After 2 days in Rhodes, Amelia, Yuhan, and I enjoyed a free morning before taking a €30 cab to RHO airport for our 4pm afternoon flight back to Athens. I even snuck in a second gym session at Oxygen gym outside of Old Rhodes!
Once arriving back at ATH and stopping in front of Carousel 7 to wait for my checked bag (most domestic flights are run by low cost budget carriers), I soon got a phone call from Athens airport –
“Hello? Is this Calvin? This is Athens airport. You made a report about a lost bag 2 days ago and we now have it. Where in Greece are you? We can deliver it to you.”
“I just arrived from Rhodes! Crazy! Where in Athens airport are you located?”
“In baggage claims at the Skyserv office in front of carousel 8.”
“Wow! I’m now at airport baggage claims, standing waiting for my bag in front of carousel 7…right next to your office.” “Oh…wow…In all my years working here this has never happened before!”
I bet she didn’t expect that within minutes of going down her long list and giving me that call, she’d have a freebie in returning my luggage. I therefore told the staff member, Martella, that this kind of travel magic happens often, and that she should now make a wish!
Then swapping packing cubes around and storing my bag in the safety of Care4Bag outside of Arrivals Hall A for the next 3 days, we waited for Amelia’s flight to land and then took a taxi via Uber for our fancy lodgings at AP Acropolis View Apartments. Amelia continued onwards to stay at her hotel nearby.
As Roxanne had already arrived a few hours earlier, Yuhan, Roxanne and I then headed out together for dinner and drinks at 360 Cocktails Rooftop and Misafir Rooftop.
Taejin then landed a few hours later and joined us soon afterwards at Misafir where he got to meet everyone for the first time (including me) as well as Amelia who freshened up and joined us later.
The next morning after breakfast at 10am my old friend from Athens, Sidian, dropped by to pick us up in a 9 person rental van and take us on the 4 hour drive to Meteora, namely the adjacent villages of Kastraki and Kalabaki.
Along the way we stopped for a pee break near the Memorial of Leonidas and 300 Spartans where the famous Battle of Thermopylae took place.
If you’re keen on dipping in 100ºF waters under 100ºF sun, there are also some sulfur natural hot springs about a 2 minute drive further down the freeway from the 300 memorial.
Once we reached Meteora in the mid afternoon we passed through Kalambaki, the more happening and developed village of the two options.
However, I preferred to be closer to the rock wonders and get a head start on potential morning hikes, and therefore I picked to stay in Kastraki at Guesthouse Papastathis.
After checking in and settling into our rooms with a view, we went out for lunch underneath a few monasteries.
We then took detour to the closest “city” in the area called Trikala for a city hike in 100ºF heat, heading as far as to the The Mill of the Elves, a redeveloped factory turned theme park for families especially during Christmas.
It was also formerly known as Mylos Matsopoulou, built in 1884 and was one of the most important modern cultural monuments in Trikala. Its industrial construction was ahead of its time for the Balkans, and remained centerpiece of Trikala’s redevelopment until it closed in the 1980s.
We then drove up to Byzantine Castle of Trikala and its views over Trikala. It had already long closed 2 hours early at 1pm due to the heat wave:
Afterwards we returned to Meteora and chugged back up to the main observation desk of Meteora to catch the sunset views:
I’d advise to camp out there at least an hour early to beat the last minute tourist hordes.
The magic starts about 30 minutes before the sun dips below the horizon:
Afterwards we celebrated our long day at the formidable Fortounis Tsipouradiko for dinner. Get all their stuffed meats for the entreés.
The next morning we greeted Jeff who had arrived in the middle of the night after taking the train from Athens. Luckily for him our original plan for an early breakfast and to start our hike right at sunrise to visit every single monastery was veto’ed by locals the day before; they described how this was a horrible and risky idea especially since each and every single monastery could now be easily driven to.
Furthermore, we were in the middle of a heat wave during Greece’s hottest week on record. And therefore since it has been consistently over 40ºC (100+ºF!) where we would also wearily hike on the same winding paved roads that cars drive back and forth on, the risk of hiking everything outweighed the potential rewards. We decided instead to relax for breakfast and wait for Melinda to return from her 5am sunrise hike (at least when the weather was cooler for her) and for Roxanne to wake from her deep slumber.
Once the 9 of us were ready we drove out at 11am and reached the Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapafsas. It opens at 9:00am and can be reached in 10-20 minutes by foot, and another 15 minutes up the stairs from the parking lot. It is also one of the only monasteries open everyday.
Staff throughout Meteora are pretty strict about keeping knees and shoulders covered when visiting each monastery and all of the monasteries except Varlaam provide free coverings. They are also pretty vigilant in enforcing no video or photography inside the monasteries despite the €3 admission fee that they charge at every site (there is no “single access” ticket deal) and the ubiquitous tacky gift shops.
However, if you did take any photos it would look like many similar looking versions as this:
Outside is free reign for photography (you can’t put a price on nature); Saint Nicholas’ Anapafas probably has the most panoramically unobstructed views at the top compared to the other monasteries.
After 15 minutes at Saint Nicholas Anapafsas we drove out to reach the Holy Monastery of Rousanos. It opens at 9am and closed on Wednesdays. It is also one of the two monasteries (the other being Saint Stephan) to have nuns living here.
Weaving around west for another 5 minutes (or what would have been a 30 minute walk), we reached the end of the road at much larger and sprawling Great Meteoron Holy Monastery. This one is closed on Tuesdays.
From the parking lot, access to this monastery requires a little longer hike down a few flights of stairs and back up.
We then returned for a quick water break and drove 4 minutes around to the Monastery of Varlaam, which is also about a 20 minute walk away.
They’re the only monastery we visited today that did not provide skirts to cover knees and shoulders for free; you have to pay €3.50 for a shawl on top of the €3 admission fee to enter.
The Monastery of Varlaam is known for its outdoor gardens and a gigantic 12,000L wooden barrel for wine storage:
Continuing east, we then drove by the famous Viewpoint and the Main Observation Deck where we hung out last night for sunset.
…and another, less magical viewpoint 5 minutes west of the main observation deck.
Then driving back southeast, we passed the Monastery of St. Stephan. This monastery is closed on Mondays and is the only one with a “lunch break” between 1:30pm and 3:30pm.
You also may notice the many nuns walking around; St Stephen Monastery is one of two nunneries here, with the other one being the Monastery of Rousanou.
Finally, the very last monastery we drove by was Monastery of the Holy Trinity. Closed on Thursdays, we could only peek inside.
From there we drove down back to sea level at Kalambaka for a well-deserved outdoor lunch at 3:00pm under 100ºF heat. Then driving back to Kastraki, we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon to ourselves before returning again for another bitchin’ sunset at the same viewpoint and watching Everything Everywhere All At Once again for the sake of Amelia, who’s never seen it before!
BTW this is what Meteora looks like in the middle of the night at 4:30am:
We’re gonna miss you Sidian! Thanks for driving us and dropping us off at the airport the next morning. Hope you also made your flight to Crete!
- At time of posting in Meteora, it was 38 °C - Humidity: 23% | Wind Speed: 5km/hr | Cloud Cover: tooooo hot