Meteora: You gotta come here once in your lifetime

When you find yourself in Greece, don't stop your exploration at Athens and Santorini. Greece is so much more than these obvious destinations. Try Meteora. You won’t be unmoved even if you are a seasoned traveler. From the moment we set eyes on the cliffhanging monasteries, we’ve been “wow”ing all the way from the bottom of the stone pillars to the monastery’s doorstep. It’s staggering to envisage how they did it at a time when there was no road access. The monks have to carry their building materials in baskets on their backs or hauled them up with some kind of pulley system. When tourism started in the area, only then was stairs built for visitors. Meteora means "middle of the sky" or "in the heavens above". It’s really an awesome sight. There were originally twenty-four monasteries built and 6 remains today. You can go crazy and hike to all of them. We didn’t. It was scorching hot and we were not inspired enough to move in the heat. We visited 2 monasteries and lingered in one of them till we were chased out for their lunch break. Strict dress code is enforced: all shoulders must be covered, men must wear long trousers and women must wear long skirts. There’s wrap around skirt, shawl and shirt to borrow at the entrance if you are not in the right attire.

Waiting for the public bus in town centre and our excitement mounted even as we look at the rock pillars here.

 

Our first glimpse of the monastery from the bus.  Great Meteoron Monastery - Largest monastery among the 6 remaining monasteries.

 Motorized cable cart for quick access

The interior of the monastery is all modern and pretty, not what we expected of a monastery built on top of a rock pillar. There must have been vast renovations and additions over the years to make it into such a complex. We couldn't imagine the monks having the energy to hoist or carry up so much building materials centuries ago. 

Varlaam Monastery which is nearest to Great Meteoron Monastery, literally just down the road.

St. Stephen’s Monastery

Beautiful grounds which was serene till different busloads of tour groups came in. The ladies were busy hitching up their borrowed wraparound skirts and posing for photo. Then they rushed for the toilets and gift shops. We watched all these brief flurry of activity, willing them to board their buses soon. Peace descended again. The monks and nuns must be resigned to all these tourism madness. They certainly stayed clear as much as they could.

Take note of opening hours for each monastery that you want to visit on a particular day. A different monastery is closed each day and lunch break hours are different. One great resource: Visit Meteora

Getting there from Athens:

Bus

Find your way to Liossion Bus Station. Take a direct bus to Trikala (about 4hrs and that excludes a 30min pit stop break). Connect to Kalampaka if you choose to stay in this town. Do note the last bus to Kalampaka from Trikala is 10.30pm. We reached Trikala at 10.45pm and had to take a taxi to Kalampaka. At least the taxi is metered, so we do not have to go through the hassle of haggling when we were already drooping with tiredness.

Train

Easiest way to get to Meteora as there’s direct train between Athens and Kalambaka. However, take care to take the correct train as you have to make a transfer if it's not the direct train.

Help Greece by holidaying there!

When we first floated the idea of visiting Europe in early 2015, our first desired destination was Greece. We’ve been to Europe twice but have not travel to the Balkans yet. We looked forward to seeing the beautiful white and blue domed houses depicted in travel photo. When we put Greece as the first country to touch down as part of our Europe tour, anxieties trickled in about the situation in Greece. We were bombarded with news about the financial crisis and the refugees. When news came about the ATM withdrawal limit, we questioned our sanity in going there. Athens seemed chaotic on news but when we googled about the situation, it didn’t seems so bad. Travelers raved that the chaotic news depicted was overrated and it was still safe. It was true! Been there in September 2015 and loved it!

 Oia on Santorini

We did not encounter anything out of the ordinary. Travelers still throng the Acropolis and we have to jostle with the busloads of tourists for the best position to take selfies in Oia, Santorini. Of course, locals living there would be affected by the situation but as travelers, we can do our part for Greece’s economy by not avoiding Greece. To some extent, the tourism industry is affected. We believed it should have been more crowded at the tourist attractions we visited. We were gleeful not to have to elbow anyone to take photo in some places. However, on hindsight, we realized the hardships the locals must be experiencing. Restaurant owners, guesthouses, gift shops, taxi drivers, all tourism related businesses were affected by the drop in visitors. It’s a sobering fact. Think of their families who are depending on tourists as livelihood. We couchsurfed in Athens (Oops! We should have supported local guesthouse) and got to talk to our hosts about how they were coping. We also chatted with our tour guide when we signed on for a free walking tour. The amazing part through all these craziness in Greece is the unbreakable spirit of the Greek. They still carry on with their daily lives and showed us their best hospitality. The scenery is still as breathtaking and you’ll miss out a lot by bypassing this great destination.

 Changing of guards at Syntagma Square, Athens

 Parthenon, Athens

 Santorini

 Santorini

 Lefkes, Paros

Here’s what you can do to be prepared:

1) Read up on the news before traveling there. When you’re there, keep abreast of any new development. Check the internet for news whenever you’re connected. Or do it the lazy way, ask the staffs of your guesthouse, the shopkeepers or even the locals. 

2) Find out the contact and address of your embassy. You’ll be surprised when you might need their assistance. We did! However, it was not due to being stuck in a protest or because we can’t withdraw money from the ATM. Athens was safe, really! It was due to the spirit of Greek hospitality that caused the Singapore Embassy to offer their assistance to us! That’s another story.

3) Have enough cash. It’s actually not a problem for foreigners to withdraw cash from ATM but since regulations can change anytime due to the political turmoil, we made sure to have enough anyway. Credit cards are still accepted but don’t expect to use them in small souvenir shops or cafes as they do not have such service in the first place!

4) Get travel insurance. We usually get one when we travel, hoping that the airline will bump us to the next flight and we can indulge during our holiday on the airline’s and insurance’s compensation. Alas, it has not happen yet.

So with these, just enjoy your Greek holiday. The worst you might encounter in Greece is the shock of finding out you can’t flush toilet paper!