Hiking in the Rain: Meteora and Kallidromo

After surviving midterms, my roommate, Emily, and I decided to head into central Greece to see the famous cliff top monasteries of Meteora. I was expecting a hike, but boy, did we get an adventure. As we set off with our backpacks at midday on Friday, Emily remarked, “Look at us, just like Frodo and Sam.” Because all there was a general transportation and taxi strike in the city, we decided to walk to the train station on the other side of the city. It took us an hour and after we got there, we were told the train was full and the next one was not until the morning. We were disappointed, but not completely crushed. We decided to head in the general direction of where the bus station was and rely on Greeks for directions- the bus station was so far out of the center of Athens it was not even on our map! We made it in another 40minutes and got our tickets to Kalabaka, the town at the base of the cliffs. It was a long bus ride, but we got the opportunity to see the Greek countryside. It started to thunderstorm, and watching the lightning flash behind the mountains was beautiful. We switched buses at Trikala and finally arrived in Kalabaka at around 9:00pm. It was raining and we did not have a place to stay. We first followed an old Greek man to see his room, but we decided not to stay there. We ended up staying at Guesthouse Mythos which was very nice. We had dinner at a taverna in the sleepy town and crawled into bed for an early wake-up.The next morning we got up and it was still raining. We did not find the bus up to the cliff tops in time and decided to hike up as originally planned despite the rain. It was beautiful going up the path in the mist. We first saw the Holy Trinity Monastery. It was small, had 150 steps leading up to the top, a beautiful view, and a small church with paintings. It seemed as if quite a bit of renovations were being done on the building; the supplies are carried over by cable car. It was also featured in one of the James Bond films. On our way out we also got a little treat- Turkish delights, which were delicious! Next we went to Saint Stephen’s, which was much larger and had a museum. The paintings on the walls and ceiling all looked very new- they must have just been repainted. One of the nuns in the museum felt bad that we were walking in the rain and brought us juice boxes and a broken Winnie the Pooh umbrella. She spoke very little English, but she her generosity was greatly appreciated!

Holy Trinity:

View of Holy Trinity:

Saint Stephen's:

We then walked along the road to the Great Meteoron Monastery. It was huge and had multiple museums. There was a history museum, a display of where the workshops that were once used, and a museum with beautiful manuscripts. Afterwards we walked briefly down the hill to the Varlaam Monastery. This one was cool because they were actively using this basket to bring supplies up to the monastery. They have a machine that pulls it up now, with people on both the top and the bottom ends to load and unload the supplies. Imagine- when these monasteries were first built, the stairs were not quite so sturdy, so all traffic in and out of the monastery was by this basket/net. There was also a giant barrel (I’m talking the size of my bedroom) at this one, which was used to store rainwater in the old days because water was in short supply on the top of this cliff. Many of the monasteries had this image of judgement day with a dragon breathing fire- I haven’t really seen this image before, and it was quite striking. After this monastery, my roommate was done (the cold rain finally got to her), so we took a cab back down, ate a hot meal, and returned to Athens on the train. We made friends with a couple Americans who were travelling around Europe for three months. We got a cab back to our apartment, which was much quicker than walking- thank goodness they were done with their strike!

Varlaam Monastery:

The next morning I woke up early again and joined 8 of my classmates and the Athens hiking club in Syntagma Square. We took a bus ride to Kallidromo near Thermopylae. Kallidromo means “good road” and is one of the smaller mountains in the area. We hiked for 5 hours through the rain. Part of the time, we were on the same path the Persians took to Thermopylae when they defeated Leonidas and his army. It was a challenging hike, but I had a great time. At the end we stopped a thermal spring where we could get out and take a dip in the thermal pool. Many people were too cold and wet to have the energy to get off the bus, but I was so excited for this spring. I got right into the spring which has about 27 degree Celsius water. It felt so good! I returned home exhausted, wet, and cold, but it was overall a wonderful weekend despite the rain!