We were some of the first in our refuge to awaken, and we did not see anyone but one or two people as we voyaged out onto the trail after our breakfast. The first portion of the route was an easy mostly flat skirting of Stefanie peak dotted with a couple Balkan chamois. We also ran into a fella who was super lost and thought Mystikas, the highest point on Mount Olympus, was some little hill behind our refuge. We explained that he was wrong and that he could follow us. We picked up another lost gal at the turn off up the class 3 scramble.
The scrambling was fun and the only real danger was loose rocks which we simply took caution to not knock any off onto the gal and guy below us. Slowly we climbed our way up to the top of Mystikas to enjoy the sea and rocky views and to pose by the Grecian flag amongst flowing prayer flags.
We decided to scramble back down the class three rocks and then hike on new territory to Prionia. Along the way we passed a board of teenagers being guided, more wildflowers and bejeweled horses, and a heap of switchbacks.
When we reached Prionia, we had the decision to hike another five miles or catch a ride. A fella we had hiked a bit with had a car and offered us a ride, so we took advantage. It was a good thing we did because he is an Israeli guide who was not only interesting to chat with, but also knew about a Mount Olympus museum that had just opened at the bottom of the hill just a couple days prior. The three of us drove down from the trailhead to the museum and admired it's fabulous layout, descriptions, and photos.
He dropped us off at the bottom of town and we looked for bus information. We could not find anything, so we just returned to our house to pick up our bags. The people we were staying with were so incredibly nice. They looked up the train schedule and gave us espresso and a local cherry jam to consume. It was delicious and they had made it themselves. On top of everything, they then drove us the five kilometers back to the train station for our trip to Kalambaka. They were definitely some of the best hosts I have ever had.
Our train was on strike, but thankfully still running. We just had to switch trains in Larissa and keep going. I had reserved us a room at the Tsilei Hotel in Kaseraki which I discovered was just two kilometers from Kalambaki thanks to a visit it a coffee/bar full of men and wifi. The scenery with its massive pinnacles was so beautiful, we decided to just walk to our hotel to better take them in and save some money. The walk was gloriously scenic and we reached our hotel in time to get some more great views from our balcony. We settled in, did a loop around Kastraki, then found a taverna near our hotel for local Greek food and a Eurocup game.
We had looked into climbing at Meteora, but people wanted to charge us 125 euros per person. No thanks. We can easily return to Athens in the future with our own gear, take a train to Kalambaka, and climb for free. Instead of climbing, the day after our arrival, we saw what most tourists come here to see--the monasteries. And we saw them...all. During the summer only one of them is closed per day, but we saw all five of the open ones and even walked by the one that was closed. This may not seem like a big deal, but these monasteries mostly have a bazillion steps to walk up and the weather was hot, hot, hot. We were glad we weren't climbing because it was so intensely toasty.
We bought an all day city bus ticket that circles past all the monasteries. We visited the most popular monastery first, the Grand Metereon, in order to avoid the crowds. We trudged up the ascending stairs, paid our three euros each (it is the same cost at every monastery) and got our first introduction to Orthodox monasteries. They each have a chapel with painted walls usually with the outer room with scary scenes of neomartyrs getting tortured or people getting tortured at the second coming. The inner chapel typically had pictures from the life of Christ, the iconostasis blocking the most holy places with its paintings of (from right to left) John the Baptist, Jesus, Mary and baby Jesus, and finally the Saint of the chapel. Jesus looks down from the most high ceiling and lamps hang down from this area. Somewhere around the chapel might be a holy relic to find. We discovered a skull in a box in our last chapel of the day. It also had the most fantastic fish monster with a red curving beam full of demons until it reached the bottom of Jesus' feet above it.
One can also find signs to "the net". This is where supplies or monks would be hauled up in a net from the ground way up high hundreds of feet to the monastery. In the past there were not the carved steps of today in the side of the rock. This was on purpose to protect themselves from antimonastic folks. They also sometimes used long wooden ladders that could be brought up in times of need. Now they still use the area of the net, but there are giant cables with metal container to haul the monks and supplies. It seemed like a lot the monasteries are doing repair work, so they were moving a lot of concrete bags.
Another interesting aspect of the monasteries were the planks of wood and three chained pieces of metal. I kept wondering what they were until finally there was an English explanation at the last monastery. Apparently the monks and nuns hit these items with a mallet to call people to worship. This is an allusion to Noah knocking on the side of the ark to call the animals inside before the flood.
In regard to the specific monasteries, the grand Meteoron had three different museums inside it. One had pictures and items from World War Two and other historical conflicts. The second held old religious vestments and other religious items like chalices and canes. The final museum possessed ancient books handwritten by monks, some even back to the early hundreds. Apparently they were saved by monks hiding them away somewhere in the monasteries during attacks.
We visited the Varlaam monastery next which had a fun winding staircase. We missed the next bus, so we took our time and chatted with a touring biker. Finally our bus arrived and we visited the one monk residing Saint appolos monastery. It may have been our favorite because we were the only tourists, it had a shaded terrace, nice frescos, and felt very peaceful.
Our fourth monastery was actually and nunnery. Darren wanted to explore a trail, so I went in by myself and somehow became surrounded by a group of Russians. It was a good monastery for him to skip because the only thing to see was a small chapel, and the Russians were a bit pushy in it. I went outside and hauled it up the mountainside to try to catch Darren and obscond my curiosity. I didn't find him, but I found another heap of Russians at a lookout. I booked it back down the hill and met Darren at the bus stop. We waited for a good fifteen to twenty minutes trying to stay cool in the shade and trying to pet a snooty cat.
The last monastery would not be open for a couple hours, so we took the bus to Kalambaka for some power lounging at a coffee shop and to take a look around the town. We ended up being at the wrong bus stop and missed our bus, so sucked it up and paid ten euros for a taxi to take us past the plains up to another nunnery. For this one all we had to do was cross a bridge instead of hike up a bazillion stairs. The nunnery had a lot of beautiful flowers and, as aforementioned, some pretty wild frescoes. The nuns were on hand to explain different aspects of the paintings, but unfortunately we could not understand them.
We relaxed until the sun lost some of its power, and then walked up the road past the monastery that was closed for the day, and down a path through the woods that took us all the way back to Kalambaka. Along the way we kept wishing we had mountain bikes because of the incredible cobblestone paths and nice slope of the trail. From Kalambaka to Kastraki we traveled along dirt paths where we found a turtle, roosters, and loads of wildflowers. We stopped at a taverna with an actively spinning spit for imam (Cooked vegetables) and mousaka. It was a delicious way to end our very active day.
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