Oh my gosh, things have been so busy lately. I can't believe I missed almost two entire months of blogging, and I also can't believe I still haven't finished sharing stories from Greece! Now that I finally have a moment to catch my breath (update: actually several very short moments... this post has been in draft form for weeks...), let's rectify that.
So the last phase of my Greek trip was extra special because Colin's parents joined us for a few days of joint vacation. Colin and I had just gotten engaged, so it was fun to be able to celebrate with them in person - in Greece! - so soon after the fact.
Colin and I arrived back in Athens the evening before they did, so we walked around the city a bit (Colin did some work, and I did some shopping) and then met Colin's advisor Panayiotis for dinner and drinks near our hotel. He was excited about our engagement and shared stories of his own wedding the year before. In Greece, weddings are huge events involving the entire town and everyone you or your parents have ever met. Panayiotis acknowledged that he and his wife had had a "small" wedding with only 400 guests because his wife's family was still so exhausted from hosting her sister's wedding of 1500 guests shortly before. Colin's and my eyes grew wide. I'm pretty sure I don't know more than 100 people to invite anyway, and if 1500 people showed up, I would hide in terror. At least a crowd that size probably wouldn't notice the bride was missing.
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| Stuffed tomato and pepper for lunch in Athens. I love love love stuffed tomatoes! |
Anyway, the next morning we took the metro back to the airport to meet Colin's parents and hopped in our rental car for the six-hour drive to Kalambaka, the town nearest to the
Meteora World Heritage Site. Colin's parents were so jet-lagged that they napped in the back while entrusting Colin with the driving and me with the navigating. I'm happy to say that we made it relatively uneventfully, although it was not easy going. Once you get outside of Athens, directions in Greece tend to go something like: "Take the road towards Chalcis, but before you get there, turn onto the road toward Lamia. Then drive to Karditsa. And when you get to Kalambaka, turn right at the second town square next to the post office." Not exactly something you can enter into Google Maps. But Colin's dad had tried, bringing print-outs of Google's directions with him. Unfortunately, those maps were pretty unhelpful. We never did find a better map to buy, either. So Colin and I did a lot of "Have we gone far enough towards Chalcis? Is this the turn to Lamia? Or should we go a little further before turning off? Oops, I'm pretty sure we're now in downtown Chalcis. Better turn around." And then, when we finally made it to Kalambaka, the directions to the apartment we were renting were terrible. We totally missed the turn by the post office and ended up driving the stick-shift car up a more-or-less vertical hill before realizing that we were on the wrong road.
Once we arrived, though, it was awesome. Giant sandstone cliffs tower over the town, which is in the middle of an otherwise very flat plain. The town was small and walkable and had more than enough good restaurants to keep us happy for the few days we were there. And, Meteora was unlike anything we had ever seen before.
Atop the cliffs are old monasteries, around 600 years old today, which is old in some respects but so very modern compared to much of Greece's history. Nevertheless, they are fascinating. When they were built the only way up was via ropes and ladders, which, I read somewhere, "were only replaced when the Lord called them to be broken." Geez. I guess the old monks hadn't heard that line about God helping those who help themselves. Colin wondered how visitation rates to the monasteries increased immediately following a rope breaking--if you're interested in getting advice from a monk, the time to do it would be as soon as that rope was replaced! Now, thankfully, there are roads winding their way to the top of the cliffs. On the way up, you also have a great view of numerous caves in the sides of the cliffs. Way back when you could only access the monasteries by rope, misbehaving monks were sent to live in the caves as a punishment, and their ropes would be withdrawn until they had time to think about and repent for what they had done. (Worst time-out ever.)
Six of these monasteries remain today, still inhabited by monks and nuns. We visited four of the six over the course of two days.
This is the Holy Monastery of Varlaam, the first that we visited:
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| The climb up to Varlaam |
Yes, we had to climb all those stairs to get to the top. And we had to do so in long slacks (the men) and knee-length dresses and long sleeves (the women) so as not to offend God's or the monks' sensibilities. For tourists who forget, each monastery has a room full of sarongs that you can tie around your waist and/or shoulders to cover up.
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| Beautiful stonework at Varlaam |
Next, we drove a few minutes to the Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries. That monastery is, true to its name, grand.
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| Courtyard and fountain at the Grand Meteoron |
It also has an entire room full of the skulls of its previous residents. I think that was the most disturbing part of this trip: I was not previously familiar with the concept of religious relics, and each of these monasteries proudly displays the severed hands, fingers, collarbones, and heads they have collected over the years. I will spare you photos of that and instead give you this nice scenic shot looking back on Varlaam from the Grand Meteoron. Notice how precariously the monastery sits atop the cliffs!
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| View of Varlaam from the Grand Meteoron |
The next day we saw the Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen, which was attacked by the Nazis during World War II when they believed it was harboring insurgents. The Saint Stephen monastery was the first we saw that was inhabited by nuns, rather than monks.
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| One of several rose gardens at Saint Stephen |
We then went on to the Holy Monastery of Saint Barbara-Roussanou. This one, too, is inhabited by nuns and has beautiful gardens. Unlike the others, this one is accessible after a short walk through the woods. The entire time we were walking, we were going downhill. I had this sinking feeling that we would just have to climb up extra stairs to make up for all that downhill progress. It was true. But it was worth it.
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| Beautifully manicured garden at Saint Barbara-Roussanou |
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| That bridge is the modern entrance to the monastery. But do you see the rickety ladder hanging next to the tree? |
So, four monasteries in two days, plus the chance to see a new part of Greece and hang out with Colin's parents. It was a fun trip!
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| Four monasteries are visible in this photo. Can you find them all? (Answer: Roussanou in the foreground, Varlaam in the upper right, Grand Meteoron just above and to the left of Varlaam, and St. Nicholas, which we didn't go to, at the bottom of the cliff, just above Roussanou in the photo.) |
After our two days in Kalambaka, we retraced our steps back to Athens. The drive was easier on the way back, mostly because there are plenty of road signs pointing you back to the capital. We had one last dinner all together at a fun garden restaurant in the city, and then the next day I hopped on a plane back to the U.S. Vacation was
much too short, but then isn't it always?
And then, only a few days after Colin returned, Greece missed a payment to the IMF and its economy spiraled downward. We had seen some indications of the fragility of the economy while there, but it was shocking to hear stories of places we had just been falling into chaos and despair. And then the European refugee crisis exploded a couple months later, and the news was filled with photos of refugees stumbling ashore on the beautiful island of Lesvos,
where we had just vacationed. That was hard to see.
Greece is a wonderful country and will always hold a special place in our lives. My heart hurts to see how the region is suffering, after all the fun and lighthearted times we had there this summer.
