Greece – Meteora – T & G Travels

Day 40 Monday 25th September 2023 - Meteora

We had pre-booked a day trip to Meteora before leaving Australia. It was meant to be a train trip to Kalabaka from Athens, picked up from the train station with an escorted tour around Meteora and lunch provided. Yesterday we received a message saying the train to Kalabaka was not available as the recent floods in Greece had damged about 60 kilometres of track and they were still repairing it. We could get a refund or opt to still go, we opted to still go and are glad we did.

After leaving the apartment at 6:50, we soon learnt that rain was expected throughout the day and it was going to be quite heavy. Unfortunately we were not prepared for this at all.

The bus was leaving from the train station at 8:00, it was just over a 4 hour drive there and we arrived at Kalabaka just after 13:00. We had lunch straight away, a Greek lunch with Greek salad, mousaka and stuffed peppers and tomato, all very delicious.

Nicolas was our local tour guide for the afternoon, taking us to 3 monasteries to visit, showed us the 3 other existing monasteries and some of the beautiful vista spots in the area. We had 3 others with us on the guided tour which was lovely, a young couple from Colorado, USA and a yound lady from Izmir, Turkey. We all got along fine.

Meteora originally had 24 monasteries perched on the high cliff tops above Kalabaka. Although Orthodox Christian monks used the natural caves in the cliffs to live a peaceful existance and to isolate themselves as early as the 9th century, the first monastery was not built until the 14th century. By the 16th century there were 24 monasteries exsting on the cliff tops.

Jump ahead a few centuries. the Ottoman rule over Greece caused the destruction of most of the monasteries and only 6 remain active today. There are 2 that have only nuns and 4 with monks. Among the remaining 6, there are approximately 50 nuns and 17 monks - numbers have been dwindling over the years. Tourists are what enable the monasteries to survive, along with support from locals in the area.

The area is very unique and we enjoyed our visit here. Just before 18:00 when we were about to head back to Athens on the bus, the heavens opened up. The timing could not have been better. During the 4 hours drive back to Athens the rain had stopped in time for us to catch another train and walk back to our accommodation. It was now 23:20. A very long day!