Exchange rate is S$1.76 to 1 Euro
Sunday 5th Sept 2010 Kalambaka –> Meteora –> Athens –> Metropolitan hotel –> Plaka
Today we are visiting the monasteries of Meteora. Hahah on the itinerary, Meteora was described as the “Huang Shan” of Greece. But then hor I nvr been to Huang Shan so I cant gauge too. What u tink? =p
There are 6 or 7 monasteries at Meteora. This is just 1 of them. It looks very integrated with e rocks hor; 1 of my frenz in FB asked if its a carving out of the rocks. Ha!
Our first monastery is Monastery of St Barbara. E exterior of the monastery has a ladder hanging out. B4 1930, e only entrance into the monastery was thru e ladder.
Our guide told us that in e past got a visitor asked, “Abbot, how often do u change the rope?”
Abbot replied, “Everytime it breaks”
-_-” sure dun give lotsa reassurance to the visitors.
E inside of e church portion is a very small square. Think atmost line 8 person frm 1 end to another. N all portions of e wall r covered w brightly coloured paintings; think named as frescoes? =p The guide stood inside this church portion to explain quite a bit of stuff then the church is small and lighted with some candles w some scent so its kinda stuffy; all these add up to a very sleepy me. bwhahah…. Ran out of there to see e beautiful mountains and breathe nice fresh air once all e monotonous explanations are over.
From St Barbara, we can see Monastery Varlaam. Think among all e monasteries, this have the grandest exterior.
For some reasons e gardens of the 2 monasteries we visited are both locked up de. So we can only take pic frm afar.
While waiting for some ppl to go loo during the descent from Monastery of St Barbara, our tour lead ask me go posed as if supporting the stone. haha… Actually our tour lead takes quite nice pictures (ie choosing of setting, framing etc). But too bad she chose a lousy person as e subject cuz I dun look as if I’m exerting any strength at all! bwhahah….
Holy Trinity Monastery has the 与世隔绝 feel cuz it’s on a rock of it’s own with no visible access road up. haha… Too bad we didnt get to go this one; e route up shld b interesting. Very 仙境 feel hor what with e clouds ard it.
Our 2nd n last monastery is Monastery of St Stephen. The exterior…. looking rather tranquil…
There’s a sign (similar to 1 found at St Barbara) with regards to dress code. There sure are limited things which women can wear to go in.
FL and I were both wearing jeans so just like St Barbara, at the entrance they will provide sarongs for u to wrap ard ur jeans. Tadah!
After the monasteries, its lunch time at Kipos tou Ilia! First they served us these raw looking veggies with no dressings. Followed by white rice. 😐 Their white rice is not the Chinese kind of plain white rice tho. It tastes quite nice even eaten on its own. 1 of our tour mate actually polished off the whole plate like that! hahah….
After serving these 2, there was a very very long pause. The restaurant even served another tour grp who came later than us first. Then we started wondering are we supposed to finish the white rice before they serve the main course. bwhahah… During this period of time, got some of tour grp ppl started taking out cup noodles n requesting hot water frm the restaurant. They say they cant take any more Greek food =S Then cuz the restaurant dunno wat the hot water is for so they took out a small flask (maybe size of teapot) which is not even enuff for 1 cup of noodles bah. LOL! Its quite a waste that they chose this meal to eat cup noodles cuz….
It’s all grilled stuff! and they tastes great! Yum! My favourite meal out of all e provided meals =D The dessert is special too and in a gd way =D It’s baked apple with cinnamon. I know it looks kinda unappetising but it really yummy!
After this is another long (yes again) ride back to Athens. We watched Troy on this ride. =D can drool over Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt. I kinda regret not re-reading my Helen Of Troy book before going on this trip so this movie came at a gd time. =p
Along the ride, I saw tis scene, guess tis is wat ppl termed as silver lining behind e clouds?
Finally we entered Athens! The city is filled w grafitti along e expressways, alleyways, construction sites … everywhere! haha… those at alleyways are not as nice as those at expressways tho. Not sure how they do it but those at expressways are more elaborate and colourful and they r fences somemore! Wonder how much paint they wasted spraying on fences.
Our first Chinese meal since reaching Greece. But most of e dishes are rather salty and they all look kinda similar hahah…. They used mushrooms in quite a few dishes; maybe thats why. Then so 巧, 1 of the waitress is Filipino so she had a great time chit chatting with e 3 Filipino girls in our tour grp. Hahah… Her nails are blue de and matched her ring!
After dinner, we went to Metropolitan Hotel to check in. This time round, the toiletries are not Molton Brown de liao =( so sad… haha…
As it was still early so we took a cab to Plaka cuz the shuttle bus of the hotel only runs till 4.15pm on Sundays. The cab cost 9 Euro. Plaka is full of souvenir shops and restaurants, cafes, pubs. Quite an active night life. 1 of the souvenir shops was opened at close to 10pm so I asked them wat time they normally close. Then he say now summer mah so they will open till 10+pm like that. Bought quite a few of souvenirs here too. Got a glass pendant for 5 Euro so its not ridiculously ex. Magnets pricing range from 1 Euro onwards lo.
View of the Acropolis from some part of Plaka.
Ard 10+pm, we decided to go back so we flag for a cab. Then at least 3 cab drivers told us they dunno where is our hotel! Shit! And we forgot to bring the hotel name card out! Was kinda panicking liao then finally got 1 driver said he know and ths after consulting his fren across e street! =S then he charge us 10 Euro i think. haha Lucky not very exorbitant.
As we are going to the islands the next day, we are supposed to pack wat are things we wanna bring along in a handcarry bag. Then I wanna bring my luggage along so I packed wat are the things that I dun wanna bring to the islands. This is when I realised that even tho my clean clothes r running low, I still dun see my bikinis!!!! That’s when I started ransacking through my luggage. OMG!!! I really didn’t bring. Boo hoo~~ to tink I bought 1 just for tis trip. Boo hoo~~~~~~
Then my fren made a very off comment,”This will teach u to bring a bigger luggage.” I dunno but do “big” luggages come w labelled compartments? Like “Bikinis”, “Daily Wear”, “Toiletries”, “Pyjamas”, “Medication”, “Toothbrush” etc etc =p
Oh well… I decided to console myself that since I still have quite a bit of Euro left I m sure I can get my bikini at Mykonos. 钱能解决的问题不是问题! =D
The island portion of this trip will be in e next blog! =D
Yan's Wood, Rice, Oil, Salt 