Today was a very good day.

It started with me moving to a different hotel. The one I was at was somewhere between bad and pathetic and I didn’t feel like staying there another night. So for ten euros more I upgraded to a great place under the rocks of Meteora. Check-in at the new place was something like 1400, but I figured if I wanted to get an early start on the rocks then I’d go as early as I could and hope that they’d store my bags. The owner here was perfect, he first was confused why I was there since I made the reservation late last night he didn’t even know, then he offered me coffee and juice in the little café that they have here. The best thing he did was to give me a map and tell me how to get up to Meteora and what to do while I was there. See, I have been picking my spots that I’m going to in Greece based on the itinerary that I found in a tour that I saw. So I know the spots, but not the logistics of how to make it happen.

Probably the best way to describe where I am at is to straighten out some things that I’ve written incorrectly in the last entry. First, Meteora is an UNESCO World Heritage location. It is a collection of monasteries on the top of some very big rocks, maybe they’re not rocks, but hills…no they’re rocks. Anyway, there are two cities that sit below Meteora and the one that I’m staying at is Kalambaka. It’s a tourist town that is really charming in the way that Delfi was. It seems that everyone knows everyone and all the people that I’ve had contact with have been very nice. So the city itself is great but I’m here for Meteora.

From the hotel about 50 meters away a trail starts and leads up to one of the monasteries. The trail is a mix of concrete, gravel, and plain old dirt, there is one common denominator and that is no matter the type of trail, they all went up. It took me about 40 minutes to get to the first monastery, but it was a good warm up for what was ahead. From the first monastery all the other monasteries were on a paved road spread out over, I think the map said 7km. I did take a detour up a hill to see a river that was marked on the map, another 7km if I’d made it. The road just kept going up, and I mean it when I say, it just kept going up. After about 3km I finally realized that I would be way too tired if I walk the whole way so I turned around and went back. Defeat….

Most of the rest of afternoon was just going to monastery to monastery, that is until I hit last one. On the map there was a trail marked that lead to a statue about a few kilometers from the last monastery, I still had the energy so I decided to do it. This part is what made the day so good.

The trail isn’t marked on the road and the only indication there was that there was a trail, was you could see bent over grass heading up the hill, so that’s where I went. I walked for only about a half hour, until I turned a corner and this beautiful vista came into view. I could try to explain it, but images would do better. The one thing to be aware of is that the images don’t capture the awe that I had when I was sitting there. I can’t stress enough how awestruck I actually was. I was sitting on this huge rock staring out into this vista when a wave of, “I can’t believe I’m actually seeing this!” would come over me. The next thought was I’m so lucky. I sat there for about at least thirty minutes just staring out into the distance.

Once I got back to walking it didn’t take me long to actually see the statue in the distance. Which I should say was a relief because the trail I’m walking on is a real trail, nothing is marked except for some pile of stones that others have left to remind them the direction they came from. As I walked up to the statue I noticed another monastery built into the rocks. What a nice surprise. I think that at the time I was stunned, like I had stumbled onto something that no one else knew was there. The view was pretty good there too. I must have taken about fifty photographs of the statue, monastery, and the view. One of the best things was except for the wind and an occasional bug it was completely quiet, there was no cars, no screaming kids, nothing but nature. After at least twenty minutes of feeling lucky, I decided it was time to head back. I started my hike at about 9, and although I didn’t know what time it was, I figured that I had been out for about 6 hours.

The hike down was fun, it was very steep and poorly marked. I never really knew if I was going in the right direction. Eventually I hit a dirt road and followed it until I could see the main road, then it was back to society. The walk from the statue to the main road took at least an hour, maybe longer, but still I hadn’t seen one person. The crunch of the gravel under my feet was like music. From the main road to my hotel took about an hour and a half and by the time I got there I was so tired that I was wired… if you know what I mean. I got back to the hotel at 4:30, and I have no clue how far I walked but it had to be close to 20 miles. I drank three and half liters of water, and had sweated so much the salt in the sweat had left rings all over my shirt and backpack. I took about 200 photographs in total, more than I think I have at any one location this year. I thoroughly enjoyed it though.

After doing some laundry I headed down to the main street of the city to get something to eat and have a couple of beers. I back now and it’s almost time for me to go to bed.

So today was a very good day.

Okay, so I’m not really complaining, more like looking for some sympathy from anyone reading this post. The place that I was at was a real dive, not the kind of dive that’s okay, it’s the kind that you feel kind of dirty, or maybe you feel like you were ripped off by renting it. There was a lot of things that weren’t okay, but the one thing that I didn’t know how to react to was the view outside the only window I had. Tell me what you think. :)

0915:

The bus I’m on is inching its way up the side of the mountain, it’s going slowly so I thought that this would be a good chance to summarize my thoughts about Delfi. I really liked the town a lot. It had all the charm of a small town, the kind that if it was on the beach I would love to have stayed for a week or two. My ultimate destination this morning is Meteora but since it’s Friday I can’t go directly there, I have to do a series of transfers until I make my way to the place where supposedly monasteries appear to be floating.

Last night I felt like having a beer and watching the sun go down, so I headed out of the hotel about 8. The problem with traveling by yourself, one of the problems of traveling by yourself, is that it’s hard to go out for a beer without drinking too much. At least for me it’s hard. I tend to drink way too fast when I’m not talking, and that’s what happened last night. I didn’t over-drink, but within an hour I felt that I needed to get back to the hotel. Nevertheless the view of the valley below as the sun went down was spectacular.

1036:

I’m at the train station in Livadela and it is absolutely perfect. The station is a small, two-track station that looks like it was built in the 30’s or 40’s. From what I can tell there are about 5 or 6 buildings, but only two are being used, the rest seem to have been abandoned, the sun is beating down, there are only a couple of people here, and the sound of cicadas is almost deafening. So why is that so great? I guess in my mind I feel like I was transported back fifty years or so to simpler time. There aren’t any vending machines, there are no queues for anything, no one is pushing or rushing, it just seems like if you were to visualize a train station out of an old movie, this would be it, with some exceptions of course. My train leaves in about an hour for Larisa, and from there I need to take a bus or maybe a train to Meteora. The guy in charge couldn’t tell me which would be the better option, so I’ll have to wait until I get there to see. On a side note, I’m really enjoying this part of Greece much like I liked Turkey. There is a sense of maturity here, though I’m not sure that’s the best way to describe it, it’s relaxed in a way that feels comfortable but not boring… though no doubt there are a lot of people that would say it was boring.

Damn. The station is filling up with people completely wrecking my groove. I hate when that happens. ☺

3:30

I’m in Larisa waiting for my bus to Trikala It turns out that I have to go there, to catch a bus to Meteora. On my way from the train station to the bus station I wasn’t very confident that I could find the station on my own, so I ended up asking just about everyone that I saw where it was. There was this one guy that I asked that told me that I was going in the wrong direction, so he started walking… I followed. He was older than me, smaller than me, but walked faster than me. Mind you I had both of my backpacks on so I was slower than usual, and I did keep up with him. After about 15 minutes we walk into the station, he orders the tickets, and then leaves. I tried to buy him a drink, coffee or water or something, but all he would accept is a handshake. Nice guy. When I took off my backpack I can’t believe how sweaty I’d become. It was so humiliating that I went and changed my shirt.

17:22

I’m leaving the station of Trikala heading for Kalambaka.

1800

Made it. It’s a nice town so far. I didn’t have a reservation anywhere so I just kind of walked around until I found someplace. I make it sound like I made an effort to find a place when in reality I looked at some hotels, found one to try, which isn’t a hotel at all, but a place that had a sign, “Rooms” outside. I rented a room there… big mistake.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the journey today. I went to what, four cities, rode on a train and three buses (or was it four?) and saw more of Greece than I think I would of if I had gone any other way. In the end it was a journey of domino type of events and to my surprise everything worked as it should have. It was a good day. ☺

I spent two nights in Athens and except for going to the base of the Acropolis a couple of times I didn’t do any exploring. I was here not that long ago and although there were probably things that I didn’t see back when I was here before, there wasn’t anything that I felt that I must see. So anyway, I have left Athens this morning for Delphi. In fact that’s where I am right now.

My bus left Athens at 10:30 and got to Delphi about two hours later. It was a good trip, we only stopped for a break and other than that it was a straight drive here. Delphi is an ancient city/ruins that is next to the city of Delfi… I think that’s the way it is at least. The road signs coming here all said Delfi, but the signs to the ruins said, Delphi. Delfi is a quaint little city that is nestled on the side of a mountain. It’s main street is just wide enough for one row of parked cars and one lane for moving cars. The streets wind around like a lot of other cities in Europe, but this has that “tourist” feel that sometimes I hate, but other times I love. This time I love it. My hotel is on the main street, my balcony, where I’m writing this entry, overlooks the street. It’s just a really nice place.

First thing that I did after checking into the hotel was to head to the ruins of Delphi. Delphi isn’t that far from the city, in fact the reception at the hotel said it’s only one kilometer away. Delphi rests just like Delfi on the side of a mountain and for that matter, on the same main road. I was kind of excited to see the ruins, but just like Pompeii I felt a little bit underwhelmed when I walked through it. The Greeks do archeological sites in a very strict way. If you’ve read other posts last year, or was it two years ago, when I mentioned that Jordan lets you wander anywhere you want to go. In those posts I also mentioned that it makes things a little bit more fun to search the site for something that others possibly haven’t seen. The Greeks aren’t that way, they rope off everything and limit nearly every possible deviation from the main trail. This method makes it almost like you’re in a zoo, you stay on the path and look at things from a distance. So I digress, the site had a few interesting buildings, such as the treasury and the stadium. And just like Pompeii, I’m glad that I went it was interesting.

I didn’t mention the heat. It was hot today, the kind of hot that you feel like you’re being burned when you’re in the direct sunlight. It would have been perfect if I were on the beach or maybe next to a pool, but hiking up and down hills I started to wear out. So on the way back I stopped at a little shop near one part of the ruins and went for an iced tea, but first asked how much. He told me that it was 3 Euros, so I declined. I understand, and for the most part don’t have any problems with upping prices for tourists, but I just don’t want to spend about $5 for a can of iced tea. As I was walking away the guy started to get a little “upset” with me. He tells me that, “…this isn’t a grocery store.” He also informs me that the view is worth the extra money. I apologized several times, but even as I was out of the shop I could still hear him saying things behind me. Oh well. ☺

I’m writing this after the fact, in fact right now I’m sitting on my balcony in my hotel in Delfi, so bear with me. Athens is cool and all, but I’ve been there before, and to be honest the location of my hotel wasn’t that good. It was close to the things that I needed like grocery stores, bus stops, and even fairly close to the Acropolis, but it was also close to lots of young guys just hanging around a gambling place and just a block away was the corner of choice for a handful of prostitutes. Yeah, I know sounds kind of unsavory, especially about the prostitutes. It was, and honestly it took me a couple of times walking past them to realize that they were ladies of the evening. I guess I’m just naïve in that way because I’m walking past checking them out thinking that they were cute, that was until one showed me way too much attention. At that point I put my head down and didn’t look up again, in fact from then on I went a different way when I left the hotel.

I went to the Acropolis a couple of times, maybe three times, but never actually went up to take photos. I still remember being there on spring break a few years ago and taking literally hundreds of pictures. This time I was just walking around the base of the city, checking out the souvenir shops and sampling some of the food being sold. It was fun, but nothing great. The only real difference between the time I was here before and now was that there was way more people now. I think I like better with more people. So no great pictures, no fun stories to tell, and nothing special happened, just a good time.