Day 14: O holy day - Meteora, Greece

Even though the alarm clock is set for the ungodly time of 6:30, Christina still manages to wake up before. We've got a train at 8:20 to Kalambaka and we want to make sure that we don't miss it. I am runniing late, as always, which stresses Christina out a little. Luckily we make it to the station in plenty of time and Christina has her all important coffee.

A train arrives, and, after hearing from one passenger that it's not ours, we have the good sense to double check with an official-looking older gentleman. It is our train, so we rush to find our seats (we HAVE seats) on the second car. Boy are we surprised when we get on the second car and it's the dining car. We're afraid the train will leave us if we dismebark so we make several failed attempts to make it to our seats from the dining car.

In the end, we spend the entire 5-hour trip in the dining car. Part of the time, we sit with an adorable older woman who tries to converse with us in Greek and kindly offers us biscuits. Christina's favorite passenger is "the laptop guy." For almost 4 hours of the ride, he is the self-appointed deejay of the dining car, delighting our ears with a mixture of hits from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Christina:
"God, buy some headphones already."
"Why does he think everyone wants to listen to his music?"

We arrive in Kalambaka and, while I am having my first experience with a Turkish toilet, Christina befriends two girls from China who are heading to the same hotel as us (OK, she was eavesdropping, but it was for a good cause). We share a taxi to the hotel. This is our first of two shared taxis before they ditch us. I think they don't like us, but Christina thinks they're just reserved.

After we check into the Odysseon, we meet the two girls in the lobby and walk to the square where we have our first spanakopita of the trip. We then catch a cab to our first monastery, Agiou Nikolau Anapafsa. The monastery is located on top of a giant rock, and we have to ascend what seem like endless flights of stairs to get to the top.

The monastery is awesome and has amazing views. It makes us excited about hiking to the next one. We quickly learn that, these days, Meteora is better set up for driving than walking. In order to get to the next monastery, we share the narrow road with cars and buses for 15 minutes before veering off onto what our map has labeled a "narrow ascent." Thankfully I was smart enough to wear hiking boots along with my long black skirt.* I look like a fashion disaster but I am quite comfortable hiking upwards to the next monastery. Some of the path looks like it hasn't been used in ages and we start to wonder whether we are the only people stupid enough to try to walk to all the monasteries.

By the end of the day, we make it to three and are very proud of ourselves. We go by taxi, by foot, and by car.** Then we walk back to our hotel through the town of Kastraki. When I see the Taverna Gardenia in Kastraki, I feel a pang of regret. The Lonely Planet had recommended staying behind the Taverna. At one of the monasteries, I saw a postcard of a beautifully lit up Meteora at night. I wonder, if we had stayed in Kastraki rather than Kalambaka, would our views have been better? We freshen up at our hotel, buy bus tickets to Thessaloniki for the following day, and head back to the Taverna to find out if we made a mistake.

The Taverna has lovely outdoor seating and there's a large Greek family dining next to us. Christina and I share tzatziki, a Greek salad, and stuffed tomatoes and peppers. Yummy! For dessert, we get fruit since we've hardly had any in days. At this point, a football game has begun and the Taverna has filled up with people eating and watching. When we ask for the check, we get a complimentary dessert of honey cake!

Now it's sufficiently dark so we wander around Kastraki to try to spot the monasteries at night. We can't see them anywhere, which makes me feel good. We go back to our room at the Odysseon and have a good night's sleep.


*The monasteries require women to wear skirts below their knees and cover their shoulders. At the monasteries, women can borrow an array of slip-on skirts. Christina partook in the free skirts, which we both found quite amusing.

** A couple from Moscow were kind enough to pick us up and deposit us at the third monastery. We were very thankful they came along because the road was getting very narrow.

This post co-written by Christina!