Meteora

Later that afternoon we took four different buses to get to Kalambaka, a base to see another World Heritage site, Meteora. We arrived late in the evening and found our hotel. It was kind of eerie because the lobby had a wood fire burning and lights on, but we couldn’t find anyone working there. I poked around the hotel (1 floor with 8-10 rooms) and learned that we were the only guests there! Uhm, creepie? We thought about picking a room and taking a key or going to find another hotel, except it was late and that would have been a pain. While we were contemplating, TJ found a door bell and rang it and out appeared a friendly fellow wearing a “where’s waldo?” sweater. We picked our room then headed to a tavern on the corner for dinner.

The little tavern was cute with a friendly waiter and a wood-burning stove. Here we had the best meal we’ve had in Greece! I was tempted to stay in Meteora another night just to eat at that place again! We had Greek salad, spicy sausage, pork souvlaki (kind of like a kabob), home-made red wine served in a tin pitcher – all classic Greek food but for some reason extra delicious at this establishment!

The following morning we set out to see the monasteries carved into the tops of massive rocks protruding from the town of Meteora. We took a taxi through the town of Kastraki up to Moni Megalou Meterou (Grand Meteora Monastery), which is built on the highest rock in the valley. Accessing the monasteries was not easy! The earliest monasteries used to be reached by climbing removable ladders. Later hoists were introduced and monks were hauled up in nets. It wasn’t until the 1920’s that stairs were carved into the rock and brick access roads were laid. Thankfully this was the route we used to access the monasteries!

We walked from on monastery to the next until we’d seen them all. We’d talked to our hotel manager that morning about our route for the day. He recommended taking a taxi to the first monastery, walking to the others and then taking a foot path back to our town, Kalambaka. We stopped in at the tourist office in town and the lady there gave us a map and confirmed that we should take the foot path back to town. So, we took their advice and enjoyed our monastery tour. After we saw the last monastery we headed down the foot path to Kalambaka. We trekked a little ways down the path until we realized how dangerous it was! I am confident that our hotel manager and the lady at the tourist office have not taken this path! The steep rocks were covered with moss and were very slippery. TJ started slipping down a rock and we realized that a terribly dangerous route so we climbed back to the top and discussed our next strategy. It was a long, cold walk on the road back to town and there weren’t any taxis or buses from where we were, so I decided hitching was our best bet. I put my thumb out and sure enough the first car to drive by picked us up!

There were two Greeks, probably about our age, and their Malaysian friend in the car. They were headed to the first monastery, then back down to town. We climbed into their car and figured we’d either catch a taxi at the first monastery or wait for them to finish their visit and go back to town together. We not-so-patiently waited in the freezing cold for over an hour while they toured the monastery. We didn’t see a single taxi or have any other way to get back to town so we waited. We met another couple from the U.S. at the monastery who were in the same predicament as us. They had the phone number for a taxi company but all of the phones were broken! They started walking back to town and we felt lucky to have new Greek friends with a car!

We got our lift back to town, picked-up our backpacks and dashed to the bus station as we were minutes from missing our bus. TJ’s good deed for the day was paying for a taxi to go up and get the couple we just met. He knew that if it was us walking down in the freezing cold we’d sure appreciate a ride! His good deed worked! As we were on our bus leaving Kalambaka for Thessaloniki we saw the couple back in town. It was a good thing TJ did something good to counter-balance all of the naughty things he does! I think he forgets that some Greeks speak English so when people who have body odor walk by and TJ shouts “Speedstick” they just might understand!

We arrived in Thessaloniki in the evening. We were hungry after a day of hiking, hitching and travelling! We had dinner at another taverna on the corner then called it a night.