Mystifying Meteora

Rock cliffs above Kastraki
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We caught a bus from Litohoro to the highway where a bus to Trikala picked us up. Then we caught another bus to Meteora, arriving at around 3:30 PM. There are two towns in Meteora, Kalambaka and Kastraki. Kalambaka is larger with a lot more hotels and restaurants.  Kastraki is smaller and closer to the road up to the monasteries.  Aidan and I had decided to stay at Camping Boufidis in Kastraki, which is right at the bottom of the rock cliffs.  The site had a beautiful view and a pool -- it was also a fairly small campsite with no loud student groups (an annoyance at some of the other sites we'd stayed at).  The girl we'd been travelling with, Alex, decided to join us.  For the first time, the campsite did not have a coved sleeping bag area, which was a little offputting.  However, we were immediately befriended by the people who ran the campsite (who seemed to like Canadians), which went a long way in making up for it.  We spent the afternoon showering (you can only imagine how gross we felt after climbing up and down Olympus then getting on a bus with no A/C), doing laundry, and relaxing by the pool.  For dinner we went for dinner at a restaurant recommended by the guidebook, which had a terrace view of the rock cliffs.  We had our choice of tables as there were not many people there yet.  We shared some lovely house wine and eggplant dip, then had Aidan had pasticcio and Ainsley had a greek salad.  After dinner, we were brought grapes, followed by ouzo and more wine.  When we returned back to the campsite, the men running it invited us to join them at the bar, pulling out more wine.

Moni Megalou Meteorou
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The next morning we were five minutes too late to catch the bus up to the monasteries, so we had to walk.  We were all feeling our muscles from Mt. Olympus, so it didn't feel great.  We were able to get out of the sun by taking one of the old paths that were once used by the monks, but seldom now used.  We decided to go see the Moni Megalou Meteorou or Metamorphosis, which is the largest of the monasteries (each one required an entrance fee of 2 euros).  The monastery is 613 m above sea level and we had to climb many steps to get up.  The monastery was very well-preserved considering it was founded in the 14th century.  It was quite touristy with a museum and gift shop inside, not to mention the tour buses dumping tourists off outside.  We then walked down the road, admiring the rock cliffs and other monasteries.  We spent the afternoon lazing by the pool.

The steps up to Moni Agias Triados
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We'd been invited to a festival at a nearby mountain village by one of the men at the campsite.  The festival was in honor of some saint.  We were picked up around 8:30 PM.  It was pretty much all greeks except for the three of us -- it seemed as if every time we looked up someone was staring.  After 10 PM, some of the teenagers in traditional dress started doing some greek dances.  Unfortunately with all the smoke (barbeque, cigarettes), the pictures didn't turn out.  We ate lots of greek salad, souvlaki and wine before being driven back at around 1 AM.  Our host stopped at a bar in Kalambaka and bought us all a drink.  His friend, the owner of the club, then sent out flaming sambuca shots, followed by some sort of watermelon shooters.  We finally made it to bed by 3 AM.

The next morning we walked to Kalambaka, then took an old path up to Moni Agias Triados, a smaller and more remote monastery.  This was the monaster filmed in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.  We felt it was a really nice contrast to Metamorphosis.  That night, we returned to the restaurant we'd been to the previous night for dinner, followed by an early night to bed before heading to Delphi the next morning.