The highlight of the day is visiting UNESCO World Heritage Meteora which refers to the monasteries perched on top of free-standing rocks. But first, when we got outside the hotel, such a magnificent view greeted us! The surrounding mountainous area is simply picturesque. We couldn't see it last night when we arrived as the sun had already set and it was pitch dark.
It was a long winding drive up the mountains. How monasteries came about was interesting. The early Christians in the Roman Empire were persecuted for claiming Jesus as Lord as the Roman emperors considered themselves lords over the citizens. As such, many of the Christians went into hiding. They prayed in catacombs, deserts, and became monks. Monasteries were often built in secluded places to avoid detection, and what better way to prevent access than build on top of high rocks?
After Emperor Constantine received a vision, he became converted to Christianity and allowed the practice of all religions. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and the landscape changed. People became monks for different reasons, large to isolate themselves from secular life. There are more than 500 monasteries in Greece.
In Meteora, the first monks arrived here in the 11th Century. The first monastery we visited was Varlaam. It wasn't too bad of a climb and the view was spectacular. We were advised that women had to wear long skirts as modest wear for the monasteries.
The guide explained that the difference between a monastery and a church is that monasteries are a self-contained compound with a complex of buildings because the monks live here. There is a church, living quarters, gardens, kitchen, hospital, etc. Monks are not allowed to have any personal possessions but they as a group, they can own property like vineyards and fields to earn a living via selling wine, candles, etc. In modern day, they sell tickets for admission. Monasteries are built like castles to keep out pirates, thieves and other unsavoury characters.
The church inside the monastery is typical of a Greek Orthodox church - with lots of paintings to depict stories from the Bible because many people back then couldn't read. So looking at the pictures would help them contemplate and remember what God had done. The guide explained that the Greek Orthodox church is different from the Catholic church in that they don't recognise the Pope as the head of the church, and they don't have statues but paintings. (Few pictures cos we're not allowed to take photos inside the churches).
When the monastery was first built, there were no stairs and monks had climb the rock walls. Supplies were brought up using pulleys. We happened to be up in one of rooms when we saw someone hauling up a crate of water. The system is still being used today!
We then boarded the bus and headed for the second monastery which was the St Stephan's nunnery. Again more spectacular views.
This is the view that I painted two days later in my sketchbook:
It's a crazy approach, looks so unreal the nunnery perched at the edge of the rocks like some fairy tale. It's one of the more accessible monasteries, according to the guide. Some of the others are extremely remote and hard to get to.
We were brought to a shop selling religious items. Historically, it's quite amazing to think that Greece transformed from being the centre of idolatry to a nation of 80% Christians, thanks to the apostle Paul. However, from what I see, I think idolatry is well and alive still today.
Had lunch at a nearby restaurant. The Greeks eat huge meals. Every meal we've had comes with an appetiser, a salad, a main course and dessert. After a while, some of us started to share one portion between two people as it was simply too much.
And of course, there are always hopeful cats lurking around. Even their strays are pretty.
After lunch we made our way to Veria (historically spelled Berea). This was one of the earliest cities Paul preached in and its inhabitants were among the first in the Roman Empire to believe in the gospel. According to the Bible, the Bereans were noble and checked Paul's words against Scripture to see if what he said matched up. They sought truth and didn't just take what Paul said at face value. We can all learn from this.
"As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." - Acts 17:10-12
A memorial has been built to commemorate where Paul preached.
The Tung Ling dean held a devotional here. The
shop opposite the memorial provided stools which I thought was quite an
ingenious arrangement. No doubt tour groups do this all the time and
would go on to the shop thereafter to purchase souvenirs (unfortunately
for them, we had to rush off immediately after the devotional, no time
for shopping!)
To be honest, I don't remember what she said cos I was wrapped up in my own thoughts. I was contemplating how Paul walked 80km here after being persecuted by the Jews in Thessaloniki, and his sheer tenacity and determination to share the gospel despite the odds and despite all his suffering. How quickly we get discouraged today by the slightest insinuation, a harsh word, in comparison. How quickly we doubt God's goodness when He doesn't immediately remove our obstacles or resolve all our problems.
After the devotional, we drove to our stop for the night - Porto Palace Hotel Thessaloniki. This is one super weird hotel. It's huge and a little eerie - our room was all the way to the back of the hotel past deserted corridors. The room looked perfectly normal, until I saw this huge painting on one of the walls:
I mean, seriously???? Who would hang this sort of painting in a hotel room?? It just added to the haunted hotel vibe 🫣 I whined to my roommate that I couldn't possibly sleep with this staring and me, and she immediately took it down and propped it facing the wall. What would I do without her 🥰 And then we both said cleansing prayers over the room.
The room also had no air conditioning because it's close to winter so it has been switched to heating. The front desk told to just open the window if it's stuffy which we did. We found out later that some other people in the group had windows that opened out to a passageway (unlike ours which opens into an airwell). So it's either sleep without ventilation or risk having someone climb into your room.
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