Today we started back out at the site of the Delphic Oracle, except today we saw the lower part which contained the temple to Athina and the gymnasium that the athletes trained in for the Delphic games. What was more spectacular was the views from the edge of that hill. It was beautiful. Oh and I also got a picture of the side of the mountain that made me so car sick. When you see the road that we were on, you will totally understand why. After Delphi, we set out on another 4 hour drive to Kalabaka. This is the site of the hanging monasteries of Meteora. I have to say that this site was probably one of my favorite so far. I had no idea what the hanging monasteries were before this trip, but if you can see only a few things in Greece, this needs to be one of them! These gigantic monasteries were built on top of these free-standing cliffs that have spent millions of years being carved out by water, wind, and earthquakes. These cliffs tower over the town of Kalabaka and to see them in person was just amazing. This was another instance of me getting angry with my camera because none of the pictures I took did any of it justice. These churches were built in the Byzantine period, and I can't even begin to imagine how they built those giant structures on top of these monstrous cliffs without modern day tools. Heck, I don't even know how we would build them now. We got to go inside two of the monasteries, both of which are still being used by monks and nuns. You have to wear proper attire while inside because it is considered sacred ground. That means for girls: skirts that come past your knees and your shoulders have to be covered. And for boys, a nice shirt and jeans or pants will do. Thank goodness I brought my maxi dress, although climbing 300 stairs to get to the monastery in it was not my favorite moment of the day. On top of that, it is still ridiculously hot and I was sweating through that long dress like no other. I know, gross. If you did not wear proper attire, they provided you with wraps to cover yourself for the time being. Pictures were generally not allowed in any enclosed areas of the church, but there were a few "gray" areas where it could be debated whether it was inside or outside so those are the only pictures I really risked taking. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the inside of the chapel part though. The frescos on those walls are 800+ years old and were absolutely stunning! They all portrayed the more scary and grotesque stories from the Bible in an effort to show the people who entered what their fate will be if they are not Christians. We also got to see where they keep the skulls of the past monks in recognition of all they have sacrificed for their faith and where they prepared their meals, etc. Reverence was asked of us at all times and being there was just a totally sobering experience. The nuns at the second monastery were adorable as well (one of them was likely 100 years old, 4 ft. tall, and I just wanted to take her home in my pocket) and the one was so friendly. Except to Nick bahahaha. After the monasteries, we set out for our hotel. It is huge, with an extremely nice pool and big rooms. We laid out by the pool this afternoon and then got ready for dinner. Jess and I broke this hotel...again. Well not really, but in the pursuit of clean laundry we flooded the bathroom (who knew you couldn't let the bathtubs drain all at once because the water would come back up through the floor?). You really don't appreciate something until you don't have it anymore, and let me just tell you that if I would have lived before washers and dryers I would have just stank. It is a pain in the butt and we end up flooding the bathroom floor. To top it off, to dry our clothes we have to lay them out on the balcony and our bus driver Takis was on the balcony next to ours and saw us hanging up our underwear, bras, and everything. We literally aired all our dirty laundry to him. He took a picture of us hanging up our laundry and put it on Facebook. He just couldn't stop laughing. I love him though, he's great.
Oh yea, when we flooded the bathroom, Irini told us that she has had groups of 40 and 50 before but we as a group of 11 have caused more destruction than any of them combined. We really are special.
Imagine that I don't look like a bum, we were about to go on a 4 hour bus ride.
If you look really close you can see that zig zag line on the mountain. Yea that's what made me sick.
The gray area hahaha
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