On the way to Meteora, the bus stopped for lunch in a small city named Trikala. Trikala was gorgeous. It was a lot like Thessaloniki with the old city walls and castle and a similar street layout. But it was a lot smaller and a lot prettier than Thessaloniki. Trikala isn’t on the ocean, but it had a beautiful river that ran through the center of the city that was lined with trees and fountains and statues.

Long before we got to Kalambaka (the village at the base of the rocks of Meteora) we were able to see the rocks. They are giant rocks formed by an ocean that long ago covered the area. The entire area around Meteora is mostly flat with the exception of these huge imposing rocks. We got to our hotel and got settled into our rooms. When I opened the curtains to our balcony I was faced with a beautiful view of the rocks of Meteora and even one of the monasteries atop of them.

That night we explored the village of Kalambaka. We’d been told that there was a great Mexican restaurant in the town, so a pretty small group of us went there. Pretty soon though, we were joined by almost all of our classmates and the restaurant had to turn people away. After eating we walked around the village and took a lot of annoying touristy photos at the fountains that popped up all over the place. There was a bar that I guess Daphne (a professor at ACT who was our chaperone) had gotten to agree to entertain all of us, so pretty shortly the entire group was in the bar dancing to a mixture of American and traditional Greek music. It got loud and crazy pretty quickly, so a few of us went over to the bar across the street. There were 3 people in there and the bartender wasn’t at all busy so he talked to us for a while. Pretty soon he was playing a bunch of oldies songs that of course we had to dance to. There were 3 older men in the bar, and one of them got up to dance with us. He was probably about 70 years old, but let me tell you, he could boogie. His friend was laughing at him, but we probably gave him the night of his life.

The next morning we were off to the monasteries of Meteora. The first monastery we stopped at was actually a nunnery. When we went inside the girls had to put on these really embarrassing skirts to cover up our pants. We took a tour of their chapel and their grounds and saw the amazing views from their home. On the way to the bigger men’s monastery we stopped at a few places to take pictures of the entire valley. We even stopped at the place where one of the James Bond movies was filmed, and our own dare-devil behavior scared Daphne half to death. So what if we all got really close to the edge?

At the next monastery, which was the Grand Monastery of Meteora, we hiked up a bunch of steps and had to put on the annoying skirts again. We walked through their grounds and saw where they buried the dead monks (we actually saw their skulls and bones!) When we had finished touring their chapel we were free to explore the grounds for a little bit. They had a large patio overlooking the entire area of Meteora, and the view was breathtaking. On a few of the rock cliffs there were some people rock climbing, which looked like it would be really difficult. Because the rocks were formed by water, they were really smooth and at a 90 degree angle. I don’t know how they were able to find any hand or footholds in order to climb those things.

Once we were finished at the monasteries we went back to Kalambaka for lunch at a taverna and some souvenir shopping before heading back to Thessaloniki on a 4 hour bus ride. I’m not looking forward to the 8 hour bus ride to Athens next weekend, or the even longer bus ride to Istanbul in 3 weeks, but I know it’ll be worth it.

Today I have a lot of work to do. I feel like I haven’t done anything all semester (I have, just not nearly as much as I’m used to) so I feel like I need to get myself all caught up with project proposals and maybe even get myself ahead in some of my classes. I have a Greek test tomorrow that is covering a LOT of material, so I’ll need to study a while for that.

Hope everything is going well at home! I’ve been a little homesick lately – this is probably the longest I’ve been away from Hollis and my family and friends. While I still talk to my parents almost every day (thank you skype!!!) it’s really hard to stay in contact with friends because of the time change. I love you guys, but I’m not gonna stay up until 4 am to talk to you. I’m halfway through the program and the time is flying by, and I’m sure it will continue to do so. It feels like just yesterday that I nervously arrived in Thessaloniki and started the adventure of my life.

I love and miss you all!

Here's links to some photo albums on facebook!

Prague:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003943&l=093da&id=1326450028

Prague and Berlin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2003944&l=1e045&id=1326450028

Meteora:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004011&l=24044&id=1326450028