Day 1
I travel with a question. Am I enjoying myself? This question determines how long I will be travelling for or up until the point I'm completely broke. There isn't necessarily a binary answer to the question, sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down, but if the overall trend is down then you know it's time to stop. Up until this point the answer had been yeh s'alright, a bit of a lukewarm response. I'd started to worry that the spark for travelling had dimmed.
Arriving into the town of Meteora (Kalabaka) that spark brightened considerably. Towering rocks jut out over a flat landscape like sentinels. It invoked a feeling of awe and urge to explore. Before any of that good stuff could happen I stopped by Meteora Central Hostel to checkin and dump my stuff. I was met with the couple running the hostel Stella and George. Truly magnificent people who had so much charm and personality whilst also informing me about all the hiking routes, places for sunset/sunrise and which monasteries are currently active. For me it's exactly the kind of introduction I need rather than crawling the internet and trying to glean what things are worthwhile doing and where to go. I’d also been given the heads up on the possibility of running into snakes and that there was one poisonous one, so nothing to worry about.
Hike to Sunset Rock
I carbed up and headed out towards the trails, ignoring the logical side of my brain to relax for a few hours and wait for it to cool down. Bah shut up it’ll be fine! A short hike will be fine.
I headed towards the sunset rock scaling a steep incline from the start. Luckily only the first bit was in full sun then eventually got to a shaded forested area. With my buds in my ears and pumping some radio 2 bangers I was dancing along the trail, my joviel state was shattered by stumbling across a snake in the middle of the trail, i didn't think i had a problem with snakes but the girlish scream that came out of my mouth would suggest otherwise. Luckily the snake pitied me and moved out of the way sliding up a tree overhanging the trail. I shook off my shock, looked around to make sure no one was around to see my reaction and bravely continued on my way giving the tree with the snake in a wide berth. I was soon out of the forestry area and approached the sunset rock and settled myself down for a rest and enjoyed the views over the rocks and monasteries.
From there I hiked over to the next town of Kastraki, going through the forest. It's well marked but there are also lots of forking paths which mostly all end up at similar places but cause me to check in with Maps.ME to make sure I'm heading in the right direction.
Got a recommendation for a restaurant to try out some local food for dinner, and took advantage of ordering some veggies after relying too heavily on gyros and grilled meat in Athens for food. Sunset approaches pretty late at 20:30 and retraced my steps from earlier to catch it on sunset rock. It was a bit crowded but I found a place to park my arse and cracked open a beer or two and enjoyed the show.
Then with the final light fading, I rushed back down to the town hoping not to get lost in the forest and navigating by phone light.
Day 2
A more sedate start to the day, I settled myself into the cafe adjacent to the hostel with the aim of cracking out some more wheresobee content. A process which I hadn't expected to take up as much time as it does. But it feels like a good use of my time, flexing my brain in the familiar work mode rather than aimlessly scrolling through social media.
The Long Way to Holy Trinity
Later in the day I opened up the Strava heatmap to check what other trail routes options I could do, and picked a nearby one. This approach has worked well so far as it indicates where previous people have been and where to go. With an offline map In hand I made it to the top of the trail with ease, but having the choice of then walking along a road or a faded path, I chose the latter and a couple of kilometres later was confronted with a metal fence blocking my way. Quite annoying as I could see how close i was to the monastery, i tried going off the trail to scale around the fence but lost confidence pretty quickly and doubled back, something i hate doing. Chatting to someone at the hostel they had done the same thing but continued on where I'd stopped and had managed to get around the fence but had to drop down a 7 ft wall and her legs were covered in scratches from the dense shrubs, less than ideal. Turns out the monks in the monastery are actively trying to make things a little more difficult for the hikers.
It wasn't a long hike, and in the evening I got in a 5k run getting a better sense of the town area. There was a little flapping out of control down some wildly steep roads, my knees are still complaining.
I took a more Greek approach to the rest of the evening and sat outside in the cafe watching the world go by. Then joining a group in the hostel going out for some drinks and getting some cocktails, I was particularly impressed with them as they had some classic sweets that garnished them.
Day 3
E-Bike Tour
The main draw for tourists to Meteora is visiting the precariously placed monasteries. I opted for an e-bike tour. In real life my main mode of transportation is an e-bike and after trying out a different model I was feeling short changed by my bike at home. The amount of power these tour bikes were pumping out barely had me sweating despite going up steep hills to the monasteries.
The pace was slow and we stopped regularly, with our local guide giving the history of the area. The wildest thing I remember him saying was the local shepards used to scale the rocks and then pull up their goats for them to graze on the top for a few weeks, never really got to the bottom of why they did this, seemingly plenty of grazing area around the rocks.
We stopped by three of the monasteries and went into two with an entry fee of 3 euros for each. The first had been extended considerably in recent years much to the consternation of the local laws around the protected status of the UNESCO area. But it was done well, I struggled to see what was new and old. That is until I went past the toilet, where they thought that installing a door from Star Trek would be in keeping.
I think this was my first time visiting an orthdox church and not particularly familiar with the difference with the other Christian faiths. I guess I was surprised upon walking into the chapel which was covered in beautiful murals, churches in my prodestant and Catholic experience are quite bare, or having the focus being on a stained glass window and the architecture of the building. This was very gaudy in comparison, and a feast for the eyes. Photography inside the chapel area is strictly prohibited and they have someone monitoring the area to make sure tourists are behaving themselves.
The second monastery we just saw from the outside as the tourist buses had descended and was heaving. Apparently this one was a little different as it was run by nuns rather than monks.
With the area starting to become busy with sightseers the guide took us to a smaller monastery to avoid the crowds. Holy Monastery of Rousanos - Saint Barbara provided a good contrast to the first we saw, as they hadn't extended and were in much the same condition as when it was built. The murals in the chapel were adorned on all the walls and ceilings as the other but much more faded. In truth you don't need to go into all of them, you get the idea pretty quickly.
Monestryed out, we made our way down the hills, and I had to restrain myself from overtaking the guide. The speed demon in me wanted to peel off the brakes and race down the hill.
Hike to Ypapanti Old Monastery
After getting back to town and having lunch and a wee rest, I took on another trail, this one was recommended and pointed out by the guide on the e-bike tour. This turned out to be my favourite trail in Meteora and pretty much had it to myself. I think I must have gotten a little too comfortable being alone, as when I reached one of the peak plateaus a series of banging tunes came on my playlist and broke into a good 5 minute dance routine.
This is a good trail to do if you only have enough time for one hike. It passes by Ypapanti monastery, which is mostly offline except for special occasions, and then loops around to the highest point to The Great Meteoron Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. From there I went back into the forested area in search of the dragon cave, and had a little trouble as it wasnt marked. From there all paths will lead you back to the main towns either directly or indirectly if you want to check out the monks' prison or get lost in the forest for a bit.
Day 4
Sometimes you just need to take a day and wash your pants.
It was a good day to choose not to do much of anything, a thunderstorm rolled in bringing torrential rain. I enjoyed it from the comfort of a bar with a pint and red bunned burger, thinking ah fuck I left my washing outside.