You guessed it: this post also begins with an early start! As previously mentioned, the hotel owner started breakfast early for another guest, so he made a bit extra for us. It had been a particularly sleepless night - I got up twice to check that the windows were really shut because the traffic noise was so loud I was sure the cars and trucks were driving through our bedroom. Seeing as we had only gotten to bed at 1.30am and would be getting up at 6.30, we had really wanted to crash had. This did not happen. At about 5.30 we got out our ear plugs and managed a bit of sleep (should have done this sooner, but too tired to even look for them until desperation set in.)
The alarm went off, we got ready and wearily shouldered our luggage and went down the 4 flights of stairs for breakfast. The other guests were already there, and we grabbed our continental breakfast of bread rolls, ham and cheese (some cakes and fruit too), watered down juice (as always) and scoffed it pretty quickly. We wrapped up a couple of little cakes and stashed them in our pocket for snacks later, and just as we were leaving I grabbed an apple and put that in my pocket too.
Checking out was merely handing the key over, and we were off and away towards the station, the area still smelling like pee. Our train wasn't until 8.20am, but because we hadn't been able to get tickets yet and weren't even sure there were any, we wanted to go early so arrived about 7.35am. I went up to the ticket counter, and in a matter of minutes I had two shiny tickets to Kalampaka, Meteora in my sweaty little hands.
I should clarify: Meteora is the big rock; Kalampaka (or Kalabaka, there are two spellings which are interchangeable it seems!) and Kastraki are the two towns at the base of the big rock. We stayed in Kalampaka as it was closer to the train station, but both are walking distance from each other and kind of blend anyway.
It was a pretty long train journey, about 5 hours, and our allocated seats were not only backwards but facing an old could who seemed to be taking up lots of space. My throat was still quite sore, and I was tired and grumpy. I managed to doze a little, but soon my legs and butt and knees were in agony from not being able to stretch them into the little old lady I was facing. There were so many empty seats on the train. I was also starting to get motion sick, so I got up for a stretch and a toilet stop, and when I came back I decided to just sit behind Dan (still facing backwards) so I could stretch out - and move if someone came on needing the seat.
After a little while, Dan joined me on the seat behind. At one point, I looked to the window next to me and noticed a bee had flown onto the vents below the window. As you may know, I hate bees. Well, more specifically, I am terrified of bees. It borders on a phobia - I know it's illogical, and I know bees are good for the environment and I never want to see one hurt, but I really, really, really don't want them anywhere near me. I go into fight or flight mode - and by that I mean just flight mode.
It moved, so I moved. I launched up out of my seat, tried to get past Dan's long legs, tripped right over his legs, sent my phone flying down the carriage and I came landing on the seat opposite. It really was quite the spectacle, and was pretty loud. Everyone look at me but I don't care. I collected my phone and my wits and warily watched the bee.
Dan grabbed a piece of card to try to coax the bee onto it and..I dunno? I thought maybe take it to the window or something? I was saying "Just leave it!" Which he should have, because the next thing I knew it was flying all around the carriage again, with me ducking every time it came close. It hit a man in the back of the head, before flying onto a curtain. At this point, he picked up a newspaper and smacked the bee until it was dead. I was very sad. I hadn't wanted it to be killed, just to be not near me.
Everyone seemed to think this was a great victory but I felt bad - if I had just stayed still it would still be alive. Stupid fear! Even I know it's stupid.
Soon the old people got off, as did most of the train - we weren't at Kalampaka yet so I was quite confused. Our train was running late, and a little while before we pulled into our stop an Indian couple started talking to us. They wanted to know about getting a taxi up to the top of Meteora to see the monasteries and then come back down. We said we had no idea as we would be hiking it, and he proceeded to tell us the details. They were only going to be in Meteora for about 4 hours so good luck to them! Later in the day, Dan and I wondered if they had ever made it up the rock or not...
Our stop! Off we jumped, and headed straight to the ticket station. We wanted to be prepared this time, and so asked the lady behind the counter if there were train tickets from Kalampaka to Thessaloniki for a few days time. She said there were indeed, but her systems were down at the moment. This was fine - at least there were trains running!
It was hot out here, and thankfully our hostel was only about a 5 minute walk away from the train station. Up a flight of stairs, of course, and we were met by a man bounding in energy who raced us through check in. Host El Greco calls itself a "eco friendly" hostel but I'm not completely convinced, also it said it had free breakfast but we had to pay, with the "money going to kids in Africa". Righto, no way to verify that this is where our money is going, and I was a little bit sceptical.
Anyway, our room was alright and we collapsed for a short while. The plan we formulated was: go to the supermarket to get snacks and supplies, go find a late lunch, and then in the evening go up Meteora (sounds easy when I type it like that!) and see the sunset from Sunset Point. We had googled the best photographic places along Meteora and Sunset Point wasn't toooooo far from us, as well as being one of the better places for it.
First things first: lunch. I was starving. I wanted something pretty fast and not very far away, although nothing in Kalampaka is too far away. I found a place called Taverna To Paramithi which got mixed reviews, but was also on our map so we would be able to get a free drink or free dessert. It looked pretty at least and the food was cheap. On the way we stopped at the supermarket, grabbed wine (of course) and some snacks for the hike, and made our way to the restaurant.
The ambiance was indeed very beautiful as we sat outdoors with a view of the rock, surrounded by jasmine plants. Our waiter was pretty grumpy and seemed really rushed - there weren't many people in there at this time (about 2.30pm) so there wasn't a huge rush to get food to our table. We ordered a variety of food: wine (of course), a Greek salad, stuffed tomato and stuffed capsicum, and a souvlaki plate, all to share. It was all pretty damn tasty - especially the stuffed vegetables! Another waiter came along with a smile, and I showed him the map and asked if the free dessert was still available.
Again with a smile, he left and grabbed for us a couple of baklavas with icecream, which was very tasty (I purposely asked that waiter instead of our other one!). We paid up (it was pretty cheap) and wandered back to our accom. We really needed a sit down after our big lunch and busy morning, and we had about an hour before we needed to make tracks, so it was really good to have a rest.
At about 5.30 we left, knowing that sunset was a bit after 8pm and we didn't really know how long it would take us to get up there. Donning our walking gear and lots of sunscreen, we headed out. Soon I realised we probably should have taken bug spray too, although we weren't attacked very badly at all in the end.
Consulting both the map we had been given and Dan's offline maps, we found the beginning of one path up to the mountains. It was paved with big uneven stones, but was a proper path none-the-less. One or two lone hikers passed us coming down as we were going up, which made me wonder if we were the only people heading up at this late hour of the day. It was pretty hot and sweaty, but we were climbing at a rapid pace.
We reached a GIANT rock with two arrows painted on it, saying "FOOTPATH". One path was the one we were currently on, which was quite clearly a path. The other was just steep rocks and rubble. Dan consulted the map, and said we needed to go up the rocks and rubble. I couldn't quite fathom that the maps called that a path, as it was pretty indistinguishable from the undergrowth, but we set on up it and not only did the little spot on the map move in the right direction, but we started coming across the little stone tower markers, which became a beacon to let us know we were going the right way as other people had crossed this path before.
The scramble was very intrepid, but it was fun, and we made really good progress. It would alternate being steep and flat, which gave us time to catch our breath, and admire the view. At one point, we reached a junction. I said to Dan, "Any idea which way to go, love?"
His reply: "Up."
Thanks darling.
We only made one wrong turn, but it took us to an amazing view point. Unfortunately there were a few extra bees and giant yellow-green beetles (that looked a little dung beetles/scarabs, they might have been!) which were looking ready to attack, so we hastily left. My shoes are pretty slippery so I didn't go at a very fast pace, but we made really good progress none-the-less. The path really wasn't a path - I continued to question whether we were going in the right direction until I would see another set of stone markers.
Soon, we landed on a big of an uphill clearing, and could clearly see Sunrise Point (not to be mistaken with Sunset Point) which is actually very close to Sunset point. Excellent! We had actually made it! We popped out onto the road and sat for a minute, surveying the view and congratulating ourselves for the trek. It had taken us about an hour from getting to the beginning of the walking trail.
Walking along the road, we stopped to check out Sunrise Point. It wasn't supposed to be quite as beautiful as Sunset point, so we took a few pictures and carried on. There were already a lot of people on this rock, and there were also a lot of people with their wine and picnics at Sunset Point when we got there too. We should have brought the wine that was sitting in the fridge! Nah, it would have been too hard to carry.
We walked along the rock and found a second level. Surprisingly, no one was sitting here, so Dan and I setup camp here. Even if we stood up, we weren't in anyone's view. A little uncomfortable perhaps, and we had to keep shuffling, but it was a great spot. Another few people ended up sharing it with us - but we of course had prime position.
Some American girls set up next to us; one was obviously quite interested in photography and had some serious kit; the other - far, far, far less so. We couldn't help giggling at their conversation. The non-photographer demanded a few pictures of the photographer, saying "Don't make me look fat. Does this make me look fat?" At one point, I leant over to her and told her that the strap on her top was twisted, saying "You've got to make the picture perfect!"
Later on, the non-photographer was trying to take pictures of the photographer, and she was clearly utterly hopeless. The photographer kept saying "How have you made this blurry?!" and there were many, many attempts. I think also the non-photography kept taking panos on her phone while trying to take a selfie - and there was a lot of giggling about that.
Dan and I took a tonne of photos here - it was actually quite hard because the sun was really bright and blowing out the sky. But we had plenty of time - we had arrived at about 7pm to this point, with sunset about 8.20, so had lots of time to practice. It was indeed very beautiful, to our left was one high rock face, in front, a valley, with a little rock in it. To our right, 3 of the monasteries perched precariously on the top of the rocks - we would be visiting some of these on the morrow. We ate a couple of the muesli bars we had brought as snacks.
The sun set, the valley turned from golden to blue, the sky turned pinkish and Dan and I needed to figure out how the hell we were going to get down. Dan thought we should take the road that we could see below, I wondered if we should take the path that we forewent for the steep rock climbing. We went with the road (the correct choice).
It took us about an hour and a half to get all the way down again - the road was winding but not very steep thankfully, and we occasionally had to go into the gutter to let cars pass, but we were generally the only ones on the road. There were no street lights so we were guided by moonlight, which was rather beautiful. As the light faded, we saw a few bats, and soon it was fully night time.
I remembered that my jacket has a reflective arm band, so we unravelled this from it's little hideaway pocket and instantly I felt safe on the road knowing that my arm would reflect our position and let drivers know where we were. (Also the fact my jacket is garish pink/orange probably helps too).
By going down the hill this way, we had to walk through Kastriki town before getting to Kalampaka, and at the base of the road we started coming across signs of civilisation. We contemplated getting some food at some point, but neither of us were hungry at all. As we were walking through Kastriki, a big black dog joined us for a stroll, being a bit of a guide doggy. It then wandered in front of a car and Dan and I both shouted out "DOGGY!" to try to get it away. Thankfully, all was well, the car passed and the dog trotted away.
At some point in Kastriki, everything was starting to complain (took a while!) so I crumbled and checked google maps - we were literally only 15 minutes walk from our accommodation, so I pep talked myself and we stumbled across the finish line.
Neither of us had any appetite, so we had nothing for dinner this night. We figured out our plan for the next day - would we take the bus up instead? We really tossed up this idea, but in the end decided a) we didn't want to be beholden to a time table and b) that's cheating - we were there to hike Meteora!
Til next time,
xxx
The alarm went off, we got ready and wearily shouldered our luggage and went down the 4 flights of stairs for breakfast. The other guests were already there, and we grabbed our continental breakfast of bread rolls, ham and cheese (some cakes and fruit too), watered down juice (as always) and scoffed it pretty quickly. We wrapped up a couple of little cakes and stashed them in our pocket for snacks later, and just as we were leaving I grabbed an apple and put that in my pocket too.
Checking out was merely handing the key over, and we were off and away towards the station, the area still smelling like pee. Our train wasn't until 8.20am, but because we hadn't been able to get tickets yet and weren't even sure there were any, we wanted to go early so arrived about 7.35am. I went up to the ticket counter, and in a matter of minutes I had two shiny tickets to Kalampaka, Meteora in my sweaty little hands.
I should clarify: Meteora is the big rock; Kalampaka (or Kalabaka, there are two spellings which are interchangeable it seems!) and Kastraki are the two towns at the base of the big rock. We stayed in Kalampaka as it was closer to the train station, but both are walking distance from each other and kind of blend anyway.
It was a pretty long train journey, about 5 hours, and our allocated seats were not only backwards but facing an old could who seemed to be taking up lots of space. My throat was still quite sore, and I was tired and grumpy. I managed to doze a little, but soon my legs and butt and knees were in agony from not being able to stretch them into the little old lady I was facing. There were so many empty seats on the train. I was also starting to get motion sick, so I got up for a stretch and a toilet stop, and when I came back I decided to just sit behind Dan (still facing backwards) so I could stretch out - and move if someone came on needing the seat.
After a little while, Dan joined me on the seat behind. At one point, I looked to the window next to me and noticed a bee had flown onto the vents below the window. As you may know, I hate bees. Well, more specifically, I am terrified of bees. It borders on a phobia - I know it's illogical, and I know bees are good for the environment and I never want to see one hurt, but I really, really, really don't want them anywhere near me. I go into fight or flight mode - and by that I mean just flight mode.
It moved, so I moved. I launched up out of my seat, tried to get past Dan's long legs, tripped right over his legs, sent my phone flying down the carriage and I came landing on the seat opposite. It really was quite the spectacle, and was pretty loud. Everyone look at me but I don't care. I collected my phone and my wits and warily watched the bee.
Dan grabbed a piece of card to try to coax the bee onto it and..I dunno? I thought maybe take it to the window or something? I was saying "Just leave it!" Which he should have, because the next thing I knew it was flying all around the carriage again, with me ducking every time it came close. It hit a man in the back of the head, before flying onto a curtain. At this point, he picked up a newspaper and smacked the bee until it was dead. I was very sad. I hadn't wanted it to be killed, just to be not near me.
Everyone seemed to think this was a great victory but I felt bad - if I had just stayed still it would still be alive. Stupid fear! Even I know it's stupid.
Soon the old people got off, as did most of the train - we weren't at Kalampaka yet so I was quite confused. Our train was running late, and a little while before we pulled into our stop an Indian couple started talking to us. They wanted to know about getting a taxi up to the top of Meteora to see the monasteries and then come back down. We said we had no idea as we would be hiking it, and he proceeded to tell us the details. They were only going to be in Meteora for about 4 hours so good luck to them! Later in the day, Dan and I wondered if they had ever made it up the rock or not...
Our stop! Off we jumped, and headed straight to the ticket station. We wanted to be prepared this time, and so asked the lady behind the counter if there were train tickets from Kalampaka to Thessaloniki for a few days time. She said there were indeed, but her systems were down at the moment. This was fine - at least there were trains running!
It was hot out here, and thankfully our hostel was only about a 5 minute walk away from the train station. Up a flight of stairs, of course, and we were met by a man bounding in energy who raced us through check in. Host El Greco calls itself a "eco friendly" hostel but I'm not completely convinced, also it said it had free breakfast but we had to pay, with the "money going to kids in Africa". Righto, no way to verify that this is where our money is going, and I was a little bit sceptical.
Anyway, our room was alright and we collapsed for a short while. The plan we formulated was: go to the supermarket to get snacks and supplies, go find a late lunch, and then in the evening go up Meteora (sounds easy when I type it like that!) and see the sunset from Sunset Point. We had googled the best photographic places along Meteora and Sunset Point wasn't toooooo far from us, as well as being one of the better places for it.
First things first: lunch. I was starving. I wanted something pretty fast and not very far away, although nothing in Kalampaka is too far away. I found a place called Taverna To Paramithi which got mixed reviews, but was also on our map so we would be able to get a free drink or free dessert. It looked pretty at least and the food was cheap. On the way we stopped at the supermarket, grabbed wine (of course) and some snacks for the hike, and made our way to the restaurant.
The ambiance was indeed very beautiful as we sat outdoors with a view of the rock, surrounded by jasmine plants. Our waiter was pretty grumpy and seemed really rushed - there weren't many people in there at this time (about 2.30pm) so there wasn't a huge rush to get food to our table. We ordered a variety of food: wine (of course), a Greek salad, stuffed tomato and stuffed capsicum, and a souvlaki plate, all to share. It was all pretty damn tasty - especially the stuffed vegetables! Another waiter came along with a smile, and I showed him the map and asked if the free dessert was still available.
Again with a smile, he left and grabbed for us a couple of baklavas with icecream, which was very tasty (I purposely asked that waiter instead of our other one!). We paid up (it was pretty cheap) and wandered back to our accom. We really needed a sit down after our big lunch and busy morning, and we had about an hour before we needed to make tracks, so it was really good to have a rest.
At about 5.30 we left, knowing that sunset was a bit after 8pm and we didn't really know how long it would take us to get up there. Donning our walking gear and lots of sunscreen, we headed out. Soon I realised we probably should have taken bug spray too, although we weren't attacked very badly at all in the end.
Consulting both the map we had been given and Dan's offline maps, we found the beginning of one path up to the mountains. It was paved with big uneven stones, but was a proper path none-the-less. One or two lone hikers passed us coming down as we were going up, which made me wonder if we were the only people heading up at this late hour of the day. It was pretty hot and sweaty, but we were climbing at a rapid pace.
We reached a GIANT rock with two arrows painted on it, saying "FOOTPATH". One path was the one we were currently on, which was quite clearly a path. The other was just steep rocks and rubble. Dan consulted the map, and said we needed to go up the rocks and rubble. I couldn't quite fathom that the maps called that a path, as it was pretty indistinguishable from the undergrowth, but we set on up it and not only did the little spot on the map move in the right direction, but we started coming across the little stone tower markers, which became a beacon to let us know we were going the right way as other people had crossed this path before.
The scramble was very intrepid, but it was fun, and we made really good progress. It would alternate being steep and flat, which gave us time to catch our breath, and admire the view. At one point, we reached a junction. I said to Dan, "Any idea which way to go, love?"
His reply: "Up."
Thanks darling.
We only made one wrong turn, but it took us to an amazing view point. Unfortunately there were a few extra bees and giant yellow-green beetles (that looked a little dung beetles/scarabs, they might have been!) which were looking ready to attack, so we hastily left. My shoes are pretty slippery so I didn't go at a very fast pace, but we made really good progress none-the-less. The path really wasn't a path - I continued to question whether we were going in the right direction until I would see another set of stone markers.
Soon, we landed on a big of an uphill clearing, and could clearly see Sunrise Point (not to be mistaken with Sunset Point) which is actually very close to Sunset point. Excellent! We had actually made it! We popped out onto the road and sat for a minute, surveying the view and congratulating ourselves for the trek. It had taken us about an hour from getting to the beginning of the walking trail.
Walking along the road, we stopped to check out Sunrise Point. It wasn't supposed to be quite as beautiful as Sunset point, so we took a few pictures and carried on. There were already a lot of people on this rock, and there were also a lot of people with their wine and picnics at Sunset Point when we got there too. We should have brought the wine that was sitting in the fridge! Nah, it would have been too hard to carry.
We walked along the rock and found a second level. Surprisingly, no one was sitting here, so Dan and I setup camp here. Even if we stood up, we weren't in anyone's view. A little uncomfortable perhaps, and we had to keep shuffling, but it was a great spot. Another few people ended up sharing it with us - but we of course had prime position.
Some American girls set up next to us; one was obviously quite interested in photography and had some serious kit; the other - far, far, far less so. We couldn't help giggling at their conversation. The non-photographer demanded a few pictures of the photographer, saying "Don't make me look fat. Does this make me look fat?" At one point, I leant over to her and told her that the strap on her top was twisted, saying "You've got to make the picture perfect!"
Later on, the non-photographer was trying to take pictures of the photographer, and she was clearly utterly hopeless. The photographer kept saying "How have you made this blurry?!" and there were many, many attempts. I think also the non-photography kept taking panos on her phone while trying to take a selfie - and there was a lot of giggling about that.
Dan and I took a tonne of photos here - it was actually quite hard because the sun was really bright and blowing out the sky. But we had plenty of time - we had arrived at about 7pm to this point, with sunset about 8.20, so had lots of time to practice. It was indeed very beautiful, to our left was one high rock face, in front, a valley, with a little rock in it. To our right, 3 of the monasteries perched precariously on the top of the rocks - we would be visiting some of these on the morrow. We ate a couple of the muesli bars we had brought as snacks.
The sun set, the valley turned from golden to blue, the sky turned pinkish and Dan and I needed to figure out how the hell we were going to get down. Dan thought we should take the road that we could see below, I wondered if we should take the path that we forewent for the steep rock climbing. We went with the road (the correct choice).
It took us about an hour and a half to get all the way down again - the road was winding but not very steep thankfully, and we occasionally had to go into the gutter to let cars pass, but we were generally the only ones on the road. There were no street lights so we were guided by moonlight, which was rather beautiful. As the light faded, we saw a few bats, and soon it was fully night time.
I remembered that my jacket has a reflective arm band, so we unravelled this from it's little hideaway pocket and instantly I felt safe on the road knowing that my arm would reflect our position and let drivers know where we were. (Also the fact my jacket is garish pink/orange probably helps too).
By going down the hill this way, we had to walk through Kastriki town before getting to Kalampaka, and at the base of the road we started coming across signs of civilisation. We contemplated getting some food at some point, but neither of us were hungry at all. As we were walking through Kastriki, a big black dog joined us for a stroll, being a bit of a guide doggy. It then wandered in front of a car and Dan and I both shouted out "DOGGY!" to try to get it away. Thankfully, all was well, the car passed and the dog trotted away.
At some point in Kastriki, everything was starting to complain (took a while!) so I crumbled and checked google maps - we were literally only 15 minutes walk from our accommodation, so I pep talked myself and we stumbled across the finish line.
Neither of us had any appetite, so we had nothing for dinner this night. We figured out our plan for the next day - would we take the bus up instead? We really tossed up this idea, but in the end decided a) we didn't want to be beholden to a time table and b) that's cheating - we were there to hike Meteora!
Til next time,
xxx
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