The final days in Greece

It’s nearing the end of my time in Greece and so I decided to spend my final weekend at Metamorfosi, in the Haikidiki area. This is pretty much the rest and relaxation part of my trip. The beach (with bar) is a 2 minute walk from where I am staying. I am quite a fan of going to the beach and there being an umbrella and sun bed waiting for me and to sit there I just have to order a Mojito. Well it could have been a bottle of water, but I went for a Mojito. It’s not everyday that I have the ability for someone to bring me a cocktail at the beach.

Metamorfosi is a cute little beach side town. I did a tiny bit of work over the weekend but otherwise I really just did not much. I played solitaire with the deck of cards I bought for myself, I watched some Netflix, I went to the beach, and I ate some food.

On Monday I checked out and had a 3 – 4 hour drive ahead of me to Kalampaka which is right near Meteora. On my way there I stopped at Dion Archeological Park. This one they call a park, not just an ancient site. There is a lot more parkland greenery and it’s a bit different to some of the other sites I have visited. I kept my time here to an hour as I wanted to check out Mount Olympus on the way too. My 3 – 4 hour drive was becoming a 5 hour drive with the detours.

The views driving up the Mountain were awesome. I got to enjoy them driving however the places I could stop to try snap some photos just weren’t the best. I really didn’t give Mount Olympus the time I had originally intended to. I had planned on having a day trip here while I stayed in Thessaloniki but instead gave myself a day off. Coming back and actually doing one of the hike trails is on the next time list now.

It was about 6pm when I got to Kalampaka. Did the usual checkin, went and found some dinner and then just wandered through the main street checking out all the things.

The next morning I got up and ready to head up to Meteora and take in the incredible views! There are about 6 Monasteries/Nunneries on these rock mountains and they are impressive, from the outside. I had read up on them and saw that there was a dress code and that short skirts were not allowed, not even just knees covered but long skirts. It did state that they sold them there if needed but I assumed that covering my legs and wearing a pair of leggings would be okay. Shoulders covered of course also a thing, but that one was easy to deal with. Turns out that leggings/pants for women is not acceptable for entry and that I needed to be wearing a skirt. So I had an option of purchasing one of their skirts or not entering. I chose not to enter. I had been umming and ahhing about do I even enter one of these places. I had decided that coming all this way I should at least pick one and go have a look inside. I didn’t think that I needed to try to see all six or anything, how many crosses and stuff do I really need to see?

On a side note, it’s not like if I did enter I was getting any content for this post as you can’t take photos inside these places. The epic views are really what I was most interested in and as much as I thought it might be worth seeing some of the art and stuff, my desire to enter just wasn’t worth buying a rubbish skirt that I was never going to wear again. I think I also had a bit of an internal moment of did God apparently say that women needed to wear skirts or was that a human man decision? I decided instead that I would prefer to spend my entry fee on a cup of coffee in town while wearing a short skirt. So after I visited all of the viewing spots, that’s what I did. After doing my good deed of picking up someone trying to hitch a ride down the mountain to the next nunnery.

The next day I drove 2 hours to Kamena Vourla, the final stop for my last night in Greece. This was a cute little coastal town that I picked purely based on looking for something to break up my drive back to Athens that was a good price. It’s a 2 hour drive from Athens. The weather had decided to start prepping me for leaving and heading to the UK as the day sat at a comfortable 23 degrees and then it rained a bit. I ducked out between rain drops to get some food and walk around the main street. Then I just went and packed my suitcase for flying the next day.

That next day is now today, and here I sit at the airport. I had organised to drop my car off before I had booked my flight so I have ended up with several hours to sit around the airport. It’s a good opportunity to cap this blog off and to catch up on some work.