we have kept in touch albeit exchanged messages far and few in between throughout the year. but since i typically visit belgium every summer, i have informed him of the upcoming visit and mentioned my desire to visit meteora. i planned to go alone and casually extended an invitation, without much expectations. a few weeks afterwards, we were planning the trip together.
meteora is on the F list - and i was determined to cross it off that summer. i had an extra motivation knowing that another friend whom we also sailed with in greenland - could possibly fly that brussels-thessaloniki flight and i thought it'll be really cool to be his passenger. two weeks prior to my arrival in belgium, flights, hotels and car rental are all booked. and i really, really like it when a plan comes together.
for the uninitiated, meteora is a UNESCO world heritage site in greece that is a formation of 60-million-year old vertical rock pillars that, some time in the 11th century, some hermit monks decided to settle on. they started to build monasteries in the 14th century, of which 6 of the original 24 monasteries survive today. while you can imagine that back in the day these monasteries were extremely inaccessible and the monks had to use long ladders and pulleys (although the pulley system still exists today), nowadays one can freely drive from one monastery to the other. as i had only recently broken my right foot, we opted to rent a car for easier mobility than to join tours.
i was pleasantly surprised that despite it being a top tourist destination, hotels in meteora were very reasonably priced. for €50 you could get a really decent room with private bathroom. we opted to up our budget to get a room with a view. this was the panorama from our balcony.
after a delightful late lunch nearby we opted to explore the town. we stayed in hotel meteoritis in the town of kalampaka. if you're fit enough, you could actually walk from kalampaka all the way to the monastery of Holy Trinity. we took that path but had to turn back at some point because my foot was not ready for a long walk, and it was getting dark. but that walk was quite an adventure.
we saw a lot of wild blackberry bushes and therefore had some healthy snack as we walked. the fruits that were more plump were too high to reach. lucky for me, bringing a 186cm tall man came in handy. 😉
there were also an abundance of acorn trees. he told me that in dutch, acorn is called eikel. and that it was also a slang for dickhead. 😆
looking at the giant rock ahead of us, we noticed that in the cross section there was a huge hole and there was a clothesline with some clothes hanging on it! i tried to consult google but could not find any information about it. outrageous! i'm really curious of the story behind that.
as we kept walking we saw the monastery of Holy Trinity from a distance.
when we turned back, we headed to the heart of the town to have dinner and beer. on our way we saw a little towering rock that looked like a gherkin. i named it pickle. 😄
we finally spotted a restaurant with the best view. souvlaki, beer, meteora and this guy. and that ridiculous smile that i couldn't wipe off my face.
the next day was when we visited the monasteries. it was such a warm summer, that it would have been logical to start early in the day to get a lot done before the sun starts to really burn. but then again, we're on vacation! by the time we're done with breakfast and got to the car, it was past 11.
we first visited agios nikolaos anapaphsas or the monastery of saint nicholas of anapaphsa. this monastery was the first one you'll encounter as you drive up from the main road. it was one of the smaller and therefore more quiet ones to visit. we first had a look at the small chapel of st. anthony.
as it was the first monastery that we visited, i paid a lot more attention to the views from the monastery than what was inside, and therefore didn't have more pictures of the interior. you cannot fault me though because the views were fantastic. the town of kastraki was a mere kilometer away and you could see it from the monastery.
east of saint nicholas monastery was the roussanou monastery - one of the only two nunneries that still exist. we tried to visit this monastery later on but realized it was closed that day. we obviously were not good at reading pamphlets.
to the north of the monastery of saint nicholas, you could see the two most popular monasteries - the monastery of varlaam and the great meteoron. we drove to a view point for a better glimpse.
after lunch we decided to see the highest and largest of the six monasteries - the great meteoron. of course, this being the most popular one meant a lot of visitors. as it closes at 4pm, hordes of people were rushing to see it after lunch. we were one of them. we soon realized that we have not allotted enough time for it. we first visited the museum and spent quite a considerable time there. by the time we wanted to see the church, the monk had already closed it for cleaning.
i didn't take as much photos to give you a better idea of how amazing the monastery was, mostly because i was put off after seeing someone take photos of the sacristy where the skulls and bones of the monks who used to live there were displayed on shelves. i peeked and it was chilling and quite frankly i prefer not to see very obvious reminders of death. we did spend a lot of time by the courtyard though, to enjoy the views.
from the great meteoron, the varlaam monastery was very close by. even after the monastery was closed, we hung out for some time to enjoy the breeze as the scorching sun had begun to mellow.
the next order of business was to figure out the best spot to watch the sunset. the map provided to us by the guy at the car rental showed different sunset viewing spots. we checked out one and it seems to indeed be the best one.
it was only around 6pm at that time, and sunset was not until almost 9pm, so we drove back down to kastraki for dinner before the much-awaited sunset viewing. trouble was, everybody had the same idea. nevertheless, we managed to scoot in and secure a nice spot with a relatively unobstructed view.
sunset is always phenomenal, wherever you may be. but even this one had to fade away in the background, as he pulled me closer to him and kissed me for what seemed like an eternity. i was dazed and confused and - in a tagalog word that is now officially in the oxford english dictionary - super kilig.
the next morning, we intended to finally visit the monastery of the holy trinity, only to realize that it was closed on a thursday. clearly we hadn't really planned to see everything in this trip. i suppose now it's understandably because the trip was more about spending time together and seeing the most out of the attractions was just secondary. nevertheless, we managed to visit the monastery of varlaam as our final drive up to meteora before taking our train back to thessaloniki. at this point i have stopped taking photos, as we were just contently wandering around holding hands.
we spent a night in thessaloniki and went 12th-to-16th-century-church-hopping for half a day. there's this and that and all sorts of things that happened that are irrelevant now as i smile like an idiot, remembering how i became his liefje after that trip in meteora. 💗
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