A long, long, long, long time ago (they reckon about 60 million years ago), this area of Greece was under water (just like central Australia). Where the Meteora monoliths are now was a delta where the rivers ended in a massive lake. Sediment from the rivers settled and kept settling over many years. You can actually see the different layers in the rocks. Then an earthquake hit the area, the lake was drained and became what is now the Aegean sea. The stones of Meteora were pushed up. The looser material was washed away but the silt underneath made up mostly of sandstone and conglomerate, underwent a natural process that basically made it into a concrete-like substance. Over the years, rain, wind and extreme temperatures softened the edges and made the rocks what they are today. Cool eh?
We went up to the farthest monastery first, Stephanos, which nowadays is a nunnery. It is the most accessible one with only a small bridge to cross. Although all the monasteries have been there since sound the 14th century, they have all been renovated and look quite new except for the architecture. They are stunning. And the views, well...
They are quite big, but the areas open to the public are very restricted. Before entering the monasteries or nunneries women have to put on a skirt (if they're not wearing one already) and men have to be dressed modestly, and you have to pay 3 Euros to get in.
Although all the monasteries have been renovated, the one thing that remains virtually untouched is the chapel. The walls are all covered with Byzantine paintings. Golden candelabras, coloured glass in the small round windows carved narrow wooden seats with armrest as high as your shoulders (come to think of it, I'm not sure they were armrests!). They are all quite small, but stunning. Sorry no photos allowed.
We then went on to visit Holy Trinity monastery which is ''next door''. But to get to it you first had to walk down into the valley and then take stairs back up to the top.
Same spiel with the skirts - swanky polyester wrap- arounds, 3 Euros...but they gave everyone some Turkish delight so they get extra marks.
Holy Trinity monastery is the one that you see in all the photos so we actually spent more time outside taking photos than inside!
We kept walking back towards Kastraki (where we were staying) and the next monastery (now nunnery) was Roussanou. This is the most heavily populated monastery/nunnery with 34 ladies (the others number from 1 to 6 people only). These ladies are industrious! In their gift shop they sell their honey, hand cream, hand embroidered hankies, wine, jams, you name it!
It also had a museum-y type room with some ancient artifacts - old priest's robes, chalices, holy spoons and lances (lances??), but the piece de resistance, IMHO, was the manuscript of Plato's works. Wow.
After Roussanou we had to head back down to town to grab a bite and to be there in time for our sunset tour.
One of the ladies from our sailing school had come to Meteora too and we decided to join her on this excursion.
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