Holy Meteora: Monasteries in the Sky!!

Bye Bye Istanbul, Hello Greece!!

12 hours on an overnight train from Istanbul and we were ready to explore the city of Thessaloniki, before headng to Meteora to view the Monasteries in the sky. Thessaloniki is the 2nd largest city in Greece (next to Athens), but we found that 8 hours was more than enough for us to feel like we'd seen it. Here is what we saw...

Mat on the 'Friendship Express'

A church in Thessaloniki



Mat's fancy new sunglasses...so shiny they now act as my only mirror

Our first Greek meal in Greece. Souvlaki pitas with Greek Salad. Amazing!!!

Galerius Arch.

The Rotunda (which was closed)

The White Tower stands lookout over the sea.

(By the way, our camera needs to be cleaned internally, hence the black spot in the upper right corner of every picture. If you want to see it without the spot, call Air Canada.)

Alexander the Great on his horse. He was not a large man.

the ruins of the 'temporary palace' of Galerius in downtown Thessaloniki. Just so you know....it's MASSIVE!!!

Thessaloniki was nice, but the real reason we wanted to be in Northern Greece was for the awesome sights at Meteora.

Meteora is composed of 6 monasteries built on interesting geological formations (you have to see it to believe it...pictures will suffice...or call Air Canada again). Legend has it the first monastery was built after a monk was carried to the top of a isolated rock formation by an eagle. For years, people and things were brought to the monasteries by a series of ropes and baskets. Today, you can reach all 6 by stairway (sometimes short, sometimes not) or a ride on a cable car. The scenery is spectacular and the dresscode is precise...men must be in long pants, and women in skirts....it's a small price to pay for such a great experience.

I'm getting ready; putting on my skirt and zipping my capris to shorts (they do have wraps inside for women who don't have skirts...or men who wore shorts and are then punished by walking around in a flower printed wrap.)

St. Stephen's was our first visit. You don't get the full effect, but there is only 1 tiny bridge connecting this nunnery to the roadway.

We still can't figure out how they get to the garden.

At this monastery (I think it's the Holy Trinity), you can climb what look like a few hundred stairs, or take the cableway...those are your only options.

Mat, on the edge of the world.

I spy....2 rock climbers hundreds of feet in the air

We're ontop of the world...though you can't really tell.

We do look good though.

If you look over my left shoulder you will see a monastery perched ontop of a rock. That is what we mean by 'interesting geological formationss'.

Anyone able to figure out how to start a monastery on top of those cliffs...in the 1500s???

This one is connected by a tiny bridge and about a zillion stairs.

This is the Monastery known as Varlaam (yep, just Varlaam....like Cher, or Madonna).

In this picture, Varlaam is on the left, and the Grand Meteoron is on the right (it was closed).

windlass...it's the turny thing that helps bring things up...so says Mat...but I know he's right.

An unrelated but interesting find was this brass-knuckle knife. According to Mat, since it's sold outside a monastery it must be holy, which means that anything you do with it will be sanctioned by the lord...we assume.

Brass-knuckle knives aside, Meteora would totally beat Istanbul in a fight. So Mat says, 'no it wouldn't. There's 18 million f***ing people in Istanbul'. I says: 'uuuuhhhhhh...so! These are flying monk monasteries in the sky biatch. God wins'