Meteora, Greece

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Note: nearly all pictures of my time in Greece were deleted due to a software glitch.

Meteora is a small town with a single unique attraction, monasteries built on high sheer cliffs. I recall being told its one of the most photographed locations in the world, and when you see the pictures it makes sense. Looking at these monasteries one gets images of a sophisticated yet secluded civilization, as if another Atlantis perhaps existed in the skies.

Alas, aside from this one attraction, Meteora does not have much to offer. They obviously cater to this one niche, and not much else. If this is a place one has in mind to visit, I recommend coming in very early, as the monasteries close early afternoon, spending the day, and getting out of town on the next available bus.

This plan, while great in theory, did not quite work out for me, as I decided to wait for the very last bus out of town, as it would have synchronized nicely with the night bus into Athens. Now at this late hour, there is not much in the way of a bus stop, passengers, or busses; so knowing where to wait is a little tricky. The bus was late and I was getting edgy, so I strayed a few meters from the area where the bus was to arrive to get a better look at the highway to see if I could spot it on the horizon. It was at this moment that the bus flashed by the station, and seeing there was no one standing there, decided to simply keep on going call it quits for the night. Chasing the bus did me little good, and I resorted to attempting to hitchhike to the next town, a mere 20km away, but too far away to walk and still catch the night bus to Athens. Clearly I was not pretty or desperate looking enough for this tactic to work in the middle of the night, from which I gathered an important lesson; at night, every hitchhiker appears to be a crazed serial killer.