We’re normally not hikers. But if you have to fly 11,000 km just to arrive in Greece, you wouldn’t want to rush through one of the world’s most spectacular sights on a day-trip either. While we certainly won’t claim to be physically fit, we did our best to enjoy panoramic views of Meteora on a couple of easy hikes.
Many first-time visitors to Greece may not have heard of Meteora, but most would have seen dramatic photos on tour brochures of ancient monasteries perched, impossibly it would seem, at the top of gigantic rock pedestals. Sacred to Greek Orthodox faithfuls since the medieval ages and still hailed in the 21st Century as one of the world’s Top 10 Most Precarious Buildings, Meteora is now a featured highlight on most Greece mainland tours. So the key for us wasn’t so much getting there, but how best to avoid the multi-national armies of tourists.
For independent travelers like ourselves two means of direct transportation exist between Athens and Meteora -- OSE train number 884 from Larissa Station or KTEL bus from the terminal on Liossion Street. Either choice would take about 5 hours in the best of conditions. Despite all the horror stories about the punctuality of Greek transportation, we never came across any delays throughout the whole trip and arrived at Kalampaka, the village underneath the towering rock cliffs and monasteries, around lunchtime.
Restaurants reviews can be found further down in this article, but the great thing about arriving in the midday is an opportunity for an easy afternoon hike, starting from the monasteries at the top and ending at the village in time for dinner. The area is deservedly popular to hikers with plentiful and mostly well-marked trails, two of which we found to be extremely useful for even casual sightseers with a moderate degree of fitness.
An Eastern trail connects from the St. Stephen monastery at the top, offering spectacular views of the monasteries of St. Stephen and Holy Trinity, hiking down the deep chasm to the bottom of Holy Trinity, then snaking down the valley among gigantic rock pillars and lush greenery into the town of Kalampaka. Oh ... and once in town the trail leads to the 1000-year-old Byzantine church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary. This is as spectacular a half-day hike as any I’ve been on.
We started the Eastern trail at about 14:00 in the afternoon. A short taxi trip took us up from the town square to the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen at the top of the rocks, swerving through numerous hairpin curves up a narrow mountain road while honking through flocks of unattended sheep. Each corner could spell disaster for an unfamiliar out-of-town driver, but local cabbies here negotiated the curves with admirable skill.
Within 10 minutes we were dropped off in front of St. Stephen, the monastery directly overlooking the town of Kalampaka above a sheer vertical cliff of 300m -- from here it’s not difficult to appreciate the monasteries’ collective claim as one of the world’s most precarious buildings. Although most of the exterior of the monastery was rebuilt relatively recently after much was bombed and destroyed by Axis forces during the Second World War, various frescoes and treasures are still intact and are well-maintained by an order of nuns still residing inside.
A short 15 minute walk from St. Stephen along the same plateau took us to an even more precarious sight -- a crude wire-and-pulley system with a single-person cable car hanging hazardously above a vertical chasm of a few hundred metres. The other end of the cable led to the Holy Trinity monastery, famed for its appearance in a James Bond movie and resting at the top of a rock pillar high above the plains.
Trails are generally well-marked with highly visible Greek signages such as this one. Here the trail quickly dropped in elevation and snaked down to the bottom of Holy Trinity. The only non-aerial path to the monastery would start right here, cleft out of sheer vertical rocks and circling up the pillar towards the monastery. We did not go up as we arrived on the monastery’s rest day.
The rest of the trail traveled through the deep valley towards Kalampaka, with bizarre rock formations and even more impressive cliff-side engravings along the way. The entire route from St Stephen to Kalampaka town would take about 1.5 hours of leisurely walking on a downhill trail, which I estimated to be perhaps 4 km long, plus sightseeing time in the two monasteries and the Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary at the edge of town (allow another 2 hours or so).
The Western trail is a little longer than the Eastern trail, and would easily consume a whole day taking into account the four magnificent monasteries awaiting the curious hiker. The path starts at the Great Meteoron monastery at the top, passing the Varlaam monastery and then the Roussanou monastery in relatively short distances, then follows the main road brushing past St. Nicholas Anapafsas monastery. A trail then travels along the plain towards the village of Kastraki for a total length of about 6 km.
So the next day we took the short KTEL bus ride (2 buses per day at 09:00 and 13:00) from Kalampaka town to the grandest piece of architecture in Meteora and the main site of pilgrimage for Orthodox worshipers, the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron. We were both in our hiking shorts and had to borrow long pants and skirts (free of charge) from the monastery to properly cover our legs.
With Great Meteoron being at the highest elevation, its viewpoint offers a good bird's eye view of the hiking route, most of which would follow the winding main road towards St Nicholas Anapafsas. This is also an excellent place for photos of Varlaam and Roussanou.
A short 500m walk along the main road leads to the neighboring monastery of Varlaam, then another 1.5 km walk past a sharp turn leads to the Roussanou, now operated as a nunnery. Each establishment charged nominal fees (2 Euros or so) for letting visitors in on the monastic lifestyle atop these formerly inaccessible natural citadels.
After Roussanou the road takes even more sharp turns (stay on the side of the mountain and watch out for the large tour buses around the turns!) and continues for another 2.5 km to the bottom of St. Nicholas Anapafsas. But a couple hundred metres before Anapafsas, there is a foot path leading towards the village of Kastraki to the south.
It would take another 1.5 km walk back to the centre of Kastraki village, where infrequent buses (or taxis) are available to carry the weary hiker back to the town of Kalampaka. Or for the not-so-weary, there are plenty of smaller monasteries and ruins along the rocks just to the east of the village to be visited. It's also possible to walk back to Kalampaka along the main road, which would be another 4 km or so.
One hidden gem we came across in Kalampaka -- Friday is market day, when a sizable morning market springs up stretching from the Town Hall Square for a few blocks in the direction of the rocks.
This is not a souvenir market in the Athens definition, but a genuine market organized by and for the locals. No tacky ouzo shot glasses, just wholesome local veggies, honey and other fresh produce, and cheap clothing and other necessities brought in from neighboring countries in Eastern Europe. This is also a great place to pick up some fruits and bakery items for the day's hike.
RESTAURANT REVIEWS
Though we didn't come across any spectacular restaurants, a couple of places did serve us decent meals at reasonable prices.
Food Review: TAVERNA PANELLINION
Address: Pl. Dimarhiou (Town Hall Square), Kalampaka
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: N/A
Directions: Head to the Town Hall Square (not to be confused with the Riga Fereou square) where the Tourist Information Centre is located. Panellinion is on the Square just across from the Info Centre.
This was our first lunch after settling down in Kalampaka, and Panellinion was conveniently located right on the square. Prices were still reasonable considering its central location. The pictured Briam, an oven-roasted vegetable casserole with succulent zucchinis and potatoes swimming in tomatoes and olive oil, was quite good.
My wife had the ubiquitous Moussaka, generously layered with eggplants and meat and smothered with bechamel as usual. The food at this place was not bad, and we would have returned had we not found a comparable place with slightly cheaper prices, as reviewed below.
Bill for Two Persons
| Briam | Euro 7 |
| Moussaka | Euro 8 |
| TOTAL | Euro 15 (CAD$24) |
Food Review: ARCHONTARIKI
Address: Pl. Riga Fereou (central square), Kalampaka
Hours: 11:00 – 21:00 (unconfirmed; based on experience)
Website/Map: Official Site
Directions: From the Town Hall Square (Tourist Info Centre), walk east for a block and you'll be at the Riga Fereou square. Archontariki is on the west side of the square.
This place became our dinner spot for a couple of nights, mainly due its relatively cheap prices. Yes the food was unadventurous, but this is rural Kalampaka after all -- we came to Kalampaka for adventures of a different kind.
A plate of the homey Horta Vrasta cost 3.7 Euros, an eggplant salad (ie. bread spread) cost 3 euros, while a very large portion of Greek salad cost 5.5 Euros. We happily settled for such reasonable prices in the midst of a tourist town.
I wouldn't have ordered calamari in mountainous Central Greece, but I guess these are all flash-frozen on fishing boats nowadays in most places. Having no high expectations, this actually turned out better than I expected for 6.5 Euros.
Our favorite dish was these lamb chops. My wife does not like the gamey taste of lamb, and I don't remember exactly why we decided to order this dish. But these turned out to be some of the most enjoyable lamb chops she ever had -- succulent and juicy despite the charred appearance, and not a hint of gameyness in the lamb. Oh and it cost only 8.5 Euros.
What's better than some delectable honey and yogurt to sooth the body after a day of sun-drenched hikes? Overall the dishes were enjoyable if uninspired, about which I can't really complain at these prices.
Typical Bill for Two Persons
| Grilled Lamb Chops | Euro 8.5 |
| Fried Calamari | Euro 6.5 |
| Eggplant Salad | Euro 3 |
| Yogurt with Honey | Euro 4 |
| Mythos Beer | Euro 3 |
| Bread | Euro 0.8 |
| TOTAL | Euro 25.8 (CAD$41.3) |
ACCOMMODATION
Hotel Review: HOTEL REX (Kalampaka)
Address: Patriarhou Dimitriou 11A, Kalampaka
Price: Euro 50 for double room with private shower/toilet
Website/Map: http://www.hotelrex.gr/portal/index.asp
How To Book: Through official site
Directions: Start from the Tourist Info Centre at Town Hall Square. Hotel Rex is just half a block west on Patriarhou Dimitriou street.
We wanted a room with a view of the rocks at a reasonable price, at walkable distance from the train station, the bus station, and the squares. This was it.
It's a little far (15 minutes walk) from the train station, but it's quite close to the bus station for a bus ride to the Great Meteoron monastery. The Town Hall Square (and thus the Tourist Info Centre) is just around the corner. The hotel faces the giant rock face to the north of Kalampaka (not pictured), as well as the rocks on which the St. Stephen monastery sit (pictured). We spent hours just gazing at the rocks on our patio.
The hotel calls itself 3 stars, which I thought was a little on the generous side. The room and the bathroom were very clean however and it was good value for 50 Euros.
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