Breakfast awaited downstairs of freshly hard boiled eggs, bread, cheese, cherry jam, juice and coffee. I packed my skirt, the required dress for women when visiting these monasteries. Filled with good things, I headed off toward the rocky spires of Meteora.
Somehow it failed to dawn on me that choosing to walk to the various monasteries would mean walking up steep hills all day. I didn't realize this until I was half way through Kastraki, the nearby town 1km from Kalampaka. Nevertheless, it was a sunny day with a lovely breeze to keep me mostly cool on my strenuous walk.
Roussanou, the first monastery, was a quiet place to begin with a few nuns inside minding the ticket booth and the souvenir shop filled with handmade beeswax candles, golden icons and books about the spiritual history of Meteora. Past 5 short doors (just tall enough for me to walk through without bending down) to what I guessed were living quarters was the finely decorated and preserved chapel. From floor to ceiling, every bit of plaster was covered with iconic paintings of biblical characters and Greek martyrs.
The second stop was Varlaam, quite a bit larger than Roussanou. Quite a bit of construction was going on here with jackhammering and scaffolding. Originally there were 20 some spires with monasteries. Today there are only 6. Much like the first, Varlaam was filled with iconic paintings, old wooden tables/chairs and relics from as early as the 14th century.
My last stop was to the highest and largest monastery Megalou Meteora. Though all signs indicated these were working monasteries, this one was filled with an extensive amount of Greek war memorabilia. Some were even listed as martyrs who died for their country as confessing Christians. I found it odd that these two should be mixed so intrinsically. The old refectory had long wooden tables set up for a typical monks' meal and the center of the room was filled with 4'x6' paintings of Greek war heroes. Far down in the basement of the monastery was the Ecclesiastical Museum where old icons from the 14, 16 and 18th centuries were kept with various scrolls, bibles, music books and vestments. Strangely, the older pieces were in far better condition than the more recent ones.
Finally the time came to return from the high places and think about getting some food. About 1/3 of the way down my feet started to ache and 3/4 of the way they were throbbing.
This still left the 2km walk back to the hotel. I had planned to stop for dinner in
Kastraki, but every place I checked was closed up tight at 5pm. Perhaps it was too early for dinner. I stopped in to the hotel to rest my feet for a half hour and then headed to downtown Kalampaka to find food. The suggested place to dine by the hotel staff eluded me, so I stopped in at a bakery to grab dessert for later. I'm not sure what it's called, but it appears to be made of alternating layers of thin chocolate cake and cream filling topped with white frosting and a layer of orange/yellow goo that created a tangy, fruity flavor on top. I stopped at an expensive looking restaurant where it turns out for E10.25 I could explode myself on beef in red sauce (with that same strange hint of sweet/spice as the lamb), lemon baked potatoes and rice with a glass of white wine. Absolutely delicious! So was the dessert by the way.
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