Today was going to be a BIG DAY. We tried to prepare as best we could, but our legs were still a bit shaky from the 4.5 hours of hiking we did the night before.
We decided we would preload with a big breakfast and just pay for it at our accommodation and had settled on the omelettes. Once outside our room however, the lady who owns the place asked if we'd like any of her handmade "pies". There was ham, cheese, vegetable and coconut to choose from. I thought this mean there were no eggs this morning. Each was €1 (donation, although she wouldn't give them to us until we put the money in the box), so we got a ham one each and a coconut to share for breakfast dessert. She also made us some "local" tea which was free.
The pie was actually like a sausage roll, but it was very tasty as was the coconut one to finish one. Once we were done, it was time to prepare for the hike ahead. We got ourselves plenty of water, and packed some ham, cheese and crackers for a lunch snack as well as the muesli bars.
First stop: the train station to get tickets for the morrow. We get there (it's backwards to the mountain), and there's a sign up basically saying "be back in 30 minutes". Fine then, back the way we came and ready for our real start. Today we were going to start off on the same path we took yesterday, but instead of going up the intrepid one, we would take the actual path. This would lead us to the Holy Trinity and the St Stephen's monasteries.
I'll back track and mention that there are 6 monasteries in total open at the top of Meteora, although each have their own days that they are closed, and different opening hours. On Fridays, only 4 of the 6 are open, so we based our walk around those (although ended up basically making it to all of them anyway). I use the word monastery for all of them (like they do), although 2 of them are actually nunneries/abbeys, for women.
Today our legs were a lot wearier than the day before. Partly due to the exertion from yesterday, partly because we knew what was coming, and also yesterday we had been sitting for a long time so it felt good to stretch the legs. As we entered the main path, a dog came racing up behind us, following us, then leading us. I thought it was with the family behind, and after a while of the dog just getting a little bit in the way, Dan and I stepped aside to let the family behind us pass - with what we thought was their dog.
We reached the FOOTPATH sign, and kept going on the "easy" path. Somehow, this path felt a lot more difficult than the scrabbling up the rock face we did the day before! It was just consistently steep, whereas yesterdays would do it in bursts. My short-twitch muscles go much better for really steep / flat / really steep / flat than consistently steepish, so we had to make a lot of stops on the way. Also our legs were tired.
Finally we popped out at the base of the monastery, the Holy Trinity. I knew this was one you had to pay to get into and as a result I thought it was supposed to be quite nice. But first to get to it: up what felt like a few hundred stairs.
But guess who we met here! The doggo who had joined us on the pathway much earlier. He came to greet us about halfway up the stairs, running forward and then back towards us, as if showing us the way. At one point, a lady ahead of us was leaving and she said to us, "He's not our dog!" to which I replied, "not ours either! He followed us for a little while and now we've met him here!" Forward and back, slowing down as we would slow down, the doggy stayed by my side as we entered the top gate of the monastery.
There was a man sitting in the shade at the door of the building, and he hissed and clapped his hands, which stopped the dog dead in his tracks. Aha, definitely a stray dog then. We farewelled the doggo and walked up to the man under the shade, wondering what would happen next. "€3", he said. I asked if I needed to cover up (because I knew we had to dress modestly - my knees were covered by my long shorts but my shoulders were bare), and he said there were some skirts inside for us to both put on.
This seemed odd to me, but had I actually paid attention to any research I would have known - pants/shorts for women are not allowed, only skirts. Men must wear pants, or at least shorts that cover the knee. It seemed that bare shoulders were ok, but I was really surprised by the trousers thing! Maybe too form fitting? Either way, Dan and I both donned a skirt and went inside.
There wasn't much to see; a couple of frescos and a small chapel, which was very nicely painted. Soon we burst outside, and there was a beautiful view over the rock tops and to the town below. We weren't in there for very long, and soon we were descending the stairs again. I said to Dan that we will go to the next one, which is a convent and is supposed to be free, and then we can decide if we go into any others.
The walk was gently uphill and just across the top of the rock, and didn't take us very long. It was swarming with bus loads of tourists. Simply swarming. We somehow managed to push our way inside, and it turned out that entry wasn't free, but €3. I had been going by outdated information apparently, as had our hostel which had this one as free. Considering the masses of people inside, we decided to about turn and go back, and head towards Sunrise and Sunset points again.
Therefore we had been inside 1 and but visited 2 by this point. The walk across the top is quite simply, with gentle slopes up and down and is not very taxing. It's just getting up and down that's the challenge! We got to Sunrise rock and took a few photos, but first we met a lovely ginger cat sitting in the shade on the way! The kitty got a good patting, and after we had finished taking photos, the cat had preempted us walking to the other side and was sitting there, waiting for us, meowing, reading for another round of pats.
Saying goodbye to the kitty, it was then onto Sunset Point to take a few more photos. While here, we tried to take a few on-the-edge-of-the-world type photos, but it seems that during the day the place is inhabited almost solely by the giant, flying, yellow-green shiny beetles. It's very disconcerting having one of those things smack into the side of your head, especially on the edge of a precipice! We had wanted to have lunch snack here, but the beetles were too much. Also at the top of Sunset Point was a happy, fluffy doggy that would follow people around and rest in their shade shadow. He was so fluffy and loved a good pat!
Near the entrance to Sunset Point it was shady, so we sat on the ledge here, accompanied by another cat who was a little skittish but loved the fact we had food. The person next to us kept kicking or scaring the cat, which wasn't ideal, and we gave it a little bit of our ham. We had ham and cheese on crackers - neither of us felt hungry but we needed to have something.
Next up we had to decide if we did the Rossanou Monastery/St Barbara now or later. Our hotel had said it shut at 4pm, but the sign outside said 2pm, and it had two entrances - one you went up to and one you went down to. We were at the down-to spot. Alright, let's do this, we thought, even though we have to come all the way back up again to continue our journey.
I am so glad we did! After descended some uneven wooden and earthen stairs for what felt like an eternity (with me thinking the whole time, how am I going to get back up this?) we arrived at the entrance. This was supposed to be free as well according to the literature, but upon entering we had to pay €3 again. We had come all this way so we figured, we might as well. This was a really lovely monastery, or nunnery, as it was for women. I put on my long skirt, and Dan found a pair of enormous trousers to put on, and do up as tightly as they would go.
This one was a lot larger (or had more public areas) than the Holy Trinity, and we were far more impressed! We went down to the chapel, which was just gorgeous, and outside a nun sat with some hand made goods for sale. Upstairs was also a little shop, with wine and oil, and also a lot of handsewn products which would have been made by the nuns themselves. So much more industrious than the men, we thought! After being at the Holy Trinity which was a bit nothing, this was amazing. It also had a really good description of St Barbara, who was the saint of this church.
In the chapel, the depictions on the walls were particularly brutal, a theme which would also show in the last monastery we would visit. Depictions of heads being cut off, limbs being cut off, being people crushed to death with large rocks - all sorts of medieval torture devices were pictured all over the walls. It was rather confronting and not at all what I expected! I assume it had some thing to do with persecution. Into the next room, the paintings on the walls were much more saintly, and I was mildly relieved (as I do not deal well with the idea of torture at the best of times!).
The little shop inside stocked all sorts, many handmade crafts such as purses and bookmarks and painted stone magnets, as well as Holy Monastery Wine and olive oil. I wanted to buy so many of the things!
Back outside, we marvelled at the beautiful flower garden, and sat down in the shade to reapply our sunscreen. I mostly wanted a sit down because I was delaying the inevitable - climbing back up all those stairs. I had thought I would count the steps, but this eventually proved a bit too much! However, they were nicely spaced for going up (less so for going down), and we actually powered up them in no time.
In the distance we could see the next three monasteries just around the bend of mostly flat, but open and unshaded road. It took us about half an hour to round the bend, surrounded by the sound of mystery cow bells. We could see one cow down in the valley, but that was not where the cowbell sound was coming from. That mystery will remain unsolved.
The sun was pelting down by this point. Around the bend was the Varlaam Monastery which I knew wasn't open today, and while there were a few people around it as it was quite shady, it was obvious it was closed. Our main objective was to see inside the Great Meteoron Monastery, which was supposed to be the biggest and the prettiest. It was also very much uphill. We sweated and puffed our way up, passing buses and cars and more buses and more cars. Great. It's going to be overrun.
Outside were a couple of little food and trinket stalls, and we took note of them for the return journey - we were both in some dire need of some sugar! We descended some stairs to the main entrance of the monastery and were confronted with two things: a staircase going up now of probably a couple of hundred steps (why go down to go back up again?) and the fact the staircases were overrun with school children/tweens, their voices echoing across the valley.
We didn't really want to do battle with them inside, so we sat underneath a tree to wait for a little while. Near us was a tap, and a few people washed their hands and faces from the tap, and I wondered if the water was drinkable. One lady partially filled her water bottle, so I did the same. Tasted fine enough, so I filled it up and we figured we would find out in a few hours if it wasn't drinkable!
Ok. Time to tackle the stairs, now that it had cleared out of people. By now it was a little after 2pm, and the monastery closed at 4. The stairs weren't all that bad after all, and the view across Meteora was beautiful from the platforms. At the entrance, we paid, and I put on my skirt and Dan put on his oversized trousers. There was a tap nearby which had clearly been turned on at some point, so I asked the monk if it was drinking water, and he said "Oh drink water from the square! Very nice water in the square."
We definitely had left the best til last - and we were very glad we had done it in this order! Each one was bigger and more elaborate than the last. The Great Meteoron Monastery (it has a lot of different names) was enormous and had a lot of areas open to the public, while the others were either tiny or reasonably small. Through the door, we were able to visit the old wood working area, full of old wine barrels, and a lot of other paraphernalia for wine making, and see the ossuary.
We then went upstairs, and visited the chapel. This was much, much, much larger than the others, and extremely ornate. Of interest, in one of the smaller rooms, was that the paintings on the wall were the same as that in St Barbara, namely, the same torture scenes. I don't really know why this is. From the chapel, we burst out into what had to be the square, and in the corner I noticed a little fountain and tap. I went straight up to it and started filling 1 of 3 drink bottles. Other people saw me do this, and pushed me out of the way to start filling their own before I had finished, and taking photos, leaving me standing there looking like a knob. Oh well!
It was quite overrun with people at this point but later on, as it got closer to closing time, the people thinned out a lot and the square was then empty, while now it was fully packed. We tried working systematically around - next along was the decking overlooking the valley and other monasteries - possibly the most beautiful of the lot. Continuing the circuit we came across - you guessed it - cats! Sunning themselves. Dan went in for a pat and one was particularly playful, and spent quite a long time chewing on his fingers and grabbing his hands.
Still on the upper level was the shop (ok, so this monastery was as enterprising as the women!) - although it lacked the hand made crafts that made the nunnery's products so special, and also the old kitchen. Down a level was the museum (!) - which was certain unexpected. It wasn't very large, but it went through a brief history with artifacts of the area and Greece's occupation at certain times in history, as well as propaganda posters - nothing or very little to do with religion, and it was very interesting. In the next museum were religious artifacts, many of which were so finely and intricately detailed that they had put magnifying glasses in front of them so you could clearly see the magnificent work. Downstairs was another small museum with amazing original scriptures and books.
By now we were really, really worn out, and had to have a bit of a sit down. Thankfully there were plenty of chairs here! I wondered if the men working here (many of whom were very young) were monks themselves, or whether they were employed by the monks to work here? This is something I need to research. It was clear in the nunnery's that the ladies were nuns, with their extremely modest clothing and habits.
Time to say farewell to this monastery and figure out how to get back to our accommodation the quickest way possible. First though: back down all those stairs again and a soft drink for some sugars! This used up the last of our coins, so that also answered our question of whether we should get a bus back down or not - we can't now, so walking it is!
On the map, I had seen a dotted black line which meant there had to be a path somewhere. We didn't want to take exactly the same route as the night before because it would take us a long way out of our way. We descended a little way and Dan stood out on a ledge and saw the path we needed, beginning at the Varlaam monastery. So in the end, we got up close to this one too - our tally was: we went inside 3, and visited 5 out of the 6 available. Not too bad, I don't think!
Past the monastery and onto a roughly hewn stone path. But a path it was! (Again, not as intrepid as the day before). It was pretty slow going - my legs were tired and my knees were hurting, they really don't like going downhill. We could hear some odd noises when suddenly Dan stopped and said "Turtle!" And sure enough there was a turtle (or a tortoise, we just called him a tortle) hiding in the bushes about half a metre away. He seemed very far from anything. And then I spotted another, right on the edge of the path at eye height. He was so cute! He would put his head in a little, then pop it back out, blink at us. We took some photos and carried on.
Nothing much else of interest on this route - we did see another tortle, and the surrounds - when I was able to look up (I was afraid of slipping), were really tropical, rainforesty and beautiful. Just as we were about to think we had made a grave mistake and weren't where we were supposed to be, we heard the sound of cars and knew the road wasn't too far away.
We burst back out onto the road, which was completely open to the beating heat of the sun. Our progress was slow, but we kept plodding on! Back through Kastrati, back into Kalambaka. We detoured to the train station to see if we could get tickets for tomorrows train to Thessaloniki, which was a success. This was a change of plan - we had originally thought to stay a full day in Meteora and get the late train to Thessaloniki, but there was no way we could hike again on the morrow so we got ourselves the early train. Also, we didn't know what the train/bus situation was going to be to get from Thessaloniki - Skopje, so we wanted to hedge our bets.
Shuffling, we managed to drag ourselves back to our hostel and our room, collapsing. In total, we were gone for 9 hours. That's a fair amount of walking. Mostly uphill. Or downhill, which is also pretty taxing. We. Were. Pooped.
When we had the energy, we cracked into the bottle of rose we had bought the day before, celebrating our victory of completing the hike up - across - and back down again without succumbing to getting a bus. Go us!
I had researched dinner, and had chosen a place called Pub 38. Not a super Greek sounding name, but it got great reviews and it did some Greek food, but also some different things (which after 2 weeks, we were quite happy for). We were the first patrons, and we sat outside. This place was known for its beer, so after requesting a recommendation, I went with a craft local red ale "which tastes a bit like wine" and Dan tried the local draught. What happened next is we ordered far too much food. And drank too much beer - as by too much I mean, I had 1 and a half. But it filled me right up.
The food was incredible. Starters were cheese balls and what looked like a warmed up Greek salad. Then our enormous burgers were placed in front of us and I regretted everything! I also ordered another beer, which was a mistake. The burger was delicious, but I couldn't eat all of it, and a local kitty got to taste some pretty amazing beef patty. I couldn't finish my beer either, and in the end we had to leave a little bit.
Both Dan and I were stuffed, but I think I actually did myself a bit of damage. My belly was so distended, and I felt so ill, that when we got back to the apartment I lay down, writhed in agony for a while, groaned and finally fell into a food coma sleep while Dan packed our luggage... There's only been a few times I have truly eaten myself to sleep, and this was one of them!
Til next time,
xx
We decided we would preload with a big breakfast and just pay for it at our accommodation and had settled on the omelettes. Once outside our room however, the lady who owns the place asked if we'd like any of her handmade "pies". There was ham, cheese, vegetable and coconut to choose from. I thought this mean there were no eggs this morning. Each was €1 (donation, although she wouldn't give them to us until we put the money in the box), so we got a ham one each and a coconut to share for breakfast dessert. She also made us some "local" tea which was free.
The pie was actually like a sausage roll, but it was very tasty as was the coconut one to finish one. Once we were done, it was time to prepare for the hike ahead. We got ourselves plenty of water, and packed some ham, cheese and crackers for a lunch snack as well as the muesli bars.
First stop: the train station to get tickets for the morrow. We get there (it's backwards to the mountain), and there's a sign up basically saying "be back in 30 minutes". Fine then, back the way we came and ready for our real start. Today we were going to start off on the same path we took yesterday, but instead of going up the intrepid one, we would take the actual path. This would lead us to the Holy Trinity and the St Stephen's monasteries.
I'll back track and mention that there are 6 monasteries in total open at the top of Meteora, although each have their own days that they are closed, and different opening hours. On Fridays, only 4 of the 6 are open, so we based our walk around those (although ended up basically making it to all of them anyway). I use the word monastery for all of them (like they do), although 2 of them are actually nunneries/abbeys, for women.
Today our legs were a lot wearier than the day before. Partly due to the exertion from yesterday, partly because we knew what was coming, and also yesterday we had been sitting for a long time so it felt good to stretch the legs. As we entered the main path, a dog came racing up behind us, following us, then leading us. I thought it was with the family behind, and after a while of the dog just getting a little bit in the way, Dan and I stepped aside to let the family behind us pass - with what we thought was their dog.
We reached the FOOTPATH sign, and kept going on the "easy" path. Somehow, this path felt a lot more difficult than the scrabbling up the rock face we did the day before! It was just consistently steep, whereas yesterdays would do it in bursts. My short-twitch muscles go much better for really steep / flat / really steep / flat than consistently steepish, so we had to make a lot of stops on the way. Also our legs were tired.
Finally we popped out at the base of the monastery, the Holy Trinity. I knew this was one you had to pay to get into and as a result I thought it was supposed to be quite nice. But first to get to it: up what felt like a few hundred stairs.
But guess who we met here! The doggo who had joined us on the pathway much earlier. He came to greet us about halfway up the stairs, running forward and then back towards us, as if showing us the way. At one point, a lady ahead of us was leaving and she said to us, "He's not our dog!" to which I replied, "not ours either! He followed us for a little while and now we've met him here!" Forward and back, slowing down as we would slow down, the doggy stayed by my side as we entered the top gate of the monastery.
There was a man sitting in the shade at the door of the building, and he hissed and clapped his hands, which stopped the dog dead in his tracks. Aha, definitely a stray dog then. We farewelled the doggo and walked up to the man under the shade, wondering what would happen next. "€3", he said. I asked if I needed to cover up (because I knew we had to dress modestly - my knees were covered by my long shorts but my shoulders were bare), and he said there were some skirts inside for us to both put on.
This seemed odd to me, but had I actually paid attention to any research I would have known - pants/shorts for women are not allowed, only skirts. Men must wear pants, or at least shorts that cover the knee. It seemed that bare shoulders were ok, but I was really surprised by the trousers thing! Maybe too form fitting? Either way, Dan and I both donned a skirt and went inside.
There wasn't much to see; a couple of frescos and a small chapel, which was very nicely painted. Soon we burst outside, and there was a beautiful view over the rock tops and to the town below. We weren't in there for very long, and soon we were descending the stairs again. I said to Dan that we will go to the next one, which is a convent and is supposed to be free, and then we can decide if we go into any others.
The walk was gently uphill and just across the top of the rock, and didn't take us very long. It was swarming with bus loads of tourists. Simply swarming. We somehow managed to push our way inside, and it turned out that entry wasn't free, but €3. I had been going by outdated information apparently, as had our hostel which had this one as free. Considering the masses of people inside, we decided to about turn and go back, and head towards Sunrise and Sunset points again.
Therefore we had been inside 1 and but visited 2 by this point. The walk across the top is quite simply, with gentle slopes up and down and is not very taxing. It's just getting up and down that's the challenge! We got to Sunrise rock and took a few photos, but first we met a lovely ginger cat sitting in the shade on the way! The kitty got a good patting, and after we had finished taking photos, the cat had preempted us walking to the other side and was sitting there, waiting for us, meowing, reading for another round of pats.
Saying goodbye to the kitty, it was then onto Sunset Point to take a few more photos. While here, we tried to take a few on-the-edge-of-the-world type photos, but it seems that during the day the place is inhabited almost solely by the giant, flying, yellow-green shiny beetles. It's very disconcerting having one of those things smack into the side of your head, especially on the edge of a precipice! We had wanted to have lunch snack here, but the beetles were too much. Also at the top of Sunset Point was a happy, fluffy doggy that would follow people around and rest in their shade shadow. He was so fluffy and loved a good pat!
Near the entrance to Sunset Point it was shady, so we sat on the ledge here, accompanied by another cat who was a little skittish but loved the fact we had food. The person next to us kept kicking or scaring the cat, which wasn't ideal, and we gave it a little bit of our ham. We had ham and cheese on crackers - neither of us felt hungry but we needed to have something.Next up we had to decide if we did the Rossanou Monastery/St Barbara now or later. Our hotel had said it shut at 4pm, but the sign outside said 2pm, and it had two entrances - one you went up to and one you went down to. We were at the down-to spot. Alright, let's do this, we thought, even though we have to come all the way back up again to continue our journey.
I am so glad we did! After descended some uneven wooden and earthen stairs for what felt like an eternity (with me thinking the whole time, how am I going to get back up this?) we arrived at the entrance. This was supposed to be free as well according to the literature, but upon entering we had to pay €3 again. We had come all this way so we figured, we might as well. This was a really lovely monastery, or nunnery, as it was for women. I put on my long skirt, and Dan found a pair of enormous trousers to put on, and do up as tightly as they would go.
This one was a lot larger (or had more public areas) than the Holy Trinity, and we were far more impressed! We went down to the chapel, which was just gorgeous, and outside a nun sat with some hand made goods for sale. Upstairs was also a little shop, with wine and oil, and also a lot of handsewn products which would have been made by the nuns themselves. So much more industrious than the men, we thought! After being at the Holy Trinity which was a bit nothing, this was amazing. It also had a really good description of St Barbara, who was the saint of this church.
In the chapel, the depictions on the walls were particularly brutal, a theme which would also show in the last monastery we would visit. Depictions of heads being cut off, limbs being cut off, being people crushed to death with large rocks - all sorts of medieval torture devices were pictured all over the walls. It was rather confronting and not at all what I expected! I assume it had some thing to do with persecution. Into the next room, the paintings on the walls were much more saintly, and I was mildly relieved (as I do not deal well with the idea of torture at the best of times!).
The little shop inside stocked all sorts, many handmade crafts such as purses and bookmarks and painted stone magnets, as well as Holy Monastery Wine and olive oil. I wanted to buy so many of the things!
Back outside, we marvelled at the beautiful flower garden, and sat down in the shade to reapply our sunscreen. I mostly wanted a sit down because I was delaying the inevitable - climbing back up all those stairs. I had thought I would count the steps, but this eventually proved a bit too much! However, they were nicely spaced for going up (less so for going down), and we actually powered up them in no time.
In the distance we could see the next three monasteries just around the bend of mostly flat, but open and unshaded road. It took us about half an hour to round the bend, surrounded by the sound of mystery cow bells. We could see one cow down in the valley, but that was not where the cowbell sound was coming from. That mystery will remain unsolved.
The sun was pelting down by this point. Around the bend was the Varlaam Monastery which I knew wasn't open today, and while there were a few people around it as it was quite shady, it was obvious it was closed. Our main objective was to see inside the Great Meteoron Monastery, which was supposed to be the biggest and the prettiest. It was also very much uphill. We sweated and puffed our way up, passing buses and cars and more buses and more cars. Great. It's going to be overrun.
Outside were a couple of little food and trinket stalls, and we took note of them for the return journey - we were both in some dire need of some sugar! We descended some stairs to the main entrance of the monastery and were confronted with two things: a staircase going up now of probably a couple of hundred steps (why go down to go back up again?) and the fact the staircases were overrun with school children/tweens, their voices echoing across the valley.
We didn't really want to do battle with them inside, so we sat underneath a tree to wait for a little while. Near us was a tap, and a few people washed their hands and faces from the tap, and I wondered if the water was drinkable. One lady partially filled her water bottle, so I did the same. Tasted fine enough, so I filled it up and we figured we would find out in a few hours if it wasn't drinkable!
Ok. Time to tackle the stairs, now that it had cleared out of people. By now it was a little after 2pm, and the monastery closed at 4. The stairs weren't all that bad after all, and the view across Meteora was beautiful from the platforms. At the entrance, we paid, and I put on my skirt and Dan put on his oversized trousers. There was a tap nearby which had clearly been turned on at some point, so I asked the monk if it was drinking water, and he said "Oh drink water from the square! Very nice water in the square."
We definitely had left the best til last - and we were very glad we had done it in this order! Each one was bigger and more elaborate than the last. The Great Meteoron Monastery (it has a lot of different names) was enormous and had a lot of areas open to the public, while the others were either tiny or reasonably small. Through the door, we were able to visit the old wood working area, full of old wine barrels, and a lot of other paraphernalia for wine making, and see the ossuary.
We then went upstairs, and visited the chapel. This was much, much, much larger than the others, and extremely ornate. Of interest, in one of the smaller rooms, was that the paintings on the wall were the same as that in St Barbara, namely, the same torture scenes. I don't really know why this is. From the chapel, we burst out into what had to be the square, and in the corner I noticed a little fountain and tap. I went straight up to it and started filling 1 of 3 drink bottles. Other people saw me do this, and pushed me out of the way to start filling their own before I had finished, and taking photos, leaving me standing there looking like a knob. Oh well!
It was quite overrun with people at this point but later on, as it got closer to closing time, the people thinned out a lot and the square was then empty, while now it was fully packed. We tried working systematically around - next along was the decking overlooking the valley and other monasteries - possibly the most beautiful of the lot. Continuing the circuit we came across - you guessed it - cats! Sunning themselves. Dan went in for a pat and one was particularly playful, and spent quite a long time chewing on his fingers and grabbing his hands.
Still on the upper level was the shop (ok, so this monastery was as enterprising as the women!) - although it lacked the hand made crafts that made the nunnery's products so special, and also the old kitchen. Down a level was the museum (!) - which was certain unexpected. It wasn't very large, but it went through a brief history with artifacts of the area and Greece's occupation at certain times in history, as well as propaganda posters - nothing or very little to do with religion, and it was very interesting. In the next museum were religious artifacts, many of which were so finely and intricately detailed that they had put magnifying glasses in front of them so you could clearly see the magnificent work. Downstairs was another small museum with amazing original scriptures and books.
By now we were really, really worn out, and had to have a bit of a sit down. Thankfully there were plenty of chairs here! I wondered if the men working here (many of whom were very young) were monks themselves, or whether they were employed by the monks to work here? This is something I need to research. It was clear in the nunnery's that the ladies were nuns, with their extremely modest clothing and habits.
Time to say farewell to this monastery and figure out how to get back to our accommodation the quickest way possible. First though: back down all those stairs again and a soft drink for some sugars! This used up the last of our coins, so that also answered our question of whether we should get a bus back down or not - we can't now, so walking it is!
On the map, I had seen a dotted black line which meant there had to be a path somewhere. We didn't want to take exactly the same route as the night before because it would take us a long way out of our way. We descended a little way and Dan stood out on a ledge and saw the path we needed, beginning at the Varlaam monastery. So in the end, we got up close to this one too - our tally was: we went inside 3, and visited 5 out of the 6 available. Not too bad, I don't think!
Past the monastery and onto a roughly hewn stone path. But a path it was! (Again, not as intrepid as the day before). It was pretty slow going - my legs were tired and my knees were hurting, they really don't like going downhill. We could hear some odd noises when suddenly Dan stopped and said "Turtle!" And sure enough there was a turtle (or a tortoise, we just called him a tortle) hiding in the bushes about half a metre away. He seemed very far from anything. And then I spotted another, right on the edge of the path at eye height. He was so cute! He would put his head in a little, then pop it back out, blink at us. We took some photos and carried on.
Nothing much else of interest on this route - we did see another tortle, and the surrounds - when I was able to look up (I was afraid of slipping), were really tropical, rainforesty and beautiful. Just as we were about to think we had made a grave mistake and weren't where we were supposed to be, we heard the sound of cars and knew the road wasn't too far away.
We burst back out onto the road, which was completely open to the beating heat of the sun. Our progress was slow, but we kept plodding on! Back through Kastrati, back into Kalambaka. We detoured to the train station to see if we could get tickets for tomorrows train to Thessaloniki, which was a success. This was a change of plan - we had originally thought to stay a full day in Meteora and get the late train to Thessaloniki, but there was no way we could hike again on the morrow so we got ourselves the early train. Also, we didn't know what the train/bus situation was going to be to get from Thessaloniki - Skopje, so we wanted to hedge our bets.
Shuffling, we managed to drag ourselves back to our hostel and our room, collapsing. In total, we were gone for 9 hours. That's a fair amount of walking. Mostly uphill. Or downhill, which is also pretty taxing. We. Were. Pooped.
When we had the energy, we cracked into the bottle of rose we had bought the day before, celebrating our victory of completing the hike up - across - and back down again without succumbing to getting a bus. Go us!
I had researched dinner, and had chosen a place called Pub 38. Not a super Greek sounding name, but it got great reviews and it did some Greek food, but also some different things (which after 2 weeks, we were quite happy for). We were the first patrons, and we sat outside. This place was known for its beer, so after requesting a recommendation, I went with a craft local red ale "which tastes a bit like wine" and Dan tried the local draught. What happened next is we ordered far too much food. And drank too much beer - as by too much I mean, I had 1 and a half. But it filled me right up.
The food was incredible. Starters were cheese balls and what looked like a warmed up Greek salad. Then our enormous burgers were placed in front of us and I regretted everything! I also ordered another beer, which was a mistake. The burger was delicious, but I couldn't eat all of it, and a local kitty got to taste some pretty amazing beef patty. I couldn't finish my beer either, and in the end we had to leave a little bit.
Both Dan and I were stuffed, but I think I actually did myself a bit of damage. My belly was so distended, and I felt so ill, that when we got back to the apartment I lay down, writhed in agony for a while, groaned and finally fell into a food coma sleep while Dan packed our luggage... There's only been a few times I have truly eaten myself to sleep, and this was one of them!
Til next time,
xx
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