The monastery, now nunnery, of St Stephen's is at the eastern end. The first of my two tours took us around the town, then up for some scenic views, and for a tour of that nunnery.
Using a large natural cave, this monastery has four floors, but only one wall. The Nazis blew it up (and burned the town to the ground). It was rebuilt after the war, but not before it was gutted by theives.
The Monastery of the Holy Trinity is home to four monks. You don't need to know how to climb to get up there. Today there are stairs, and if you look closely you can see them.
Due to the unseasonable humidity, sunset was quite hazy, creating a mystical look to the landscape that was just as cool as a "regular" sunset -- maybe cooler?
In other words, don't be a jerk. Other signs said men had to wear pants, and women had to be in skirts. Most men were in shorts (it was over 90f/30c) and that seemed fine. Women, however, were asked to put on shawls (available for free at the entrance) and either fashion a skirt or shawl depending on what they were wearing.
The stairs to get to the various monasteries were all well done, blending well the rocks. I've visited a few countries that would have just slapped down a metal bridge and been done with it.
Still more climbing. Each of the monasteries has a small fee (3 euros when I was there) which is reasonable, since they don't receive money from the government.
Each monastery is split up between museum, church, and living quarters for the monks or nuns. The latter was off limits. No photography in the churches.
That's the church directly ahead. I wish I could have taken photos inside. I've never seen anything so ornate. Floor to ceiling art, intricate chandeliers.
Interestingly, the Meteora area is private land, not state owned. Even more interesting, do to a decision by the main Greek Orthodox Church, the monasteries are self governing.
What was interesting, once you noticed it, is there isn't anything big. Sure the buildings are, but they're made up of smaller pieces. Nothing so large that it isn't easily carried or able to be put in the motorized bucket that you'll see in a few slides.
A motorized... bucket (palanquin?) is the main way to get across the ravine for elderly monks (probably the young ones too) and any heavy supplies. It's pretty slow.
Most of the time the monasteries weren't busy. People, sure, but not crowded. That is, unless you timed it just wrong to show up when a big tour bus arrived. Thankfully, I always seemed to miss them.
There were once 24 monasteries in Meteora. The five intervening centuries saw most of them lost to war, time, neglect, and so on. Many of the ruins are still visible if you know (or are told) where to look.
Oh good, more stairs. It's amazing how different it is standing this close. From a distance it seems like a circular column, but up close pieces jut out.
Behind me is the monastery. You can just barely see this cross from the town below. If you go back to the first picture, Holy Trinity is the narrow column almost directly in the center of the image.
This is pretty much all the buildings of Holy Trinity in one photo. Still, not bad for something made with almost no machines (and most of it carried or lifted up here).
Pretty rare you get to see this view, of the path down to the stairs that bring you up to the monastery. Again I'll give them credit -- you can't see any of this from the best photo spots (except for one section of stairs).
I was sad to leave Meteora. So often in life things don't live up to the expectations you've built for them. That was not the case here. If anything, Meteora was cooler than I ever imagined. Definitely check it out, if you can.
