Monasteries in the Sky
I don't know if that is an actual quote or a if it's saying that I saw somewhere and butchered for my own purposes. Either way, I use it a lot. Whenever someone introduces me and says something along the lines of "This is Berti. She's loves to travel and she's been everywhere", I'm quick to jump in and point out how much I haven't seen. I'll protest that "You know the saying, the more you see..." as the person wonders if I understand how small talk works and why I need to be so damn literal.
However, there is some truth to it. Obviously, no one- no matter how well-traveled- has been everywhere. Nor should they. There are some boring ass places in this world. But there are also so so many amazing places. You would think that with the glut of travel shows, instagram influencers and annoying bloggers, we would know about all of these places, whether we'd been or not.
Case in point. Have you heard of Meteora? If so, you're better than me (or perhaps you are Greek, which is not the same thing). I personally have been to Athens at least a half dozen times. Love Athens. Love the food, the climate, the history, the street art. Love, love, love it. Only I had no clue that a mere 4 hours to the north, there was a place where monasteries floated, like optical illusions, atop craggy rock formations.
A friend, who was acting as a tour guide for some American executives, is the one who brought it to my attention. After so much time in Greece, I felt bad that I had never heard of it. I felt a little better, though, when I heard one of his charges say "I think we are going to go see some meteors today." I'm guessing he was surprised to find no meteors whatsoever. Instead, he was visiting the small town of Meteora, which translates to "hovering in the air".
Many months later, I had some time off in Athens and decided to check it out for myself. After adjusting expectations and letting my friends know there would be no meteors, we all booked a day trip to Meteora.
It is embarrassing how easy this was. All we had to do was take the 7am train from downtown Athens to Kalabaka. Once we arrived, there were a bunch of tour buses, all with their list of passengers for the day. We quickly found our ride and were on our way to the first monastery.
And what a ride it was. As soon as you get out of the city (which is saying 5 minutes into the drive), you are surrounded by these dream-like pillar rock formations. It is easy to imagine artists being inspired by these spectacular monoliths. It is a little harder to imagine a bunch of 11th and 12th century monks looking up and saying "Hey, that looks like a good spot for a monastery."
Yet that is exactly what happened. Twenty-four Eastern Orthodox monasteries were built in the seemingly most inhospitable spot imaginable. Their inaccessibility was one of the selling points. When the Ottomans were coming through the region, it was beneficial to be out of the way. The monks used ropes, baskets and pulleys to get both themselves and the building materials up to their perch. Even today, it is hard to tell at first glance, how one gets up there.
Thankfully, the baskets have been replaced by roads that take you to the general vicinity of the six remaining monasteries. Notice I don't say that they take to the monasteries. Nope. It varies by monastery but on the average, there are one million little steps- up and down and up and down- that you need to climb in other to get to entrance, where you buy your 3 euro ticket.
The monasteries have rotating opening schedules so that on any given day, some will be open and others will be closed. The day tours visit three of open ones and take you to scenic viewpoints for photo ops of the others.
We kicked it off at the biggest and oldest of the bunch: Grand Meteoron. It was founded in the middle of the 14th century by- wild name alert- Saint Athanasios the Meteorite and has been in continuous operation ever since.
The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of Anapafsas is the first Monastery that we encounter on our way to the Holy Meteora. The monastery is only a short walk from Kastraki village just 1km away. For the name “Anapafsas” there are numerous interpretations two of which are the most popular.
The first one is that the name “Anapafsas” was attributed by one of the monastery’s benefactors, while the second explanation has to do with the monastery’s position being the first to be encountered on the way up to the other Meteora monasteries, and probably served to the pilgrims and other visitors as a resting place before continuing further up. Resting translates into Greek “anapafsys”. So, Saint Nicholas of Anapafsas literally means Saint Nicholas the one who rests you.
We have to keep in mind that back then there weren’t any hotels or rooms to let, so all travelers usually had to either camp outside or seek shelter to places like monasteries or even on common people’s houses. That’s why for the ancient Greeks one of the biggest blasphemies of all was to deny to provide “philoxenia” for shelter to any traveler asking for it.
The monastery itself was built on an 80 meters’ high rock and is surrounded by the deserted and ruined monasteries of Saint John Prodromos, the Pantocrator and the chapel of Panagia Doupiani. The Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapafsas was founded at the end of the 14th century. The limited surface of the rock forced the building of the monastery to be built vertically on floors, one level on top of the other.
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| When you come down from the monastery and your friends are waiting for you with a cold beer. |
Between those two, there had been a lot of steps and a lot of getting lost inside of relatively small monasteries. Therefore, it came as a relief to do a couple of drive-by photo ops on some of the closed ones.
The best part was stumbling across one of my new favorite travel genres. It is no secret that I am slightly obsessed with Game of Thrones and am eagerly working my way through the seven kingdoms so imagine my delight in finding out that Meteora is a GoT site.
Spoilers ahead (although, really it's been over a year, what are you waiting for?): Remember when Catelyn Stark abducts Tyrion and takes him to the Eyrie and the castle in the sky? It's where we see creepy Robin Arryn, who was easily at least 10 yrs old, being breastfed. The place with the sky door, good for dispatching of unwanted guest... Well, that is Meteora!!
Only there was no actual filming that took place. The monks that still live there objected to the show's violent and sexual nature and denied them permission to film so photos were taken of the region and it was added via CGI.
Interesting side note: For Your Eyes Only, of the very violent and very sexy James Bond franchise was filmed at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in 1981. What changed? My guess is tourism. While this area is not as well known as it should be, there are a fair number of visitors every day, each dropping those 3€ entry fees at each monastery. Plus, as a UNESCO world heritage site, I'm assuming they are also getting a stipend. I don't the monks became any more pious, I think they just didn't need the money.
Our final stop was the Holy Monastery of Rousanou, which is now a nunnery. It is the smallest one and is by far, the most accessible with a bridge that brings you right to the entrance.
After a couple more photo stops, we were dropped off right where we started, at the Kalabaka train station for the 5pm train. We all left with a tons of pictures, sore calves and a deep desire to spread the word about the coolness that is Meteora.
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