Meteora and only Meteora "Soaring in the clouds"
And now MetEora. The road ahead was long enough and therefore the tour began well, sooo early. Slowly gathering herself, trying not to wake her friends, she set off. At the reception, I took the ordered lan-box and, to my joy, was invited to breakfast, although the restaurant was still closed, there was only preparation for breakfast, a cup of coffee in the morning on the road was very good and nice attention to vacationers. And now I’m already waiting for the bus, and, as always, a minibus arrives every minute and the first thought is: such a long road in such a car will be very uncomfortable. But when we arrived at the meeting point with the whole group, fortunately, the bus, as always, was large, comfortable, with air conditioning, despite the fact that there were not very many people, the tour took place. MetEora is mainland Greece, so our journey began with a ferry to the mainland. We had to cross by ferry and it was very cool, in the rays of the rising sun the coast appeared before us and, indeed, what appeared before us was very reminiscent of Venice.
These minibuses brought us to the port from different hotels
And we are already on the ferry
And despite the fact that it was not very hot on the water, I determined for myself that it was even cool, almost everyone was on the deck and admired the magnificent views.
And now a fuzzy outline appeared on the horizon, this is the port of Igoumenitsa. Having moored to the shore, we got off the ferry, loaded onto the bus and, under the interesting stories of the guide, set off to conquer the mainland.
The port of Igoumenitsa is on the horizon
this is the bus on which we went further
The road ran through a mountainous area, and then everyone noticed that the vegetation here is completely different, not like in Corfu. And the attendant confirmed our saying that Greece has everything, and even snow, so fur coats from Greece are normal.
small villages passed by
and such pictures amused everyone a lot
And these houses with stars located near the road shovel snow in winter while cleaning the road. Having passed a large number of tunnels, various interchanges, bridges, we moved closer and closer to our goal. The road was completely new, free and it was a real pleasure to drive.
And now, turning onto country roads and climbing higher and higher into the mountains.
And finally, the mountains open before us and here we are at the foot and, as always, we were taken to a small shop where they told how icons are painted, and there those who wished to buy icons and souvenirs, we were also offered to taste local wine and lemonade. And, quickly jumping on the bus, we eagerly set off.
The first stop was at the observation deck, from it you could see five monasteries, we took a lot of pictures, we didn’t want to leave, but we had to move towards the monasteries. It should be noted that we were very lucky with the weather: the sun shone through the clouds, a slight breeze - all this gave us a "quiet" walk and look, not languishing from the heat.
The best option is of course a car and your own boss to stay overnight in Kalambaka and in the morning, start exploring, slowly and enjoying the beauties and energy of these places. But this is not our option.
But then a surprise awaited us, not a very pleasant one. Our attendant and driver were simply shocked. We saw so many buses, cars and people walking that the first thought was that we simply would not get there. But our guide and driver offered to walk a bit in order to have time to see everything planned, however, it was a pity that there were only two monasteries in the program, but it was clear that it would not work in any other way, because we had to catch the last ferry, not to stay on the mainland.
We were to visit the monastery of St. Varlaam and St. Barbara and it was completely incomprehensible how it was possible to build all this in those days when there were no cars, and all this was lifted in baskets and other devices on winches. They also lifted food and monks who lived in monasteries, of course, they made convenient approaches for tourists, stairs, as far as the terrain allows, observation platforms, church benches were made where you can buy icons, put a candle. But those small rooms that have been preserved and in which the relics are located have extraordinary energy, but they are so small that you have to stand in line.
While we were climbing, looking around the area and listening to stories, our wonderful driver managed to taxi our bus to the very entrance and we drove to the next monastery without any delay.
On this road we descended to the monastery of St. Barbara
That's it, first we descended from one mountain and then climbed another.
After descending from the monastery of St. Barbara, we admired everything a little more and, of course, we had to bring a little pebble from these places.
Probably everyone perceives this in their own way, but that no one remained indifferent was clear from communication and conversations.
We go down to the city, where we have lunch planned for those who wish, but the time is so short and so I go for a walk around the village, and there are mountains and another monastery nearby - it was not visible at all from the observation deck.
And now we are already on the bus going back so as not to be late for the ferry and a little down from the mountains we find ourselves in the center of a thunderstorm, where thunder, lightning and such heavy rain that the road was not visible, but having overcome the thundercloud, we safely reached of the ferry and having set off from the shore, lightning, thunder, thunder flew after the ferry. This is how mainland Greece saw us off.
And once again I was surprised that people who come to such places without knowing the language understand perfectly and try to help each other. And now, in the rays of the setting sun, they moored to the shore and drove comfortably to their hotels.
And this was my last excursion, it was the last day and home. But, no matter how they searched, they didn’t find an unusual pebble from our beach and forgot to throw a coin into the sea, probably many will laugh at this, but we had such a tradition and we broke it. Who will be in Greece, and even better in Corfu, throw any coin for us!! !
I will be very grateful if you help us, because there are still many interesting things that we have not seen yet!!!
