Visiting Meteora, one of the most spectacular sights in the world

Greece has one of the most spectacular sights for a trip in the world. Many are the times it seemed impossible when I saw dramatic photos of ancient monasteries on tour brochures and internet, perched on the top of gigantic rock. I kept wondering what is it and where it is. Meteora is a featured highlight in Greece mainland that attracted me together with my two friends to pay a big visit around Greece.

The Greek monasteries were the main cause, ultimate goal and prerequisite of the route. We alighted at Athens Airport where we had to choose the means of transport to Meteora, either KTEL bus allocated at Liossion Street or OSE train from Larissa station. It took five hours to travel from Athens to Kalampaka, a small town underneath the monasteries and towering cliffs. After settling down in Kalampaka, we took our first lunch at Archontariki, located at west of Town Hall square. Here I was served with Briam, a roasted oven vegetable casserole with zucchinis and potatoes dipped in olive oil and tomatoes that went for 8 Euros only. Arriving at midday gave us an opportunity for a simple afternoon hike from the monasteries at the top ending in the dinner time at the village of Kalampaka. We took our dinner and spent the night at Hotel Rex. Accommodation charges were Euros 45 for double room with private washrooms. You can check other options like late holiday deals with Icelolly (to compare prices) or finding local hosts with Couchsurfing (if you would like to meet local people).

In the next day, we decided to start our hike on the western trail that would easily take the whole day. The western trail comprises of four magnificent monasteries. The path was to start at the top from the monastery of the Great Meteoron, passing Varlaam and Roussanou monastery in a short distance, then trail along the main road past monastery of St. Nicholas, then along the plain at a distance of 6km towards Kalampaka. In the morning, we boarded KTEL bus to ride from Kalampaka to the main site of Orthodox worshipers, monastery of Great Meteoron. Upon entrance to the monastery, we were required to cover our legs and since we were all on our hiking shorts, we had to be offered with long pants from the monastery. The Great Meteoron monastery is at the highest elevation. Its view provided a nice bird's eye view of hiking paths to other monasteries.

From Great Meteoron, we took a short walk about 500m along the main road to Varlaam monastery, then another walkwith sharp turns of about 1. 5 km lead to Roussanou which operated as a nunnery. The road became more sharp past Roussanou, we continued with the walk towards the bottom of monastery of St. Anapafsasthat was about 2. 5 km. At this point, we followed a foot path on the south leading to Kstraki village where we took a bus to ride back to kalampaka.

On the following day, we were to visit the Eastern trail that connects from the top monastery of St. Stephen, hiking down the chasm towards bottom of Holy Trinity monastery. We speculated the hike to take half a day as any we have been on. We started the trail in the afternoon at 14:00. A taxi trip took us from Kalampaka to St. Stephen Monastery. The route had many hair pin curves, for unfamiliar drivers, the corners could spell a tragedy but the local cabbies had admirable skill to negotiate the bends. St. Stephen monastery overlooks the Kalampaka town directly on a vertical cliff of 300m, after 15 minutes we were dropped at the monastery. At this view we appreciated the collective claim of monasteries as most precious buildings. We then took a walk along the plateau for 15 minutes that lead us to a precarious sight. The site had a crude pulley-wire system with a cable car of a single person hanging vertically for a few hundred metres. The cable car led to monastery of Holy Trinity. From the bottom of Holy Trinity, there were trails that went up to the elevation. We circled up, cleft out of vertical rocks towards the Holy Trinity. Each monastery charged us two euros as the entrance fee. Then we travelled towards Kalampaka through the deep valley. The entire Eastern trail took about 3 hours for leisurely walking and 2 hours for sightseeing the two monasteries.

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