Greece: Day 8 and 9...beware the picture overload

We are getting to the end folks! Okay, not really. We still have a few days in Greece left and then Paris. I'm sure the few people who read my blog are so over it...well, except Ami, lol. I miss you, Ami!

Anyways, we got on the ferry in Santorini at midnight. The plan was to sleep on the ferry, and then catch the train in Athens and go to Kalambaka, where Meteora is. Meteora is a group of monasteries that were built on giant basalt pillars. They were used to escape from the world. Both figuratively and literally. This was one of the places that I really wanted to see. It sounded so amazing. So the plan was fool proof, right? Wrong! If your name is Jennifer and you don't sleep well unless you are in the bed, with the lights out, and no sound. So basically I didn't sleep for 24 hours. It was awesome. Not really. This is what you get when you decide to travel from one end of Greece to the other.

Plus, once we got on the subway to go back to Athens to catch the train, there was this guy who kept staring at me and giving me the eye. You know. THE EYE. The "Hey, Baby...how about you come here and I'll show you some Greek lovin'..." Yeah. Ewww. I had to deal with that for 20 minutes. And really, what was so attractive about me at that moment? I was sunburned, fuzzy haired, and I hadn't slept in 12 hours. What is attractive about that? Whatever, at least it was a good story. So on with the pictures!

Towards the end of our train ride, we got to spread out. I was relaxing and enjoying my space, when flash! Angela took my picture. I got her back with this one. Anyways, this is what the train looked like. Exciting!

This is some of the countryside from the window of the train. I wish I wouldn't have been so out of it and got some when we went through the mountains. It was so beautiful. We even saw Mt. Olympus. I still can't believe I was able to experience this trip. I saw Mt. Olympus! Who does that? Okay, a lot of people, but it still was pretty cool.

Here is another view. This time of a church being built. Fun times.

Here is some of the graffiti that covered Greece. It was everywhere. It was the only part that was surprising in the not good way. I hated the graffiti.

Here is some more. And I should look on the bright side! At least the tagger wasn't pro-Nazi!

So when we showed up to Kalambaka (end of the line for the train), we took a taxi to the town of Kastraki. It was this awesome little town at the base of the basalt pillars/mountains. We didn't book a hotel because we hadn't really decided if we were going to go to Meteora for sure. Well, we took a chance and chose Doupiani House out of my Lonely Planet book. And it was awesome! This was the view from our balcony. And I think it was like $60. Can't beat that. (We tried this in Nafplio...didn't work out as well. More on that to come.)

Here is a better version of the above picture. It was so amazing. I know I say that a lot, but it was. How do places like this exist and people don't know about it? I had never even heard of Meteora before I got my guide book.

This is another view, with more of Kastraki in it. Rachael! See that skinny pillar in the middle of the rocks? People were climbing it. I thought of you.

If you look closely, you can see one of the famed monasteries of Meteora (Met-ora). It's Rousenou. It is run by nuns, and it was the first one we went to the next day. We walked all the way. Crazy intense, but I'm glad I did it.

Here is the lobby of our hotel. It was so cool. I loved the decor. It matched with the forests and rocks. It's blurry because I hate flash, and i hadn't figured out how to shoot manually yet. Sorry for your eyes. But look at the colors!

These were the cats of Doupiani House. They were cute and I loved them. The owner was this big Greek man, who was kind of gruff and mean. But really he was nice and joked with us. He was weird. That's the bottom line. I wish I would have got his picture.

We got to Kastraki in the afternoon, too late to walk around to see the Monasteries. So we decided to explore the town. It was dead. There were some signs on some of the shops that had a time on it. I'm assuming they were informing the populace that they were closing for some holiday. But since I don't read Greek, I'm just assuming.

Doesn't this look so quaint and just awesome? I think I need to live here. Just for a bit. Maybe to learn Greek.

If you look at the door, you will see a two-headed bird. They are all over Greece. We couldn't figure out what it was. We thought it was a religious thing. Well, when we were at the monastery the next day, we asked a nun (who was so awesome, and I would love to talk to her again,) who told us that it represented the Ottoman Empire. The two heads where the East and the Western part of the empire. But it didn't really mean anything besides that. It's just for decoration. We were a little sad about that, lol.

By this point, I was about to have a come-apart bad. I was so tired. I just wanted to sit down and cry. I couldn't even appreciate how awesome Meteora was. I was so tired, and so hungry. I hadn't slept in close to 24 hours. It was insane. So we stopped at the restaurant that was in my book. It was really early (Greek people don't eat until 7 or 8). We got some food to go, and while we were waiting, these 3 old Greek men sat in the corner, flipping their worry beads and talking about the "Americanos." Yep, it was awkward. So we went back to the hotel, even though Angela really didn't want to (Sorry, Ang!) I called my mom, cried a little and fell asleep around 8pm. I woke up 11 hours later, ready to go! I went downstairs and had an awesome breakfast of Greek yogurt and honey, bread, boiled eggs, and apples. I think that was probably the best morning of my whole trip. Plus I was able to have some alone time, which I desperately needed. Then we set out!

It was so misty that morning. It was like we were Lord of the Rings. It really set the mood, and it was so different than Santorini! Though, it kind of made us all homesick a little, since it was fall weather and back in Utah and California it was fall. We got over it, though.

We missed the bus that drove up to the monasteries, so we decided to walk. I wasn't really excited about it, but I'm really glad I did it, even if we didn't get to see all the monasteries. We just got to feel the place more. This is the monastery of Rousenou. The one ran by the nuns.

This is a rock with a hole in it. No seriously, I think it's called Dome of the Spirit, or something like that. I can't remember. But they used to hide in here from the world, both figuratively and spiritually. They also used to send the disobedient monks here for punishment. If you look closely, you can still see the scaffolding.

This is a view of the whole valley. It's pretty awesome. You know what would be more awesome? A wide-angle lens. Oh well. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

This is that cat of Rousenou. It was cute. I wanted to pet it. The End.

This view is from the stairs, on the way to the entrance of Rousenou. I wish I had pictures of the chapel, but no photography was allowed. It had the most awesome frescoes. Mostly Martyrs of the faith, dying horrible, gruesome deaths. I'm talking blood, dismemberment, beheading, swords to the gut. Yeah, all of that portrayed in medieval frescoes. Awesome. This was where we met the nun that was just so awesome. I wish I could be her friend in real life. You know when you just get a vibe from someone? Yeah, that was this lady. She was smart and so on the ball. I could just tell that she was an amazing person.

If you think these stairs were bad, wait till you see the ones at Megalou. They were insane. Lets just say that my legs looked awesome at the end of this trip. Too bad they don't last if you don't climb thousands of stairs a month. Oh well.

So we had stairs, but in the old days they had rope ladders, and baskets. Yep, baskets. They would haul you up them. Talk about putting your faith in the Lord.

This was the Varlaam Monastery. We didn't make it to that one. We walked all the way up there, but it was closed. But I still had an awesome moment. Dawn and Angela went to explore the grounds, and I decided that I wanted a different view, so I climbed up a different hill. Anyways, a monk (He was dressed pretty fancy, I think he might have been in charge), came out and peeked over the edge and watched Angela and Dawn. It was really cool.

This was some of the forest we walked through as we explored Meteora. The forest floor was blanketed with these little pink flowers. It was so beautiful. I need a thesaurus because I'm so overusing this word.

Here I am, walking along. I was always at the end of the line. I am just a slow walker. It didn't help that I was constantly taking pictures. If you look closely, you can see that my camera is covered in plastic bags. Yep, I'm ghetto like that. What?! I didn't want rain getting on my camera!

Here is an awesome view of Rousenou. Angela about had a heart attack when I climbed up here. I think she thought I was going to fall or something. I couldn't not climb up there, though. I was careful. (Says the moron who wins the Darwin Awards.)

Here I am on safer ground. I look hot.

Here I am, being artsy-fartsy. I had Dawn take this picture. It's my Lizzie on top of the world shot. For any of you who love the new Pride and Prejudice, you know what I'm talking about.

I really like this shot. It's actually higher up than the other ones. If you look to the right, you can see the pile of rocks that we were standing on. Angela definitely had a heart attack when I climbed up here. What! This is what the National Geographic Photographers do! I'm living the dream!

Rousenou and Nikolaou Monastaries...

This is Agios Triados Monastery. We thought it was one of the ones closed to the public, turns out it wasn't. Oh well. That's Kalambaka down below it.

This is a closer view of Varlaam.

This is Megalou Meteorou. The biggest monastery. Look at those stairs. I bet you are sooo jealous. This monastery had the biggest crowds and the most to see. It was such a neat experience. The thing about these monasteries is that they are working monasteries. They open for a few hours a day and show it off, and then they close and do whatever monks and nuns do. Worship, pray, do chores. If I ever decided to be a nun, this would definitely be the place to be one.

Oh yeah, stairs! I knew you would be jealous. I took a few "scenery breaks" while I climbed up them. It wasn't too bad since you had such amazing views.

Here are some of the frescoes on the outside of the chapel. These were the PG frescoes. The R rated ones were inside. Blood, guts, gore! They were seriously awesome.

The outside of the chapel...

Another fresco. Ignore my flash/hood shadow. I'm stupid. But the colors on this are amazing. I love the medieval Greek iconography. It's so beautiful, but in a completely different way. I bought a little Jesus and Mary picture from Rousanou. It's on my desk.

This is an alley. It's awesome. I don't know where it leads to, but if you were to turn around you would find a room full of skulls. I can't remember what it's called. But it was kind of morbid.

See! Skulls! Ignore my fat face and wonderful wardrobe. That's the skirt that they made us put on over our pants. Also ignore the fact that mine doesn't close all the way. What? I have child bearing hips!

Here we are, in front of Megalou! It was so awesome. Completely different than Santorini and Athens. (I really don't know what I'm doing in this picture.)

One last look at Meteora. I hope you weren't completely bored by all those pictures, but I wanted to get it done in one fell swoop! I wish I was more interesting, and blogged about other things besides Greece, but I'm kind of using this for a journal, sooo yeah. That's why I'm still doing it. Plus, I like to remember my trip. It was awesome.