After the early alarm call, we hit the road. It is not long before I realise that Christian loves his photos. He brings us to a halt in order, as he puts it, 'to take adventure photo'. This consists of taking photos of the bikes on the move. It took a while for us to arrive at our destination, as we were routinely stopped every 20km or so, but it was well worth the wait.
Northern Greece is quite mountainous, more so than I realised, but what stands before you at Meteora is something else. Rock formations stand alone in the middle of a relatively flat section of land. The giant mass of rocks seem to have been put there. They don't represent mountains of the like I have seen before. The rocks are said to have once been inhabited but now the formations are only host to 6 monasteries perching on different summits.
Rick, Miake and I set off to take a look at the nearest monastery. I am holding the map, which turns out to be a questionable decision. Even after the local elderly ladies point us in the direction we are heading we turn up at two small churches. On closer inspection I realise the monastery has the same name as one of the churches.
The next morning I am woken by normal campsite noises, rather than goats, bells and a herder shouting in Greek. Chris and Chris have decided to split from the group as they are pushing onto Athens. Rick, Miake and I had already talked about heading to Delphi, after visiting the 2 highest monasteries. One is closed but the other has a full car park and a large mass of people being herded like sheep off a bus.
Rick is not a fan of the touristy side of traveling, so he gets a lucky break when Miake's front break seizes. It is a problem that has resurfaced, the same thing happened a few days prior to them leaving. Rick waves us away toward the monastery, he already has his tools in hand.
Legend has it that hundreds of years ago a solo monk came and scaled the rock to build a church as close to god as possible. In future years more and more monks came and a monastery was formed.
On the ascent towards the monastery we pass people who stopped for a breather. The thought comes to me of a new line of work, pilgrimage to music. It could be a big seller, God knows enough people need it! (Excuse the pun)
Miake has to select a skirt to go over her jeans. A dress code I have not heard of before. I decline the offer of joining her.
The monastery is very well kept, even with hundreds of people milling around. It is still a working monastery which, like the other five monasteries, is why it is shut one day a week.
One thing I don't understand is the no photo rule in museums. I actually get shouted at for trying to take a sly one. The security chap had me on CCTV - surely a contradiction in their somewhere.
A group of Chinese followed a guide who spoke english to the translator. The guide was going through a couple of points when one of the group, a overly excited lady, turned to the group and proceeded to shout 'Wahhy Potter, Wahhy Potter'. The guide looked stunned, and all I could do was laugh and leave.
We returned to find Rick with a smile on his face and Kermit, Miake's bike, fixed. Within minutes we are back on the road. I was on stag as I had the only map. We made slow progress on boring slow roads and we didn't make it to Delphi. So it was another night of rough camping, again another quarry, this time i get a great nights sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment