"Holy Mountain of Athos is a place out of time, a slice of history that might have never existed. Here, even the calendar is different from one used by the rest of the Greece. For most of its existence this tiny peninsula was an island of tranquility in the turbulent sea of everyday life. It is a spiritual sanctuary and one of the holiest places within Orthodox Christianity. Holy mountain of Athos, is a monk republic, autonomous within the borders of Greece and administered directly by the Universal patriarch of Constantinople." - Steven Perez from Bookmarklet