Explaurie

Travel Journal

"On the side" to Meteora for geography and to Delphi for history

Itinerary and Notes

2 nights, 1 full day -- Meteora (north central Greece)

2 nights, 1 full day -- Delphi (south west central Greece)

Meteora: Long train ride to Meteora; Laurie's foot in dire straits so walking painful (Ibuprophen please!); booked onto a "sunset tour" to see the monasteries on top of the rocks; amazing geography; tour "meh"; visited 2 monasteries and stopped at a number of viewpoints, tried for a sunset view but threatening rain; late dinner in a great restaurant; next day, Len hiked around valley and towards the top while Laurie took local bus (footpain) to the top; still a lot of rain and thunder/lightning storm; too many tour buses and people to go into main monastery.

Delphi: Had to take 2 trains back towards Athens (2 hour layover in a almost-creepy deserted village); got off in small town then took 35 minute crazy taxi-ride to Delphi (130 km/hr on windy mountain highways--thought we were going to die...really!); cute little town perched on the mountainside; spent the whole next day on Delphi temple site and museum; really great dinner with amazing, surreal view!

Bus to Athens; wanted to have one last souvlaki dinner but got caught in a demonstration where  police had closed plazas, metro and streets surrounding crowds; to avoid the chaos, we had to take a taxi directly to airport. 

Final trip thoughts:

We are definitely pleased with the places in Greece we chose to visit and how it all turned out. Geographically, Greece is a beautiful country and its people are friendly. But everything looks rundown, delapidated (and so much graffiti) or deserted...the country's infrastructure definitely needs a lot of work.  We only hope they can solve the economic crisis that threatens this beautiful country. We encourage everyone to visit Greece and spend their tourist dollars! The people will be grateful!