April 26 Thursday Meteora

Thursday, April 26

Another good breakfast buffet this morning, and we hit the road at 8:00 for a longish ride to the town of Kalambaka and the monasteries of Meteora.  Here are our tour director, Emmie, and driver Dimitri.  She isn't yelling at him, although they speak Greek, so maybe she is!

Emmie greets us each morning with Kalimera  "Good morning" and teaches us a few other words.  Thank you, she says, is a little difficult, so we should say "Harry's Toe", which sounds close enough that Greeks will understand what we are trying to say.  Of English language's 170,000 words, about 58,000 of them have some association with Greek, especially medical and technology terms.

Today's discussions on the bus range from Healthcare in Greece, to Schools to Gypsies, and Foods. According to Emmie, there are many excellent doctors in Greece but there are some issues with other staffing and nursing care. The nurses are wonderful and hard workers but they are spread very thin, so that it is almost imperative to have a friend or family member with you in the hospital to do what we would normally think of as nurse's or nurse's aides' duties.  They are beginning to build some facilities to promote Medical Tourism, or Medical Vacations, as costs are much lower than in the U.S. so perhaps services will improve.

 The scenery is gorgeous through mountains with lots of S curves and switchbacks.  Many bee boxes along the way, as honey is used in many foods.  We also see many small shrines, which you find all over the country.  These are sometimes made in memory of someone who died nearby, or just as a memorial or "thank you" for surviving an accident.  Most of them have some sort of religious icon (not statues as Orthodox do not use statues) inside as well as a small oil lamp.  Some are kept burning and there is usually oil left there so that others can re-light the lamp if it goes out.  (We haven't seen any with a light yet).

We see many olive trees and Emmie says that from the high spot in Delphi you can see 2 million of them.  They are harvested in November through February and some now are just beginning to get blossoms.

 Greece is third in olive production after Italy and Spain.  We pass some very tall mountain peaks but Emmie said only mountain ranges are named here, not individual peaks (with a few exceptions like Mount Olympus).

Mountains with olive trees in front

We go through a farming area called Trikala which is well known for grapes.  Farmers are becoming much more ecologically aware and "going green".  We see banks of solar panels once in a while and occasional wind turbines. 

Next is a discussion of Icons.  These are 2 dimensional paintings of which we will see many at the monasteries in Meteora.  This is because Greek Orthodox do not believe in statues or 3 dimensional presentation of the human body.

We reach the town of Kalambaka where we are on our own for lunch.  We can see the towering rocks of Meteora from here.

 We walk around a bit, then settle at a family restaurant called Meteora with Diane and Doug (who are from Hershey PA).  We go to the kitchen where "grandma" shows us dishes from which to choose.  We share a salad and veal meatballs w/potatoes.  Potatoes seem to be very popular with most meals and I love the roasted ones!

Hermits were the first to occupy these towering rock formations and they lived in caves.  The monks came here to find isolation.  There are six remaining monasteries, dating back to the 1600s.  First one we see is St. Nicholas.













We continue on to Varlaam Monastery where we meet our guide,  Filipa,

and climb quite a few stairs to reach the building.  Women must have shoulders and knees covered, and pants are not allowed, so we are loaned wrap-around "skirts" to make ourselves presentable.

There are several buildings that remain private, but we go into the church, which was overwhelming!  The walls and ceilings are covered with icons in various media.  A lot of gold and silver both in icons and in candle holders, oil lamps and other items.  Most are depicting the life of Christ and various saints.  Since most people were illiterate at the time,  many paintings tell a story.  No photos are allowed inside, but there are several beautiful icons in a room that is a kind of vestibule
.

The other buildings and gardens are quite lovely.

Some of the other monasteries are visible from Varlaam and the road to St. Stephen's.  I think this one was the one featured in the James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only", which we watched before this trip.  That movie also had scenes from Corfu (Keykera in Greek).

You can see a basket here that they use to bring supplies up to the monasteries.  Can you imagine how much work and dedication it took to move all the building supplies up there?!  The only way to get up there originally was in a lowered basket - or climbing.

We travel to St. Stephen's Monastery, which is now a convent with 32 nuns.  The old St. Stephen's church is being renovated so is closed, but a newer church is open and is also quite elaborate.

  Once again, the women must put on long skirts.

 Some of the paintings are copies of those we saw at Varlaam.  Beautiful.  Outside there is a place to light candles, which many people do at all the churches we visit. There are also lovely grounds.

We are staying at the Amalia Hotel here in Kalambaka, so we head there.  Shower and dress for a group dinner at 7 PM.   A dinner is included with the tour about every 2-3 days and other times we are on our own, usually meeting up with a few others from the tour.  Tonight, we are on our own, but Emmie arranged a dinner near the rocks of Meteora for tonight for anyone interested.  A lovely spot.  Unfortunately, our order gets overlooked and then we are served a poor version of baby lamb in wine.  Oh well.  The salad was good and we shared a nice selection of cheeses as an appetizer. And you can't beat the atmosphere!