Day 6 Meteora to Kavalla
We got to the tour office for 08.30 and were taken on a bus to pick up other participants in the tour. The bus wound its way up into the mountains for us to visit the small Valaam monastery. We struggled our way in the church which was packed with hundreds of members of tour groups and it was difficult to see any of the frescoes. They were beautiful but, unlike those at the Boyana Church near Sofia, they had been “renovated” (ie re-painted) for the benefit of the tourists and looked rather too modern. We also saw the rope system by which the monks had be hauled up (or lowered down) the vertical cliff as well as their provisions. Nowadays there is a flight of 117 steps. We also saw a huge barrel in which rainwater was stored. A small number of monks still live at the monstery, but they live in an area which tourists can’t visit. They don’t like us but they want our money. Women are required to wear an apron for some bizarre reason; perhaps the monks might otherwise see their bodily curves and realise what they have been missing. Jennifer didn’t have an apron so she was given one by an official and she still has it.
We then went to Grand Meteora monastery, which is the biggest of the six and required a lot more steps to get ito it. The church part of the monastery was very crowded and the frescoes were beautiful, We then went to anoher monastery which was very small; it was approached down a steep track through the woods, and there were fewer people there so we could enjoy the frescoes in peace.
The guide took us to see a monastery which, from a certain direction, looks as if it is hanging in mid-air. It was shown on the front cover of the National Geographic Magazine some time ago. Another monastery was to be used in the film of the Game of Thrones, but the monks objected so the monastery was air-brushed out of the scene.
Returning to the town, we had a meal of suvlaki and Greek salad, then went shopping in the supermarket for some food before setting off for Turkey, reaching Kavalla about 21.45 and bedding down for the night at a parking place. We were on the verge of running out of diesel because there is an acute shortage of service stations on the road east of Thessaloniki, and a friendly girl at one of the many motorway tolls told us about a filling station located a short distance off the motorway.
Varlaam monastery
