Meteora, Greece

Kalambaka, Greece (National monument, Meteora)

August 12-13

We arrived around 1:00 pm to the small town of Kalambaka, located directly east of Igoumenitsa in the northern center of Greece. Sleepy and slightly disoriented, we got off the bus and looked around and noticed a sign, Hotel Astoria. Located less than a block away, we walked up and were greeted by a very nice Greek gentleman and his wife who provided us with an air conditioned room for a couple of nights as well as a wealth of great information about the area. They had been living in Kalambaka their whole life and running the hotel for the past 40 years. The hotel felt like a monastery-it was clean, quiet, peaceful and serene and we were subtly surrounded by pictures of the Virgin Mary and Jesus.

That evening, we headed to the town square to enjoy a dinner of Greek salads, beef and chicken syrtaki and some Greek white wine. After dinner, we went walked around town, talked to a few friendly locals, enjoyed some traditional baklava and picked up our laundry from a local dry cleaner who cleaned and neatly folded them (and they smelled amazing).

The next morning we woke and walked downtown to catch our bus to Meteora. While waiting, we enjoyed seeing the local farmers market of vendors selling fresh tomatoes, watermelons and cucumbers, grilling corn on a BBQ, handmade quilts and paintings being sold – you could feel the small community of Kalambaka.

We caught a bus up to Meteora, or “suspended rocks”; it's one of the world’s most unique national monuments. Monasteries (6 monasteries today) were built to serve as a peaceful place for monks and nuns to follow the teachings of Greek Orthodox. While perched up on rocks pillars to deliberately make it difficult to access, monks built their monasteries by using long ladders to access and hoisting building materials and people up by ropes, nets and later, by a unique pulley system, see our pictures.

Today, there are roughly 4-6 monks that are still practicing in this area. Most of the monasteries serve as a museum for tourists to better understand the history, teachings, paintings and life as a monks as early as the 14th century in this area. At times, you can hear a bell ringing from a distant monastery. It is a place of great beauty and both mentally and spiritually refreshing and I definitely recommend a visit.

If you are looking for a place to travel, I definitely think you should consider Greece!