Meteora

On the way to Thessaloniki, we stopped about half way and visited Meteora. There used to be an inland sea here that eroded cliffs away so that now there are just towers of rock standing. On top of these, monks established monasteries because they felt they were closer to God. We visited two of them. One has actually been restored and is now run by nuns but they were all originally monasteries.



The views from them are incredible. The rock formations themselves are nothing to sneeze at, either. It is amazing that people were able to build such large buildings in such places. There were some beautiful old frescoes inside the churches that we visited. Our guide explained the meanings of many of the paintings and differences between Greek orthodoxy and other forms of Christianity. I plan to buy a book about it to learn more.




Now we are in Thessaloniki. We visited the American consulate here and visited with the consul general which was very interesting. Later in the day we heard more about Balkan history and the current strife going on here based on Macedonia (the former Yugoslavia) and why there is such a conflict here about this "new" state. Very interesting. It just brings home the realization that the U.S. public pays little attention to these matters. Now I understand them a little better.

We are here for a couple of days now so I will post more soon.