The opening music I used for my Trip to Greece clips is Yann Tiersen’s "deja loin". I wanted to use it in the last episode of the series. I thought there might be a "Leaving" episode to end the series, yet I had not made enough footage for that. So Meteora was to be the last episode, and it happened that the piece of music suited the clip quite well.
Based in the nearby town of Kalambaka, I listened to the good advice from fellow Taiwanese travellers and took the bus to get to Meteora. It took less than 15 minutes for the bus to get up on the massive rocks but perhaps more than an hour to climb up there. And judging from the way I walked down the path back to Kalambaka, it wouldn't be a very easy climb.
Visiting on a Tuesday, the best-known monastery Moni Megalou Meteorou (Grand Meteora) was closed. I could only sigh and took a long good look at the outside.
Fortunately the monastery Moni Varlaam I visited was interesting enough to soothe my frustration.
I took the path near Moni Agias Triados to get back down to the worldly Kalambaka. It's a very enjoyable and charming path to walk. The tranquil mountain landscape reminded me of the traditional Chinese landscape painting. I imagined I was the solitary poet in such otherworldly scenery, only that my state of mind was not blissfully serene. For more than half an hour, I was walking all alone with no soul in sight (and thank God no thief neither) throughout the meandering and narrow path, and some parts of which were shaded and hidden by trees. God only knows when and if I could get back to the open space in the village. Slightly worried, my pace was a little hurried. But I comforted myself that it's a holy place and some higher grace up there would look after me, even though I was not a religious person. As usual, in times of ominous danger, one becomes more religious than ever.
Meteora was not as miraculous as I imagined though. Before getting there, I naively envisaged that it's exactly like a forest with individual rock pillars sprung up from the plain like some colossal trees. And the small me would be standing below in awe of these handsome old trees, oozing some mystical-prehistorical air. But the reality was that most of the rocks were virtually linked by roads. Either you were down there seeing a mountain-range-like landscape, or up on the hills walking with ease on big roads. Up there, the panoramic views overlooking the towns are captivating. Despite its interesting rocks and characteristic monasteries, Meteora was more cheerfully scenic than mystically awe-inspiring.
At some point I moaned that I didn't know how to work on this clip. Now and then it's the similar images of these unique rock pillars. They seemed repetitive, yet were somewhat different. It's really hard to decide what footage to edit out. But somehow I managed to finish it and turned the crappy mess of images into something I liked. And soon I became addicted to my new clip, like last time when I did the Delphi clips. Quite absurd indeed.
Watch my video:
