After the ridiculously long, 15 hour journey to get here yesterday from Ohrid, Macedonia I was expecting big things. Ohrid to Meteora shold be a 225km journey, 4 hours max. However, traveling is nothing but unpredictable to I ended going via bloody Albania, taking 7 different buses, leaving at 6am and finally arriving in Kalambaka (7km from Meteora) at 10pm at night – this better be bloody good.
Meteora is a set of 14th century monasteries perched impossibly on top of huge rocky mountains with sheer cliff faces, looking as if they could fall off at any given moment, plummeting all 300 metres to their destruction. I know it sounds dramatic, but it literally looks exactly like that, amazing.
I was staying in Kalambaka, a town 7km from the monasteries. Each morning a bus leaves the town at 9am and drives up the winding road to the top of the mountains, from there you can visit the largest, biggest monastery. Each monastery costs 2 Euro ($2.50) to enter. There’s a dress code for the monasteries too, but at each entrance you can borrow pants and long skirt, so no stress there.
After the top monastery the best way to see all the sights, and to get the best views of the monasteries, is to make your own way back to Kalambaka on foot. The 7km, downhill, takes around 90 mins and you can enter 3 more monasteries on the way down. The views, as you walk down, are magical. Looking up at the monasteries gives a whole new perspective.
I have to admit though, ignorantly I had never heard Meteora until two weeks ago, and now here I am declaring that they could very well be the 8th wonder of the world. I apologise for the ignorance but now for the grand claims. This truly is amazning, right up there with the golden temple in Amaritsar, India or the Pyramids of Giza in Cairo, the Great Wall in China, Lalibela in Ethiopia – esteemed company indeed, and Meteora should feel very much at home. Happy travels!
Cool place! I’m going there on December… I hope it’s open…?
i’m pretty sure it’s open all year round, so amazing
Indeed, Meteora is spectacular. I’ve never seen a landscape like that anywhere in the world. At the time I visited it, I was on vacation in Greece already, nearby Mount Olympus, so it was only a nice and relaxing day trip. I guess I’m lucky because I live in Europe, therefore I can get to many places by simply jumping in my car and driving for one or more days.
Can’t say I’d heard of this one either.. and wow that first photo is a winner! Looks quite beautiful.
ABSOLUTELY amazing!!! Thanks for the wonderful description and the pictures. Now I want to go to Macedonia even more (I’ve never been). It’s a shame that it was so hard to get there. Now that you’ve been, any advice on better transportation routes to get there?
Cheers!
hey barbara,
no worries – thanks for checking it out
it was really a surprise i had no idea it was this amazing! it’s easier to get there from athens going north, as opposed to albania/macedonia and going south
Hi Barbara.
Actually, I want to clarify that Meteora are in Greece, not in Macedonia. I have been there several times and I couldn’t agree more with the statement that they could be the 8th wonder of the world! It’s a place worth of visiting and it’s sad that it is not widely renowned.
thanks malena, i should have made that more clear! *edited now
Aaah. Thanks for that. I’ve been to some of the cliff top monasteries in northern Greece and I was surprised to hear that they exist in Macedonia. So Meteora is indeed in Greece. Though, the number of small towns in that region are soooo endless and the things to see feel infinite.