Precariously, perched monasteries, faded gold icons, jaw dropping landscapes and ancient rock dwellings. Meteora is a place of religion, magic and mystery.
A slow five hour train journey took us up through Greece to Kalambaka. The town famous for the towering rocks and monasteries people call Meteora. Out of the thirty monasteries that were built through the ages, only six remain. In the Byzantine times, monks constructed monasteries on top of the rocks so that they would be closer to God. For many centuries, the monks used scaffolds for climbing the rocks and getting supplies (yikes). As years passed, this method was followed by the use of nets with hooks and rope ladders. Sometimes a basket was used, which was pulled up by the monks. Wooden ladders of 40 metres long were also one of the essential tools for accessing the monasteries. (double yikes) Today scary cable cars are used to transport important people and things to the monasteries. We are not important so had to go the way of most visitors, on foot.
The tourist info guy said with pfff it’s EASY my children can do it, babies can do it, so you can do it’s a very EASY walk. Well we kinda like easy strolls, it did cross our minds though how could we easily get from the flat street of the tourist office to the top of a distant towering rock and visit Agia Trias perched on the top. It looked so far and so steep – oh well he knows he’s the expert. We should have gone with our gut. Not easy, not remotely easy especially in 34 degrees. We had this monks trail to ourselves stunning scenery, wild flowers and lots of tortoises! We did it tho and scrambled up the last bit to see the Kalambka sign just before we climbed up the 140 stone steps to the top of Agia Trias.
And here is the pic that show how high Agia Trias is … props for the climb 🙂 you can just make out the curve of steps to the left of the rock. P.S. folks… that tourist office was in the town you see below!
The tranquility and peace inside the monasteries was tangible. Eight hundred years of prayer and intention murmured from the lips of monks has been absorbed by the stone walls. It spills from these high places down to the landscape below. Beautiful gold paintings of saints adorn the walls. Polished gold icons and flickering candles light the dark interiors.
It is difficult to take good photos of this lanscape no angle I tried with my little iphone 6 could capture the massive scale of these rocks. These are the attempts 🙂
Before the monasteries were built hermits adapted caves into dwellings. It took us a long time to find these old places as there are no sign posts. A bit of luck and Lance’s spidey senses got us here.
Some of these dwellings were so high we couldn’t imagine how they built them. This is the hermit cave of Badovas.
Happy 52nd birthday Lance – We drank too much local wine and splurged on dinner. We forgot to get a picc…hicc of us together. So here we are drinking alone!!
Goodbye Greece we will miss you. XXX.