the evening we visited the GOA Youth Choir was performing.

Our group had a very brief audience with H.A.H Patriarch Bartholomew, and we saw him several other times during services. Another highlight of the trip was, after a very long climb, we visited the Monastery of St. George on Princess Island. There was only a single monk who lived there. We arrived a little before it was time for vespers. Normally, he probably closed the chapel and did a reader service, as vespers cannot be done by a single priest. However, our group had several chanters, so he was able to do the full vespers service. He even left the doors open and several people, likely all Muslims, stayed to watch the service.

After that there was a trip to the Grand Bazaar where one of my classmates wives helped me buy a scarf for someone special, and the next day we left Halki for the last time. Except for me and one other person, all the rest of the group went to the airport to return to Boston or to go on to some other place. I planned to spend two and a half more days in Istanbul to catch up on the sights we didn’t get to see, and mostly to rest and just be alone for a little while before going on to Romania.  Now on my own, I spend a few lazy days visiting one sight per day and working on my photos. And eating and drinking whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it.

Those photos took me over a month to finish processing, but I have 242 brilliant pictures from this part of the trip. Descriptions and explanations are in the captions of several pictures. Enjoy!

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Lunch at the Phanar on our first day in Constantinople.

The Church of St. George, the Patriarchal Cathedral.

The relics of St. John Chrysostom, returned from Rome in 2004.

 

The relics of St. Basil.

 

Reliquaries of 3 early saints of the Church.

 

 

 

Sweet.

 

 

The Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George

The Shut Gate, the site where the Patriarch was hung after recognizing the Church of Greece after the Greek War of Independence.

The front of the Patriarchal office building. It's a very old wooden building, but it was refurbished recently.

 

 

At the Church of St. Nicholas.

 

 

 

 

 

The word 'Rum' is the Turkish word for Roman, the term that Turks use for Orthodox Christians.

The ruins of an iconostasis of a side chapel.

The gate of Sultan Mehemet.

At the port of Kalabas, where we went back and forth to Halki.

 

This church overlooked the ocean on one of the Princess Islands. It's in good repair and presumably functioning.

The old Orthodox School of Theology. The curriculum of this school was the basis of our own Holy Cross SOT.

A Greek store near the Phanar.

A minaret from a mosque overlooks the buildings of the Phanar.

The remnants of the post at which Christ was flogged.

One of the two oldest mosaic icons at the Phanar, dating from the 7th C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While many women dressed as western women, others still dress very conservatively, covering themselves completely.

 

A small church which had been turned into a mosque. It was still in use as such, but had a side section turned into a museum.

 

 

 

 

The altar area of the side chapel.

 

 

 

The famous icon of the Resurrection at the Church of Chora.

 

 

Icon of the Second Coming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a women's monastery. This stone contains writing with a hybrid Greek-Turkish language, written in Greek letters.

The chapel of the Monastery of the Lifegiving Spring.

 

The tomb of Patriarch Athanagoras of America.

The tombs of several past Patriarchs.

 

 

 

The restored ancient walls of Constantinople.

 

The village on the hill across from Halki Seminary

Patriarchal Liturgy.

The church had been in poor condition and was closed for several years for renovations. This was the first time in years that liturgy had been celebrated here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe it's the Church of Panagia of Vlahernon

Turkish man in traditional dress. A rare sight today in Turkey.

 

Police vehicle.

 

The cupula of Hagia Sophia.

 

 

 

 

The old graveyard near Agia Sophia.

The pulpit where St. John Chysostom once preached.

 

 

 

 

Biggest icon of a Seraphim I've ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At our audience with the Patriarch. Elleni sat by him so still the whole time.

At Vespers after the audience.

Agia Irini

 

There was a concern in honor of the Patriarch at the normally closed Church of Agia Irini.

The church is only rarely opened for concerts, so being there was a rare treat.

 

Sunday at the chapel at Halki seminary.

 

Archbishop Demetrius of America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Patriarch adored the two Spaliatsos girls.

 

Later at Halki.

Dcn. Rob and Julia.

Lunch with the Patriarch.

 

 

 

The old classrooms at Halki.

Library.

 

 

Later, we visited Princess Island.

There are no vehicles, so bikes and horse carriages are the only way to get around.

 

 

We hiked up to the Monastery of St. George.

 

 

Only one hieromonk lived there, but some from our group chanted.

Otherwise, there would have been no vespers, or just a reader service, that night.

Many left their crutches after being healed at the monastery.

 

 

 

Our last relaxing meal together.

At another church turned into a mosque.

 

 

 

 

 

In the basement were a couple of icons that had been uncovered.

 

The Grand Bazaar.

 

 

Hagia Sophia from the sea.

The Blue Mosque from the sea.

The Blue Mosque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At an outdoor cafe.

The entrance to Topkapi Palace.

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Just a few shots I took at the Whirling Dervish show.

The full album is on an adjoining page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the underground cisterns that run under the city.

 

 

 

 

 

The head of Medusa.

After Mt. Athos, we loaded onto the bus and headed off for Turkey. We stopped twice, once in a small city at a fairly decent hotel, and once in a very small town at a very nice hotel by the beach. At the first city, Kavallas, we arrived on the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul. Because this city was the first place where St. Paul entered Europe, and because he is the patron and protector of the city, the city goes all out to celebrate his feast day with an artoclasia and a stational procession from the chruch of St. Paul to the city cathedral. There were at least four bishops and over a dozen priests and deacons. My camera battery died at the start of the procession, but I borrowed a couple of point and shoots and got some more shots of the procession moving and the end. It was a brilliant night and one of the high points of the trip.
After that, we went to a hotel by the beach with a pool. We went for a swim in the pool and had a relaxing evening. The next morning, we were up early for the bus ride to Turkey.

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Priests gather before the service.

The Church of St. Paul

A girl in traditional Greek dress.

The vesting of the bishop.

 

 

 

 

Honor guard waiting outside the church.

 

A huge crowd waited for the procession outside.

 

The procession begins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The one in the middle seemed to be the highest ranking ecclesiarch, but I don't know his title.

 

 

At the end of the procession the bishop gave a blessing.

At a guess there were over a thousand people from this small town taking part in the procession, and even more watched it go by.

 

 

We left for Mt. Athos at 5am. I stayed up too late packing, but worse of all, there was music blasting from the theological school where we had taken Greek classes. Police are not allowed to go on college campuses, and if they had campus security they did nothing. After a restless sleep, we were on our way.

After the usual bus and ferry our group arrived on the Holy Mountain. We got off at Xenofondos Monastery. This was my first time at Xenofondos. I had been to Mt. Athos five years before. At that time, I went to ten monasteries and sketes, but never to any this far to the west. Xenofondos was smaller than many of the other monasteries I had visited. They didn’t seem to get many visitors. Other than us, there was one other small group of pilgrims and that was about all. We had an English speaking guide who took us on a couple of small tours. Outside the monastery walls there was a small stream where a miraculous icon of St. George was found.

We went to evening services and had a simple monastic dinner. Then, we went to bed early for a 4am liturgy. It was a feast day, so we had rice mixed with fish for breakfast. Afterwords, we loaded up and went to Keryes, the capital of the Mt. Athos community, to wait for another bus. It hadn’t changed much in five years, which was nice. The only difference I saw was that there were more consumer goods. I think they have more workers on Mt. Athos now, which is a good sign that more work is being done. Two cokes and some shopping later, we were on our way to Vatopedi Monastery.

I think most of the group agreed that we were at Vatopedi for too long. We were there for four days. The problem wasn’t so much the lenghth, but the monastery itself. They had a lot of visitors, and were very strict. We were asked not to move around much outside the guesthouse. We were questioned before we took communion about whether we had confessed. Worse of all, we couldn’t take photographs, although I found ways around that rule.

Those were the problems, but overall the stay was okay. The services were beautiful. There were two vigils, one very late one on Saturday. I tried hard to go stay for as long as I could, but I left early and, as our stay went on, I went later and later to morning services. I didn’t like doing that, because then I had to stand in the narthex. I couldn’t understand the Greek chanting, so seeing what was happening was a big part of the experience for me. Without that, I just had hearing the beauty of the melody, which was still enough. We went on several tours of the monastery and I saw a lot more than I usually did when I was going from one to another the last time.  We went on a tour outside the monastery and I got permission to take pictures. I also took a few from the vantage point of the courtyard, so I was satisfied with my picture taking.

It was hard staying up in our room all afternoon for four days, but I think I got to know all the guys a lot better. OVerall, I think I had a good stay. It was different from the first time I went, but I’d say it was equally good. On the last day we took off on the fast boat for the port.

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On the boat on the way to Mt. Athos.

Oranapolis from the boat.

Several seagulls followed the boat.

 

 

 

 

Ruins of an old monastery.

 

 

 

 

A small hermitage.

 

 

 

Xenofondros Monastey

The deacons took all took to bridge.

Inside Xenofondros.

 

 

 

There was a spring outside the monastery where an icon of St. George was found. A small chapel was built there.

Dcn. Rob looks over the water at sunset.

 

 

 

 

At the gate of Vatopedi Monastery there were paintings of early Greek philosophers. This is Plato.

Sophocles

 

 

The sculls of reposed fathers of the monastery are piled near the grave yard where they await the resurrection. While it may seem strange today, this is an old monastic practice.

 

We were asked not to take pictures inside the monastery courtyard. However we went on a walk outside and I took several.

 

By the docs there were several idiorhythmic sketes where monks live in small communities independently of the monasteries. They care for their own needs with little jobs, such as fishing.

A dependent chapel of Vatopedi.

Fr. Mathew, an American monk at Vatopedi who showed us around.

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This beehive chapel is in a small garden which was designed with the patronage of Prince Charles.

It's odd to see an English garden at a Greek monastery.

 

Workers tear up the old roof of a section of the monastery during renovations.

I did take some pictures inside the monastery from the guesthouse.

 

The courtyard and bell tower.

On the speed boat on our way off the mountain.

Esphigmenou Monastery. The only monastery on Mt. Athos not in communion with the rest of the Orthodox Church.

The tower at Esphigmenou flies the black "Orthodoxy or Death" flag

Ruins of an old monastery.

Thessaloniki was a good chance for us to settle down a bit. On the other hand, we’re still touring around twice a week. Plus, we’re taking Greek classes. These classes are just shy of awful. I taught language for 10 years and I’ve studied a language, so I know better than anyone just what we’re not getting. Plus, the air conditioner remote keeps getting locked up and the room is hot and stuffy.  Plus, there’s a lot of homework. I’m just short of giving up all together. I could barely pay attention today at all.

Now we’re going on twice weekly tours with a lady who is supposed to be famous and keeps referring to films she’s made and books she’s written. She gives highly, highly detailed tours that go on for hours. She also talks about aliens meeting ancient Greeks and how ancient civilization was destroyed by a nuclear blast.

The rest of my time was sent fixing my laptop, developing my pictures, and trying to study for my thesis.

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A small Orthodox chapel on our ship from Crete to Athens.

Vinnie and Elleni watch Mastermind on the bus from the port to Thessaloniki.

Mt. Olympus, not that impressive as mountains go.

The Church of St. Demetrius, patron of Thessaloniki.

Part of the wall of Thessaloniki from my hotel balcony.

An old priest outside his church.

The tomb of King Phillip II of Macedonia.

A spring outside a monastery we visited.

The right hand of St. John the Baptist, the hand he would have used to baptize Christ. I had already venerated the arm on Mt. Athos.

A cave where some saints of the monastery, including St. Gregory Palamas, dwelt.

Inside the chapel built into the mountain near the cave.

 

An old winepress on the monastery grounds.

 

We next took a trip to see a place where St. Paul is reputed to have preached. These steps are all that remain, there were once 13. St. Paul would have preached at the top.

 

Our first Sunday in Thessaloniki, we went to the metropolitan cathedral to see the ordination of the first native Fijian priest. Another was ordained the next day.

There have been frequent demonstrations in the city. At least three have gone by the hotel.

 

Wednesday we visited the crypt under St. Demetrius. This had been a Roman bath. When the church was built over it, it was used as a place to bury the dead.

 

 

 

View of the Rotunda from the city wall's fortress.

View of the tower.

 

Next we visited a monastery.

They kept peacocks.

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This is a remnant of a menaion that had been painted on the walls of the church.

 

Then we visited another monastery which was a world heritage site.

We walked back to the hotel because traffic was tied up during another protest.

 

This was was pretty big. It was peaceful here, but in Athens it got ugly.

 

 

 

 

 

On the bus again, on the way to Dion.

Located near Mt. Olympus, Dion was the center of pre-Christian Greek religion.

Our tour guide on all our tours in Thessaloniki was very knowledgeable and gave very, very detailed information in very long lectures.

Remnants of the temples and bath houses of Dion.

I believe this is a hereon.

The hereon in flight.

 

 

 

 

The bubbling of what's left of the natural hot spring that fed the bath house at this site.

 

 

Toilets

My favorite part were these mosaic floors.

 

Some of the patterns were largely intact.

Our second Sunday, we went to the monastery where Elder Paisios is buried, and where he put the relics of St. Arsenios.

The best part was that we happened to be there on the feast day of St. Paisios, so the tomb was open to the public.

Last protest we saw in Thessaloniki.

 

 

A bird sat next to me at Starbucks one day.

This little gypsy boy's family was always in front of a church begging.

The minaret of the Rotunda.

Taken on the last day of class.

After you’ve been traveling for a while, especially when you’re moving rapidly from one place to another, everything starts to blend together after awhile.

There was one important moment during our visit to Agina Island, when we visited the monastery where St. Nektarios lived and where his relics are. We visit the room that he lived in during his time there. Our groups sang the hymn ‘Agia Parthene’ in front of the icon that St. Nektarios sat in front of when he wrote the hymn. I was so glad to have captured that moment on video, but the cheap memory card I was using failed and I lost it.

When we got back to Athens I got very sick. The next day I had a miserable trip up to the Acropolis in the heat. I decided to stay in the day we got to Crete. I started feeling a little better later, but didn’t fully recover until a few days ago.

When our time was up, we boarded another ship and left for the island of Crete.

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When we first arrived in Athens, we visited the cathedral of the city.

 

Not far away was an ancient church which had been built from stones taken from local pagan temples.

Some of the stones still had pre-Christian images on them.

 

The inside of the small church.

I couldn't decide which one I liked best so I kept both.

An overgrown apartment building.

Agia Dynamis. This tiny chapel is surrounded by a building in a busy part of town.

Protesters camp out at Syntagma Square. Our trip was disrupted slightly by demonstrations.

 

Street peddlers near Parliament.

At the port of Piraeus.

 

We waited to board a fast boat for a day trip to Agina Island.

 

 

 

We were there for a while.

 

Our vessel.

 

 

We arrived at the busy fishing port on Agina Island.

 

Many ports have a small chapel to St. Nickolas, patron saint of sailors.

The chapel of a small convent we visited.

Outside of the convent.

 

 

 

Next we stopped at the monastery where St. Nektarios had lived during his time in Agina.

The view St. Nektarios saw out his window.

We visited the small room where St. Nektarios lived. Our group sang the hymn 'Agia Parthene' in front of the icon St. Nektarios sat in front of when he wrote the hymn.

St. Nektarios' bad and couch.

Outside the monastery was a small mountain dotted with chapels. During the Turkish reign over the area several families moved up the mountain and built these churches.

Many of the small chapels are still kept up and are open.

 

Bell tower of the cathedral near the church.

 

Inside the cathedral there was an icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov. I rarely see one of these in Greek churches.

 

The coast of Agina Island

A temple to Athina in Agina.

A beautiful church overlooking the beach.

Another view of the chapel in the port.

 

Another day of protests in Athens.

 

This protest was big, but the one a week later was massive and turned a bit ugly.

Ancient monument seen from the Acropolis.

The Areopagus where St. Paul preached. When I was here 5 years ago, and again this year, I dedicated myself to becoming a good priest and preacher here.

Remnants of the temple to Athena at the Acropolis.

 

 

 

 

The Agora from the Acropolis.

 

We had a brilliant time on Crete, but it was here that it began to seem that things were speeding up and we were running from one place to the next. However, this part of the trip was very special for me. We visited a monastery that had been re-founded by a nun who was close to Elder Porphyrios, my spiritual grandfather (spiritual father’s spiritual father). I saw something for the first time, an icon of the elder. When we got back onto the bus I saw another student had bought a similar icon in the bookstore. I held up the bus while I ran back in the hot sun to buy one for myself. I got there just as the nun who kept the store was leaving. As I ran back to the bus, I had the most perfect fall I’ve ever had. The lace of one shoe got caught on the buckle of the other. I pitched forward and fell flat on the ground. I skinned up my elbow and had a headache for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. The monastery was nice otherwise, there was a very old icon screen which is usually closed off but they let us in to venerate it.

We met with one metropolitan and later the Archbishop of Crete. Unlike most of Greece, Crete is not part of the Church of Greece. It is an eparchy directly under Constantinople, just as the GOA is. That’s why it has its own archbishop.

The Archbishop saw us off at the port, which was quite a surprise. Someone said it would be like Arb. Demetrios see off a group of Cretan travelers to the US.

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Anton puts Pavlakos' pants on over his sorts before we go to a monastery.

 

 

 

This picture is a mess, but I wanted to show it. This is the first time I saw a woman (here a nun) carrying the candle.

Relics in a side chapel.

 

We visited a small church the Sunday we were on Crete.

 

A rare icon of a cherubim.

A small chapel to St. Nickolas near our hotel.

At the Monastery of Chrystopigi.

 

A very old icon screen. It is usually closed off but the nuns let us venerate the icons.

 

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The chapel from the rear.

The nuns painted their own icons. This is from a chapel they were painting themselves.

 

 

This was a first for me, and icon of Elder Porphyrios.

 

Inside the church of the four matrys of Ierakleon.

 

A miracle working icon in a small chapel in the city.

 

 

Our group met with one of the metropolitans of Crete.

A chandelier from the bottom.

Dr. Patitsis and John ran for water into a store with the name of another of our school's professors.

Lunch on the road.

 

 

Yet another monastery we stopped at. This one was part museum because an important battle with the Turks had taken place here.

 

 

I love this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Demonstrators camped out in Crete.

We visited the archeological site of Knossos. This is a stone with a double-headed ax, a symbol of the Minoan culture.

Part of the ruins of the Minoan palace.

 

 

 

 

One of Europe's earliest roads.

Elleni made friends with everyone on the trip.

Visiting another monastery.

 

An icon of the seraphim

 

This tree is said to have grown around an icon and has healing properties and can also help women conceive.

Before we left Crete we met with the Archbishop of Crete.

The next day, the Archbishop actually came to see us off.

Paris was an amazing experience, and a bit of a surprise. We had been told we’d be going ‘somewhere’ in Europe before going on to Greece, but we didn’t know where. It turned out to be Paris. After Rome, Paris was my second choice.  It was great because did this first so I wasn’t exhausted from traveling yet, as I now am, and it’s just a beautiful city. Since I am with a tour group, we had, as is common with these groups, to see everything at a dead run. However, unlike our travels in Greece we got a little more free time  to walk around on our own.

The Louvre was, I thought, the best part. Some of the best exhibits were packed with people. In front of the Mona Lisa was a small sea of humanity pushing and shoving their way to the front to take photos with expensive cameras with hundreds of settings which they leave on ‘Auto’. Why would anyone want a photograph of the Mona Lisa or any other painting or sculpture? Look at it while you’re there. If you need a picture later google it. I did have a funny experience, all the bad-mannered, pushy Chinese tourists reminded me of going to McDonald’s while I was living in China. I really wish I had taken a picture of people taking pictures. Why didn’t I think of that?

The Sunday we were in Paris we went to the parish of our tour guides. It was a small church and one of the first established by the Russian community in Paris. The unusual icons were done by the famous iconography Leonid Ouspensky. Elder Sophrony, Nikolai Berdyaev and Vladimir Lossky were also connected with this parish during their time in Paris.  Many of the Russian churches in Europe after the revolution came under the Church of Constantinople, such as the huge Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, but this small one is the under the Moscow Patriarchate. It look like a massive cathedral will be built near the Eiffel Tower soon. ARTICLE Since I was there for a Sunday liturgy I didn’t try to take any pictures. They gave us a nice book to remember the trip by, though.

See the pictures below for full commentary.

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We started with a prayer at the chapel, saying goodbye to some friends and loading up the vans.

 

 

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Then we loaded up on were on our way.

 

We arrived in Paris and spent a lot of time in the subways.

The Russian Orthodox community has a few parishes in Paris.

Inside a large Catholic church, the Russians have a small chapel with the relics of St. Helen.

We were fortunate to be in the city while they were having a service for the saint.

 

 

 

The subways were crowded...

...but provided their own entertainment.

The Louvre.

 

 

Reading at a cafe outside the Louvre. I got at least one picture of myself. I hate having pictures of myself standing in front of stuff.

From a window of the Louvre. Just a random gov't building.

Arc de Triomphe. Because, you have to take these pictures or people will ask why you didn't.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

Awesome, right?

 

 

 

 

Street entertainers in a street of eateries.

The church where the relics of St. Genevieve are kept.

St. Genevieve is a pre-schism Western Christian saint.

Her relics are known for healing the sick.

After the revolution, many Russians came to Paris and 'rediscovered' St. Genevieve. She was eventually added to the calendar of saints.

 

She had one connection to the East, St. Symeon the Stylite had heard of her and wrote to her.

 

 

I lost the group I went to the Eiffel Tower with, but I decided to go to the top by myself.

It's way, way up there.