MONASTERIES in KASTRAKI

Day 82
Kalambaka
Hotel Astoria

After waking up late...and eating breakfast of turkey and cheese sandwiches that we got from the local supermarket just up the road from our hotel....we took it easy...which we needed to do, after our exhausting last few days.

When we found the bus to Meteora where the huge rock pinnacles with the monasteries are, we were told they had finished for the day! It was 11am!

So we had to use our lateral thinking brains and work out what to do. Catch the local bus to Kastraki, 2km's away from here in Kambalaka....and then walk to the monasteries from there. Afterall, we're fit!

And that's what we did. Kastraki is a beautiful little town. We asked prices at some of the accomodation there and they said it was 35 Euro for the night, which we thought was pretty reasonable. We saw a hotel called, "Sydney" too. It had a map of Australia on it...with Perth and Geraldton on there as well!

Anyway...we headed up to the monasteries which were perched on top of the ominous and huge mountainous rock pinnacles...honestly they really loomed. So imposing. Greg was so impressed he overloaded the camera. Must be a man thing I reckon..being so impressed by all these towering natural structures! It was impressive though...so i shouldn't mock!

We trekked our way up, talked to some british people about the directions (none) and basically just followed the erect rock towers looming at us! We tried to stay off the main roads as they were high up, winding, and the buses going up there made me feel a bit scared to say the least.

We climbed up to 6 of the monasteries and entered two. The first one being St Nicholas which was something very different to anything i've ever seen. Amazing. I'm still in wonderment at how these monks lived there. They are genuinely the hardest (and had to be) places to enter. Hidden monasteries. I could just imagine them secretly praying in there. We were allowed in but i had to put on a skirt as part of the law. (it said on a notice) I'm glad they had sarongs for those of us women wearing pants. The second monastery was St Catherines that was perched on top of a tall rectangular mountain.

We spent a lot of time reflecting at the top of these rocks. Imagining the lives of these monks. We saw the Nunnery where current day nuns still live as well. That is a new building, but they still go to pray at the old monasteries.

We headed back on a track that was just that..a track. On a little known road. I was thinking, i'm glad mum knows where we are in case a search party needs to look for us! It was so peaceful though. Caves, tortoises crawling around, snakes, frogs.....and fantasic views of Kastraki below. We enjoyed the walk.

Two hours later, after also walking around Old Kastraki with the cobblestone streets and old colourful greek buildings with the imposing mountainus backdrop we were sitting at a resturant in Kastraki drinking local greek wine and eating grilled chicken, homemade patatas and greek salad. Followed by ouzo, the greek drink we were first introduced to by George and Robyn and eating icecream.

We laughed hysterically as we recalled our conversation from the night before...when we were discussing having a 'holiday' from travelling!!!!

No kidding. We are finding some parts of travelling very challenging. And it can be quite exhaustive. But we want to see as much as we can for the time period we have..and we are planning to be in the UK by the beginning of June! And we still have Turkey to see! (where Grandpop was in WW2).

The stress of it!! Hahahahaha!

So...we were thinking...we need to stay put for a week or two somewhere, where we can just relax, eat and sleep! A ship cruise? Back to a place we've been? Somewhere we haven't been?...Back home to Australia? haha!

But for now...here we are...in a greek internet cafe, along with about 15 teenagers playing their internet computer games, blogging and plotting! Or...really, we are 'blotting' because Greg's missing bits out of what he's plotted for us to do, and i'm missing bits out of the blogs because the keyboard i'm using is absolutely impossible and this is taking me twice as long to type! Oh, Greg said he just saw the U Tube clip you sent Marguerite..and he loves the message and is happy you thought of us :-)

You know, there might be little reflections of travelling being tiring..(we've all heard the adage, 'need to go home to have a holiday' after we've been away) but then, we think of how much we have already accomplished, the most fantastic places we've seen and been to already, a quarter of the way through our journey. And how compatible we are and how we are living in the 'now' and living our dream...and we realise just how blessed we both are.

Athens next!

PS Thanks CWDazzla, for the email! Miss you heaps xx