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.

Oberndorf: Salzburg’s off the beaten track

We’ve been to Salzburg once many years ago when we were still toddler-level travelers. We arrived on Christmas evening and when we ambled into Old Town early the next morning, everything was closed. We pranced around Altstadt’s empty street, peering into gorgeously decorated shop windows. We visited Mozart’s birthplace at no. 9 Getreidegasse and of course, bought lots of Mozart’s chocolates when the shops opened. Those were our hazy memories of Salzburg. For our recent Balkans travel, we had to fly off from Zurich, so we took the opportunity to revisit Salzburg by staying in a couchsurf home. We were unable to find any host in Salzburg itself and thus, we ended up in Oberndorf bei Salzburg which was really a godsend blessing. We would never ever have discovered this obscure town if not for our generous hosts who decided to accept our couchsurf request.

Oberndorf bei Salzburg is 17km from Salzburg city and is famous worldwide as the birthplace of the carol ‘Silent Night’. The carol was first performed at the former St. Nikola parish church by schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber and young priest Joseph Mohr on Christmas Eve 1818. Each Christmas Eve, a memorial service in honor of the creators of the ‘Silent Night’ carol would be held in front of the chapel. People from around the world attend the ceremony and sing "Silent Night" in many languages at the conclusion of the ceremony. Going by our hosts’ sheepish confession, this is the only attraction in town and thus, the town only sees busloads of visitors on Christmas Eve. Kudos to our hosts, Oliver and Barbara, for doing their bit to host visitors. If not, this town would really be off the radar for most travellers. Come with us, as we show you what Oberndorf has to offer.

Oberndorf can be reached from Salzburg by S-Bahn rapid transit railway

  

Long flight of stairs that leads to the bridge which connects to Laufen, Germany just across the river. Like Singapore and Johor Bahru, Malaysia but this is so much shorter in distance.

Pedestrian traffic only. There is another bridge for vehicle.

Salzach River is tranquil and beautiful now. Don’t be fooled though. The high river bank bears testament to dangerous floods that threatens the town every year. Our host’s parents abandoned their house by this river and moved elsewhere after the last flood.

Demarcation of Austrian and German border on the bridge.

  

We arrived in Laufen, looking back at Oberndorf!

Colourful cheerful buildings in Laufen but this area seemed to be on decline. Lots of empty shop lots. However, Oberndorf's residents come over to German side often to do their shopping as things are cheaper.

 

Bridge for vehicle. The original link between the 2 countries with immigration checkpoint.Checkpoint now converted to ice-cream parlour

Bridge with the demarcation of the border. Our hosts were sharing with us about the Syrian refugees situation in Austria. If only the refugees knew about this border, they could easily cross over with no hassle. When the exodus first started, border guards were sent here to prevent unauthorized entry. When no refugees appeared, it's now free for all. C'mon! How could the refugees know about this small town's connection to Germany?

 Back in Oberndorf and walking along the river. Look at this scenic path! Autumn is beautiful!

 

Leopold Kohr grew up in this small town. He was an economist, jurist and political scientist but was best known for his small is beautiful movement.

Turning to the right, away from the river, we walked down a short flight of stairs. Where’s the chapel?

   

This is the one! Looks like a pavilion from far.

The original church was damaged by flood, and thus demolished and replaced with this chapel. Our hosts already warned us in advance not to expect much. We were still taken aback by this miniscule chapel that is visited by thousands yearly on Christmas Eve. Who gets to sit inside?

 

 Schoolmaster Franz Xaver Gruber and priest Joseph Mohr being remembered on 2 walls 

 

Oberndorf is really a gem for off the beaten track travelers. We appreciate our hosts who showered us with their warm Austrian hospitality. Without them, we would have missed this gem.