METEORA

Made it to Kalanbaka, but not on the bus. This time I chose the train as a nice change. It  had bathrooms, a snack car and you could walk around a bit. It was about like our Amtrak.Kalanbaka is the larger town in area called Meteroa, famous for its unique rock formations.

Meteora is derived from the Greek meteoros, meaning suspended in air , and the English word  meteor is from the same root. Perhaps more interesting is that about 26 monestaries were built on these rock formations, primarily as bastions for the monks to escape the bloodshed as the Byzantine empire was collapsing and other peoples were moving in. These inaccessible fortresses allowed the monks to safely pursue their peaceful monastic lives.   The area has six or so surviving monasteries and is a UN World Heritage site.

However the monasteries of old is not really what you see today.  The monasteries have been modernized over the years.  Yes the Meteora is still wonderful but roads have been put in and steps have been carved in the rocks to allow visitors. The monks now use cable cars to get across the from the road to the monastery.  The restorations went overboard and really have been a rehab, much as you would take a Victorian house and modernize it.  I wanted to see monks and lots of them hauling up supplies with a donkey via a rope, or better still locking up the place to defend it from a bus load of tourists.  Some blood on a rock would have been nice.  Today there are only a few monks choosing to live on a big isolated rock visted by tourists.  I can't say I blame them.

I went to the more isolated monastery for great views of the other monasteries.  I could see four of the six and was on the fifth.  It was a moderate  isolated hike through a gorge and hike up to the rock.  I hiked up from the valley floor village where I am staying to the top of the rock where the monastery was built.  It was about the hikes I do blueberry picking.

 For the lazy and infirmed, the buses bring the tourists on the road who have to walk a path and climb 125 steps up.   I show  a couple of my pics but the area deserves many more.  And below are lots of them on two links for you to enjoy.  It is another side of Greece very different from the Acropolis and isles such as Santorini and Mykynos that we are used to seeing .

https://www.google.com/search?q=meteora+images&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=6SdnUr_hIMO50QXlnIBg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=656


These are Gabriele's photos of the Meteora.

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/02/mystical-magical-magnificent-monasteries-in-meteora-20-pics/

HOTEL AND FELLOW TRAVELER

The hotel was great and run by two savvy women.  Would stay here again.  Met up with Steve a fellow traveller who, although it is hard to believe, is more thrifty than I am.  He does couch surfing to cut down on hotel bills.  I had heard of it, but thought it was just for the young who don't care where they sleep.  He is about my age,   still smarting from a divorce but getting over it with a Russian girl friend who is younger than my children.  Got suggestions for the South of France.  He leads a travel group there yearly, but apparently this is not a couch surfing trip.


IZMIR REVISITED

Izmir, the coastal Turkish city from which I flew to Athens, is not particularly memorable.  However the taxi ride to the airport was. The shuttle bus was running late and four of us plus the driver, plus luggage fit into the taxi. We had three Turks, two Chinese women working in the Sudan, and me. The story of the Chines women is interesting. They are in the travel industry. The Chinese, I have heard, are investing heavily in Africa for both natural resources and construction projects. This brings Chinese to Africa. The Chines travel agents, work in the Sudan presumably arranging travel for the many Chinese in the Sudan. The Turkish man has lived and worked in Bangor, Maine; and South Africa. He was heading to Rome on business. We split the taxi and paid the same price as the shuttle bus and all have a more interesting memory of an otherwise bland airport trip.

A couple more days in Greece, then head to the Barcelona area.  Think I will stay put a bit longer in one place, probably Avignon, but could head down to Vallencia.