Sunday, August 12, 2007

On The way to Meteora

We went to a short trip to Meteora last weekend. We started enjoying Greece again after coming back to Athens. But the main difference this time is the scorching heat. This is one of the hottest summers and temperature almost touched 50C some days. It’s unbelievable and unbearable. Almost 100 people died here due to this consequence of Global warming. The worst effect of the warming is massive flood in Indian subcontinent, another catastrophe but different in nature. What I heard from one of my Greek colleague is, if the summer continues like this way, part of Greece will be desert in few years, but I really don’t know the authenticity of it.

Well, keeping aside the Global warming, what I observed this time is nature lost its color here in Greece, its bit shabby but still enchanting. The sky is not that blue (so as the water as it’s the reelection of the sky), but very natural. See the original version of the picture below on the way to Meteora.

Meteora is wonderful, formed by many big meteors it’s a true gift of nature. The nearest town from his place is Kalambaka, almost 400km away from Athens. Passing through lovely crowded beaches to small gray mountains it took almost four and half hour to reach Meteora. I was the only driver and it was tough for me to drive 800km in a day, especially in hilly highways. This is my longest drive as a driver and enjoyed every moment of it with Hindi songs, witty comments with co-passengers and cokes.

The first view of the place is very impressive; the fascinating rocks bewildered me in first glance .Greek: Μετέωρα, "suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above", however there are many theories for the rocks creation, like meteors, dropped from sky; nothing is full proven. But it looks amazing, soothing heavenly, very unique and absolutely natural. That’s the reason it is considered to be one of the best tourist attractions of Greece.

We were hungry and not wasting any time started searching for restaurants. But in the mountains there was hardly any house or restaurants. We found one board “Eagel Restaurant – 8 km from here” and followed the path. It took us to the top of the mountain and driving there would have been extremely difficult if not the infrastructures are so good. Scenic beauty was fascinating and so the Lunch. Very tasty traditional Greek Lunch in cheap price (compared to islands).

Meteora is not only famous for the natural beauty of rocks, mainly because of the world-famous monasteries. I am going to write about them in my next post.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

WoW...some really beautifully captured shots. The third one is heavenly and the last b/w compositon is really cool. I loved the description of your place also...Nice post!

Anonymous said...

And yes...

Happy Independence Day Pijush!

Pijush said...

@Kalyan, I am glad that you liked the pics of my Meteora trip, will post soon about the Monasteries.

Ananda Niyogi said...

Nice B&W landscape...very Ansel Adam-esque :-)

Sigma said...

Hey! Nice pictures. But as you say, it seems quit arid. Although the first one shows a beautiful lake, I think it would have looked lovelier had it had more greenery around.

And nice description too. I am amazed that you did manage to drive 800kms in a day. On Indian roads, specially in hills, it would have been unthinkable.

And I liked the way you have written the name in Greek. I recognize the alphabets from my school physics, and of course, the courses for electrical :-D