On top of the world

Well the clifftop monasteries were absolutely spectacular. The cliffs are totally dramatic, rising out of the plain like sheer vertical walls. The photos that we took just couldn't get enough of the scenery in to really do it justice. It was fantastic.



We headed up to the monastary called the Great Meteoran first. I was feeling the heat straight away since I was in a shirt and jeans (no shorts allowed). Gem had to wear a skirt and covered shoulders but at least it was slightly more attuned to the heat. From the carpark we had to go down heaps of stairs and cross over to the pillar that the monastary is actually on before climbing back up to the top, in some places cut through the rock itself. There was a rope and net that went down to the lower level which used to be used to haul goods up (and the monks too!). Nowadays there is also a cable car thing which can be used to transport heavy stuff. At the monastary entrance they have heaps of shirts and sarongs which can be borrowed if you're not covered up enough for their liking. The monastary itself is very pretty and we had a look inside the chuch inside the monastary too. This was really the first time we've been into a proper Orthodox church and it was cool to see all the walls covered with frescos of saints. The halos are done in gold paint and in the dim light they really shine.



We also visited Aghios Trias and Aghios Stephanos. Aghios Trias was a smallish monastary preched on a really thin pillar and we could get up onto the bare rock for a nice view all around. Aghios Stephanos is now a convent for nuns and closed just after we got in so we had to quickly look around in there. The views from each of the monastaries out to the surrounding rockfaces and also over to the other monasatries was pretty dramatic.



We then headed northwest over towards the Aegean Sea. The view of the scenery as we drove up and down through the mountains was again prety cool and a very different view of Greece than the coast and islands we usually picture in our minds. As we drove through one of the villages we saw a crazy greek man standing on a digger bucket which was raised right up so that he could change the street lamp bulb! Awesome :). We had a bit of a hectic time at the end of our journey with bits of new motorways and roadworks confusing us. A couple of the entrances onto the motorway were blocked off without any warning until we got right up to it (ie there were signs onto the motorway earlier, just no way to actually get on)

We're now in a campground (Olympus Beach or something), one of a string of many towns/resorts along the east coast of Greece. Tomorrow we are planning to strike into Bulgaria and continue our epic trip.