Meteora

Coming from the south, before you get to Meteora, you travel for many miles on a flat featureless plain. Except for the mountains in the distance, it could be southern Saskatchewan. Then out of nowhere these incredible monoliths rise from the plains. No foothills, no warning, all of a sudden you're expecting to see the Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner.

I like to think the Greeks call this the Valley of the Dildos.

But the most amazing part is that there are more than a half-dozen Orthodox monasteries and one nunnery (their word, not mine) built on the tops of these things. These were built mostly in the 16th and 17th centuries, but at least one dates back to the 13th. I'd expect to see stuff like this in Tibet, but in Greece?? It just goes to show how little I know about this big old world we live in.

The monasteries have been restored and updated and are quite the tourist attractions, but most are functioning monasteries nonetheless.

The chapels, in fact all the Orthodox chapels I've been in, are quite small. They probably only seat 20 people. They all have a similar layout with a "front chapel" before you actually enter the sanctuary. The walls of this front room (it probably has a name, but I don't know what it is) are covered with murals depicting the deaths of martyrs in grisly detail. There are innumerable beheadings, stonings, disembowelments, skinnings, double mastectomies (I kid you not!), and even more modern torture devices like full-body screw-presses. Then, to really put the fear in them, there are murals depicting the final judgement day, with sinners being thrown into lakes of fire or devoured by prehistoric beasts. I'm sure Dick Cheney would love it, but I suspect there are a lot of Orthodox folk in therapy trying to get rid of the nightmares induced by these grisly images. The main chapel has more conventional images of saints and halos in beautific poses.

Tomorrow we're headed to Mount Olympus, and then on Thursday back to Athens/Pireaus to catch a ferry to Paros on Friday.