Do you have a favorite place you have visited? Where is it?

Yes, there’s such a place. I’ve visited it twice, and if I’m lucky, I plan to revisit it many times more in the future.

This place is called Tinos; it’s an island in Greece. The spot I love there is the church called “Holy Church of the Virgin Mary Evangelistrias.”

The church is built on a high hill, and outside around the building, there are seating opportunities made with marble that look like one long, continuous bench.

The first time I visited that church was in October 2012, and I remember someone telling me that if I go once, I will want to revisit it yearly. I can say he was 100% right.

When I sat on that bench outside the church from high of the hill, overlooking the dark blue of the Aegean Sea, the sun shining brightly from the clear blue sky, seagulls flying happily around, and the church with its innocent white color, it was the only place so far that conveyed to me a unique feeling of peace, completion, confidence, and being one with a higher heavenly power.

The second time the Evangelistrias church was in June 2014, before I left Athens and moved back to my hometown, Xanthi, which is in the North of Greece and very far away from Tinos. Since then, I haven’t visited Tinos anymore, but I hope and pray to have the opportunity to do that trip very soon.