Tuesday, November 11th, 2025

Epoch House Hotel, 10pm

Sunday morning we left our apartment, got a breakfast of cheese and spinach pies and espresso, and headed to three monasteries on top of the various big towers. First we parked at the Grand Meteoron and bought our 5 euro entrance ticket, plus borrowed a scarf at the entrance for me to tie around my pants. Ladies had to be in long skirts for modesty; the sign nearby said “no pantaloons.” It was drizzly and gloomy as we trudged up the many stairs carved into the rock to get to the church on top. The stairs were actually only put in around 1920; for the previous 800 years the monks got up to the top of the pillars with a mix of ropes, ladders, and a net on a man-powered pulley system!

At the top of the stairs was an incredible view, an ornate and perfectly restored and in-tact Byzantine chapel with paintings and gold covering every surface, an old kitchen with smoke marks everywhere, a room full of gigantic wine barrels, a hospital wing for sickly monks, a guest room, and a museum with a bunch of artifacts. Some of the best artifacts were hand-copied scriptures from before the time of the printing press, beautiful religious garb hand-stitched by nuns, and ornately carved wooden crosses enclosed in metal with rubies and sapphires encrusted all over.

The next two monasteries, Varlaam and the Holy Trinity, featured more of the same, with some more historical context and different views. It was peaceful yet a bit eerie to be up there as the clouds rolled constantly in and out.

We had a long drive ahead of us, so we ate wonderful gyro and greek salad at a little roadside stop filled with pre-teen soccer players who had obviously just had their weekend game and then went on our way. Meteora was incredible – I’m not sure how I’ve gone my whole life without even knowing it existed! The mix of fascinating geology and compelling history make it a must-see. And the stairs were not as bad as expected.

We drove to Nafpaktos next, a smallish town on the gulf of Corinth across from the Peloponnesian Peninsula and the large town of Patras. We explored around the Venetian port town admiring the night life, and ate some pretty bad “Mexican” food (we will never learn that you can’t trust Mexican food in Europe…even if the review are perfect).

That night we felt an earthquake and woke up to thunder and lightening! Between the earth moving, the lighting and thunder, the majestic natural light, and the geography of the mainland, it really does feel as if the gods are around and interacting with us measly humans. We had a pleasant drive to Olympia – the toll highways are very nice and cute little coffee shops dot the roads. The coffee shops don’t look Greek at all to me, but almost like little cabins with ivy growing around them. Again, many old men seem to gather at these places to gossip and sip coffee.

Olympia itself was supremely cool. The town is tiny with almost nothing open except a post office (I finally got to send my postcards!) and a snack/souvenir store where we got road trip snacks (my favorite are oregano Lays). At the historic site we followed the Rick Steves walking tower, and loved taking in the ruins, the “history” of the birth of Zeus here and his subsequent worship – which eventually turned into the Olympics and the training center, temple, offices, hotel, and baths. The highlight, of course, was the real stadium with the original olympic start and finish lines. Jordan and I took turns sprinting the 200 yards and pretending we were foot-racing Greeks. I did it in 43 seconds (I blame my shoes and bra), Jordan 27. For context, Usain Bolt can do it in 19! Jordan even got to race a nearby stray dog.

Also on the grounds is the temple ruin where every four years they light the eternal flame and bring it to the stadium to start the relay prior to the opening ceremonies of today’s Olympic games. I’ll be excited to watch the upcoming Olympics to see it! We also visited the associated museum at the site and got a taste of how intricate and huge this place once was – a colossal statue of Zeus was here at one point and now disappeared…we also saw a helmet from the battle of Marathon! Did you know it’s not a coincidence that “Zeus” sounds like “Dios,” which just means “god?” Makes ya think! We really loved this visit and are happy we didn’t skip it.

More driving, this time across the Peloponnesian Peninsula to Monemvasia, a fortress rock connected by bridge to the mainland. Extremely defensible and used by Venetians and Byzantines throughout history for at least the last 2000 years. Thunder, rainbows, and endless lightning without rain greeted us on the island. It was fantastically atmospheric and unreal. We walked through the old cobbled-together town on the rock by lighting light, snuggled some of the best cats yet, and drank Monemvasian wine while taking in the views from (and of) the city. For dinner we went to an adorable and cozy place where the waiter was busy decorating for Christmas! He even played Christmas music until some no-fun tourist ladies asked him to change the music (*eye roll*). This town is magical, reminded us of those perfect Italian hill towns…but better?, and was unskippable.

We stayed up a few staircases in a cute retrofitted hotel room with a fireplace and hot water you had to turn on when you needed it. In the morning we had hotel breakfast with the best orange juice ever, which was reminiscent of the best orange ever I stole from a grove off the highway on the drive in!

We walked around town, taking in the views of byzantine churches, mosques, cisterns, and more. All of it was tiny and made of stone from the island The view out to sea goes on forever – tons Greek islands are obviously floating out there, clear as day to see. Climbing up steep steps made of stone to “old town” brought us to a bunch of stone ruins, a crazy view, an old castle, more cisterns and house pieces, and the “Hagia Sofia” mosque/church that is unsurprisingly modeled from the Turkish version. We had a blast exploring the clifftop and trampling over the stone ruins; lots of autumn crows colored the landscape, and the sea was endlessly blue. We were sad to leave here – it was exceedingly cool. To be honest, most Greek things have exceeded our expectations so far (except maybe the food. Sorry!).