Pillars of the community

Meteora had long held an allure for me, ever since my grandparents had come back from a trip to Europe with incredible photos of towering limestone pillars topped with ancient monasteries. I finally managed to quench that desire, which I guess is grounded in my unreasonable love of obstinate, if not insane, human endeavour in beautiful localities around the world. Machu Picchu, Petra, Santorini, Mont St-Michel; this place belongs firmly in those ranks.

As may have been picked up from earlier posts regarding this trip, we had made something of a mission (dare I say pilgrimage) southwards through Albania from Montenegro over a couple of days, to reach here (rather by chance than design) on the weekend of the Greek Orthodox Easter. Depending on the vagaries of the synchopation of the Julian and Gregorian calendars (yes, that Julius - if you have the interest and inclination, look up just how much the first Imperator changed the world with a single stroke of common-sense), the Orthodox Easter can be a week after that of the occidental churches. Surprise! - we wandered in like it was Bethlehem in the middle of, oh, say, census time 2009 years earlier.

We were lucky enough to do a little better than Joe and Mazza that year though, and managed to get a room in Kalastraki (thanks to a late cancellation), and surprisingly at a quite reasonable price, rather than a stable full of animal poop. Having arrived in the dark, we were astonished on opening the blinds the next morning to see from our first floor balcony, a view straight up the valley to the monasteries. Needless to say, we had decided to make the most of the day (and I'll admit, the best hours of morning and evening light for photography) and headed straight up to experience the awesome spectacle of the sun rising over the limestone carsts.

Knowing it wasn't going to be too long before busloads of holidaying greeks started arriving - this being one of the holiest Christian sites in Greece, it was inevitable - so we drove back to the foot of some of the pillars and started a walk up through the forest. This was simply spectacular, with sunlight filtering down through the leaves as we wound our way up to one of the largest monasteries, which is also the first to be built (succinctly named Grand Meteora).



Arriving there before the crowds (who I presume were enjoying a vast Greek breakfast in the valley below) also meant that we had a chance to wander around and enjoy the atmosphere of the monasteries. Large and in some cases still functioning, the contrast (as often seems to be the case in such places) between the opulent spaces dedicated to worship and the spartan living and working areas of the complexes is enormous. Much of the traditional life, unlike in Western Europe, remains as it has for centuries, right down to the manner in which visiting monks are raised to the monastery - the spindle below has a rope net attached to the other end, which is still in use today for hauling up monks from the valley floor...

... of course, in some instances there has been some modernisation...

The day was rounded out by zipping around the road on the plateau behind the monasteries to capture the sunset as it dropped behind the hills on the other side of the valley - truly a magical place, which leaves you not too much of a stretch in understanding the motives of the original hermits, and the many after, who came here to first carve out a place amongst these majestic towers in their search for illumination.