Day 23 Kastriki Meteora
Day 23
The universe must be looking after me on this trip, as soon as I become a little confused about what to do next someone pops up and gives me the solution. Cases in point, Priest in Warsaw when I was confused at a road/pavement block on how to get around it then I was on the train and had to change and knowing that there was only 5 minutes between trains and the one I was on was running 5 minutes late - I was a little stressed about finding the right platform as the next train was over 6 hours later; the guard came along and looking at my ticket told me exactly what to do. All of this didn’t matter any way as the train pulled into the station and the other train was waiting for us on the opposite side - apparently its a common problem here so they know to make allowances. Nothing runs on time!
So, arrived Kalambaka got a taxi to my B&B (Zozas Rooms), Dimos the owner is great, he sounds permanently as if he is telling you off but he has a heart of gold. There’s him, his wife and his mother - she’s typically old Greek elderly bent over, walks with a walking stick and no teeth. When they talk to each other they shout.
Terry and Coral, Buckeystown Inn with all its paraphernalia has nothing on this place the only difference is that this is spotlessly clean. There isn’t a surface that doesn’t have something tacky or twee on it.
After showing me my room Dimos went down to deal with the next guests who happened to have the room net to me. They were a Kazakhstan woman and her daughter (Natalia and Elena) we chatted on our balconies in broken english which was a bit of a struggle as English is not common in Kazakhstan but we managed. We also agreed that it would be a good idea to go for a walk (me thinking stroll to get bearings and Dimos had shown me a good route but Natalia was thinking route march and hike through the woods (think our conversation got a little confused). Anyway, I won out at the start as brandishing my map under her nose seemed to sway the arguement but en-route they keep running up rocks and discovering new paths with signs neither of us had a clue about (tried google translate but even that was getting confused) that we just had to explore - oh my this was going to be a long walk!
They were keen to find a monastery, and we did, one that was no longer in use but had a couple of tombs in the front garden and a bell. (See pic). At the side of this there were some enticing steps through trees that Natalia and Elena went bounding up - me, I followed on. These steps went up and up and up, blimey I thought I was fit but my heart was banging out of my chest; at one point I had to sit down waving them to go on and I’ll catch up. Anyway, after battling up these steps and through the undergrowth we came out at a stone pointy thing with a lovely view but I must admit I was too knackered to really enjoy it.
Thankfully the coming down was a lot easier than the going up and we continued our trek following a path through the trees and coming out somewhere in the village then following signs (we thought to another monastery) but they took us out on another path through the undergrowth past caves that hermits used to live in, climbing all the while uphill - my 10,000 steps at this point had well and truly been exceeded, it was over 30 degrees and I was knackered. So they wanted to continue on, I let them and followed the road back to the village and the B&B. They pitched up about an hour and a half later.
Dinner was a taverna next door and I met Ray, an Irish motorbiker from Dublin who was doing Europe on his bike and insisted on telling me his life story. To cut a long story short, as soon as he took breath, which was about an hour later, I made my excuses and got out of there. Shame really because this is a good wine region and Stefanos Taverna make their own wine which was rather good and I was enjoying.
The universe must be looking after me on this trip, as soon as I become a little confused about what to do next someone pops up and gives me the solution. Cases in point, Priest in Warsaw when I was confused at a road/pavement block on how to get around it then I was on the train and had to change and knowing that there was only 5 minutes between trains and the one I was on was running 5 minutes late - I was a little stressed about finding the right platform as the next train was over 6 hours later; the guard came along and looking at my ticket told me exactly what to do. All of this didn’t matter any way as the train pulled into the station and the other train was waiting for us on the opposite side - apparently its a common problem here so they know to make allowances. Nothing runs on time!
So, arrived Kalambaka got a taxi to my B&B (Zozas Rooms), Dimos the owner is great, he sounds permanently as if he is telling you off but he has a heart of gold. There’s him, his wife and his mother - she’s typically old Greek elderly bent over, walks with a walking stick and no teeth. When they talk to each other they shout.
Terry and Coral, Buckeystown Inn with all its paraphernalia has nothing on this place the only difference is that this is spotlessly clean. There isn’t a surface that doesn’t have something tacky or twee on it.
After showing me my room Dimos went down to deal with the next guests who happened to have the room net to me. They were a Kazakhstan woman and her daughter (Natalia and Elena) we chatted on our balconies in broken english which was a bit of a struggle as English is not common in Kazakhstan but we managed. We also agreed that it would be a good idea to go for a walk (me thinking stroll to get bearings and Dimos had shown me a good route but Natalia was thinking route march and hike through the woods (think our conversation got a little confused). Anyway, I won out at the start as brandishing my map under her nose seemed to sway the arguement but en-route they keep running up rocks and discovering new paths with signs neither of us had a clue about (tried google translate but even that was getting confused) that we just had to explore - oh my this was going to be a long walk!
They were keen to find a monastery, and we did, one that was no longer in use but had a couple of tombs in the front garden and a bell. (See pic). At the side of this there were some enticing steps through trees that Natalia and Elena went bounding up - me, I followed on. These steps went up and up and up, blimey I thought I was fit but my heart was banging out of my chest; at one point I had to sit down waving them to go on and I’ll catch up. Anyway, after battling up these steps and through the undergrowth we came out at a stone pointy thing with a lovely view but I must admit I was too knackered to really enjoy it.
Thankfully the coming down was a lot easier than the going up and we continued our trek following a path through the trees and coming out somewhere in the village then following signs (we thought to another monastery) but they took us out on another path through the undergrowth past caves that hermits used to live in, climbing all the while uphill - my 10,000 steps at this point had well and truly been exceeded, it was over 30 degrees and I was knackered. So they wanted to continue on, I let them and followed the road back to the village and the B&B. They pitched up about an hour and a half later.
Dinner was a taverna next door and I met Ray, an Irish motorbiker from Dublin who was doing Europe on his bike and insisted on telling me his life story. To cut a long story short, as soon as he took breath, which was about an hour later, I made my excuses and got out of there. Shame really because this is a good wine region and Stefanos Taverna make their own wine which was rather good and I was enjoying.
Poor old Ray
ReplyDeleteXXX
Thank god the universe is looking after you.xx