I got to sleep in today, since I will only need to head out about noon to visit all the 6 monasteries in Meteora.
Before arriving, I thought I would had to take a tour to see them, which would had cost me about €50.
The hostel owner Stella, said I can catch a 12noon bus to the 1st monastery, and also showed me with a map the path I can take to walk all of them.
Although I get to leave for the monasteries later than planned, I need to be mentally prepared to be walking a lot today.
So after buying a Gyros from a nearby store to have for lunch up in Meteora, I made my way to the bus stop.
The bus arrived at about 12.05pm and took just about 10 mins to get me to the 1st monastery - Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapafsas at Meteora.
And then a 15 mins climb up to the top to check out the monastery.
The view from the top was really nice, and from here I can also see Monastery of Varlaam from a distance.
I didn't really go inside the Saint Nicholas, but managed to glanced a little - it looked rather small from the outside with the frescoes on a small section that I got to see.
The entrance to each of the monastery is €3, not much, but I wasn't planning to enter all of them, so was being selective.
After taking quite a few pictures at the top, I made my way down at 1pm and headed to the next monastery that requires going on an off road trail and walking uphill for about 30 minutes.
The trail was relatively dry and wasn't too challenging to navigate. I also managed to get a good view of Saint Nicholas from the trek.
The next monastery I got to was The Great Meteoron Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Saviour.
Before getting there, Stella had already made known to me that this monastery is closed for the month of February. Such a pity, because Great Meteoron is the largest out of the 6 in the area, and I would have loved to go in.
View from the outside was impressive though.
It was already 1.40pm and I was quite hungry, so stopped to have my Gyro while I admire the view.
I can also see Varlaam and Rousanos from here!
The walk to Varlaam is probably the easiest out of the lot as it was just a 10 mins walk, which was mostly downhill, before having to climb the stairs up to the monastery.
I decided to enter Varlaam, which was about 2.25pm by the time I got to the ticket counter. For women entering any of the monasteries, we are required to wear a skirt which Stella had loaned me.
Varlaam was quite big - It had a small Chapel, a nursing home, the main Chapel, a museum and even a wine storage room with a barrel that can hold 12,000 Lt of liquid!
Varlaam closes at 3pm which was about the amount of time it took me to complete seeing the Monastery.
Off to the next one - Holy Monastery Roussanou - Saint Barbara. I knew it closes at 2pm, but I still made my way over anyway as I wanted to see it a little more close up.
While walking towards Roussanou, I got to see Varlaam from far. It was also around this time that I got to hear the church bells of Varlaam going off, something which I would not have heard if I hadn't gone down towards Roussanou.
I almost forgot there was a shortcut up towards the main path from Roussanou to the next monastery, until I started climbing and saw an off road trail.
By this time I had only 2 more monasteries left to visit, which was at the other end of the road and would take me 45 mins to walk to the closest one (Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora), and another 15 mins to walk to the last one (Monastery of St. Stephan).
The route passes along a stretch of rocks which were popular for people to climb on and to also catch sunset.
It's also at this point you will get to see 5 out of the 6 monasteries (St. Stephan is not viewable from this angle), and of course I also had to get some shots from up here!
I even got photo bombed by a cat! 😂
Visiting the monasteries is a calculated affair because of the different opening and closing times, and days! As it was already almost 4pm by the time I left the sunset panoramic point, I knew I would have no chance of visiting Holy Trinity, and a possibility of making it just about 10 mins before St. Stephan closes.
So I quickly walked over to St. Stephan and made it just in time to see the entire monastery.
The Orthodox frescoes were starting to get tired on me by now, especially since I had seen a number of amazing ones in Kosovo Desan and Pejë, although the ones at Meteora are a lot fresher and vibrant in colour.
A fantastic panoramic view of Kalampaka Town can also be seen from this monastery.
The electric gates had to be specially opened for me while I was leaving, which surprised a couple of travellers who were hoping to visit it as I was leaving.
The good thing about walking is that I get to see a lot more that I may not get to see while I go on a tour or drive. As I made my way out, I got to see a herd of goats making their way home with the Shepherd, against the backdrop of St. Stephan. How adorable is this!
To get back to Kalampaka, I was told there is a walking path from below Holy Trinity, so I walked back towards Holy Trinity and catch the last bit of sunset.
There were too much heavy clouds at the bottom, so this would likely be the best I can get for a sunset.
On the way down, I met another traveller Alaister from UK who is a digital nomad. He gives online tuition and thus able to work from almost anywhere and basically have been seeing almost the whole world while working about 3 to 4 days a week, wherever he wants. What an amazing work-life.
Coincidentally, he is also staying in the same hostel and also got in yesterday, but we didn't meet until only up at Meteora.
By the time we got back to the hostel, if was already about 6.30pm and it was starting to get really dark. My legs were getting wobbly and exhausted after all that walking.
After a short rest in the hostel, I headed out to get dinner at a restaurant (Ταξίμι Τσιπουράδικο - Μεζεδοπωλείο) that I saw yesterday which looked really quaint and had great reviews on Google.
I ordered the sausages (1 stuffed with pork and cheese, and the other is beef) which was surprisingly quite filling. I was also given a complimentary glass of tsiporou, which tasted really nice! I much prefer this to ouzo.
It also reminds me of raki in Albania, but the tsiporou I had was much more elegant and well balanced with a slight fruity and spice note.
Time to head back to rest my legs!
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