Getting older changes your preferences on how you spend your time. Five years ago, we spent the week working like donkeys and weekends curing hangovers, meh. Now, we just can't anymore. Making a living means doing repetitive work in mundane environment (and we cannot help but endure), there is no point to waste away the weekend with hangovers anymore. When we were younger it felt okay to get exploited and overwork, so we couldn't do much when the days ended. Now it's like, 'fck it, we are taking our holidays whenever we can!'.
Ever since we started doing worthwhile activities outdoors, life has been much better. We are always swept away by nature and its numerous subtle performances many miss to notice. Be it a river silently carrying dead leaves along its stream, or a placid pond reflecting a cloudy sky, the soundless harmony these individual entities stitched together create something overwhelming that my being loves to dwell into.
So you can imagine how amazed we were, hearing about Meteora. We were visiting Athens and already booked everything, when Bula stumbled upon Meteora articles online. "I had to go there. I had to be there at both sunrise, sunset, no matter what". So we squeezed in an overnight trip to Kalabaka, and it turned out to be the best part of the trip. And we know our photographs are an understatement of the wonder that was in front of our naked eyes.
These monoliths make you feel like you are in Avatar, or somewhere ethereal. To add to that, some hold a few of the remaining monasteries built centuries ago. These outstanding architecture depicts the impressive engineering the monks had orchestrated, given the height of the boulders and the difficulty in transporting materials. But the monasteries, oh my Lord, were stunning.
Kalabaka is about 4 hours train ride from Athens, much closer if you leave from Thessaloniki. Although it looks huge in the photos, the area itself is not that big, and very much accessible by a scooter within a day. We rented one, had the luxury to see both sunset and sunrise, visited 2 monasteries, and spent a wonderful night eating local food. We would have loved to stay longer if not for our tight schedule. The foooooood, was super affordable and delicious. Looking at them in the photos makes us wanna go back and have a bite of that fried moussaka roll and gemista (stuffed tomatoes and peppers)!
By the way, it is customary to serve house desserts to guests, regardless if they ordered dessert or not. One more reason Greece is a foodie haven. This trip was satisfying to both our hungry bellies and souls. Till next time, xoxo.