Meteora Shower
Trip Start
Oct 02, 2010
1
14
20
Trip End
Oct 26, 2010
Meteora, Thessaly, Greece
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
If I took the 9 am bus to the top, I could see 3 or more in the day, buy an onward train ticket to Thessaloniki, grab dinner and be off. I had a nice breakfast in the common room Breakfasts are almost always included with rooms for tourists for about 5 Euro. Since coffee alone here costs 2-3, it's a bargain.
The owner Nick runs the place with his wife and they appear to homeschool their 2 kids. The new WiFi didn't have the signal strength to reach my room just above the computer, which pissed Nick off. He paid 150 Euro for a router that isn't very strong. Those go for $40 in the US now.
Greece is a lot more expensive than it used to be, that's for sure. When I was here 9 years ago, things were getting more expensive, but I'd say it's about 60% more expensive than before. And in 2001, people were telling me how dirt cheap it was before they started using the Euro. Ah well, you can't blame them for getting a piece of the pie.
Kalambaka is a nice little modern town and I wish I had more time. Trikala looked nice too. I went through there on my last bus change last night. There are lots of nice shops along a river and everyone really dresses up here. It's different than in the islands.
After blogging at breakfast, I managed to pack up, store the bag with Nick, and catch the bus to the top. (I've been somewhat of a slave to the blog, but I sure appreciate it years later when I can't for the life of me remember that one place I was at that one time).
I had to first break the news that the ceiling in my room was leaking. Nick was genuinely surprised and upset. It had been raining for 12 days and it rained all night. I seriously considered just hanging out for another day, but the rain stopped later and the clouds cleared long enough for some good shots of the monasteries, one of which was featured in a James Bond Flick (maybe it was For Your Eyes Only???).
On the bus, I met a Chinese American couple that stayed at Hotel Meteora (may TAY or ah) also. And there were 2 women from Pennsylvania on a round the world trip. It was strange that the only tourists on this bus were American, since most tourists are from Northern Europe. However, a lot of them are on package tours with their own buses.
And I must say, I've been on some really nice buses here. They're not just for poor folk!
So, at the top, we get off at a monastery that's supposed to be one of the better one's, only to find it's closed on Tuesdays. And a light rain is starting. Drag. But it does look pretty cool and I've got some photos below to prove it.
I walked downhill and went to 3 different one, including Agias Triadas, the one featured in the Bond film. They were very small inside, and are still active nunneries or monasteries, so there wasn't a lot to see except the frescoes done in the Greek Orthodox style. And honestly, once you've seen a few of these, you've pretty much seen them all. OK. I'm getting Churched out, just like in my Latin American travels. The artwork and architecture are fantastic, but you can only see so much before your eyes glaze over.
I swapped travel stories with the American women on their round the world trip and found myself saying things like "Back in the day, we couldn't book rooms via a Blackberry on a bus driving through a remote village like you're doing." I did have some advice for them on future travels over a quick lunch. They were off in one direction and I was off to buy a train ticket that would take me to Thessaloniki that night. The timing was perfect. 5:30 bus would get me to town by 9:30 and I could grab a midnight train to Sofia.
Back at the hotel, I negotiated a shower for free, blogged, charged batteries (literally and figuratively), helped him with a PC problem, and wrote the Lonely Planet to update some info for him. He gave me free coffee and snacks while his kids studied with mom. What a great place. I hope they can afford the new roof!
