It didn't require trudging through a snowy mountain pass, negotiating razor thin trails, or hopping on a potato-laden bus-boat in the wee morning hours. We were teleported from Athens via rental car - easy peasy.
Having been somewhere, one is left with stories, but perhaps much of the magic lies in the stories of the journey getting there. Or perhaps I've been so spoiled by the bicycle that 'time efficiency' has lost any meaning to me.
Leaving Great Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries, I spotted a hiking trail on the way down that we might take instead of the tourist-filled main road. A horseshoe shaped icon on my map notified me of a 'Dragon Cave' at the base of the rock pillar upon which the nearby Varlaam Monastery rested. Legend says that a dragon once lived in the cave and filled his belly with the townsfolk of Kastraki. One day a monk, fed up with the dragon's appetite, threw himself from the high monastery down into the gulch. As he fell, the monk cursed the dragon, and just before he hit the ground, the dragon's caved collapsed, burying the beast. And the monk, in a tremendous sacrifice, went splat.
Locating the entrance to the cave was quite the puzzle. No signage at all and the massive rock pillar above muddled any GPS connectivity. After twenty minutes or so we spotted a secret and narrow opening between the rocks and found ourselves in a vulvic cavern. Perhaps the dragon had been birthed from this rocky womb. Mum was hesitant to squeeze in at first, but I can be persuasive, or at least persistent. Inside the cave's several chambers, we found silence, solitude, and great lighting for mother-son photo opportunities!
Having been somewhere, one is left with stories, but perhaps much of the magic lies in the stories of the journey getting there. Or perhaps I've been so spoiled by the bicycle that 'time efficiency' has lost any meaning to me.
Leaving Great Meteoron, the largest of the monasteries, I spotted a hiking trail on the way down that we might take instead of the tourist-filled main road. A horseshoe shaped icon on my map notified me of a 'Dragon Cave' at the base of the rock pillar upon which the nearby Varlaam Monastery rested. Legend says that a dragon once lived in the cave and filled his belly with the townsfolk of Kastraki. One day a monk, fed up with the dragon's appetite, threw himself from the high monastery down into the gulch. As he fell, the monk cursed the dragon, and just before he hit the ground, the dragon's caved collapsed, burying the beast. And the monk, in a tremendous sacrifice, went splat.
Locating the entrance to the cave was quite the puzzle. No signage at all and the massive rock pillar above muddled any GPS connectivity. After twenty minutes or so we spotted a secret and narrow opening between the rocks and found ourselves in a vulvic cavern. Perhaps the dragon had been birthed from this rocky womb. Mum was hesitant to squeeze in at first, but I can be persuasive, or at least persistent. Inside the cave's several chambers, we found silence, solitude, and great lighting for mother-son photo opportunities!
Meteora & Mt. Olympus as seen from a British Airways flight
