30-Day Solo Travel in Europe | Day 28: Meteora: The Cloud Monasteries That Rejected Game of Thrones Filming

（Previous chapter: Day 27: Finding Peace in Athens: Breakfast, Rain, and the Parthenon）

On our second day in Athens, we set off early while the morning light still carried a touch of laziness. We packed our bags, boarded the train, and headed towards Kalambaka to visit the place known as the ‘City in the Sky’ — Meteora.

The journey from Athens took about five to six hours. We arrived around 1pm, met our local guide, and transferred onto a coach to begin the day’s exploration. What takes your breath away in Meteora are the ancient monasteries perched silently atop towering rock formations. Most were built in the 9th-10th centuries by Orthodox Christian hermit monks. These monks chose the precarious mountain peaks for two reasons: to be closer to God in heaven, and to escape the chaos and wars of the world below. It was this deliberate isolation that allowed so many of the monasteries to survive intact through the centuries.

Apart from the tour fee, we had to pay an additional three euros to enter each monastery. We had planned to visit three. Before the trip, I had read in reviews that one of them required climbing over three hundred steps, and I was quietly worried whether my body would manage. Fortunately, our guide told us that particular monastery was closed that day, so we would visit three others instead.

What I hadn’t noticed when booking was the strict dress code: women must wear long skirts — jeans are not permitted. I had only brought a short dress with me and nothing longer. Some monasteries kindly provide sarongs for ladies to wear, but when we reached the last one, it was nearly closing time and a crowd of visitors was already gathered outside. The man at the ticket counter was busy collecting money, and we thought they have a sarong we could borrow. Instead, another staff member told us coldly that we would have to pay extra to buy one, with no clear sign anywhere to inform visitors in advance when we bought the tickets.

Money wasn’t the issue, but the sudden coldness left a sour taste. It was like they were so money hungry in sacred places like these instead of treating people kindly. We had already bought the tickets, only to be turned away at the door. In the end, we refused to bring ourselves into an experience that felt so unwelcoming and decided to skip the last monastery. Luckily, some kind fellow travellers from our group offered to buy our two tickets from us.

Setting aside that one unpleasant moment, the visit to Meteora was still very much worthwhile. I found it hard to imagine the devotion and sheer determination the hermit monks must have had. How much physical strength and spiritual resolve did it take to carry every brick and stone up these cliffs and build these sacred places high above the world? Standing before the monasteries, I couldn’t help but reflect: modern life has given us so much comfort and endless distractions, yet we seem to have gradually lost that pure, unwavering commitment to something greater than ourselves. Perhaps that is one of the quiet regrets of our time — the more dazzling the digital world becomes, the dimmer real life feels.

In our group there was an American family — a few older uncles and aunties accompanied by a young man in his early twenties. Seeing the elderly members, whose movements were already slow and difficult, still making their way step by step up the steep paths to the top moved me deeply. It served as a gentle reminder to make the most of my youth and health while I still can, because as the years go by, the freedom to explore becomes more and more limited, both physically and mentally. My friend and I were lucky to visit Meteora while we were still young. Although the round trip by train totalled more than twelve hours and left us exhausted, the journey still felt precious.

There are some places you only visit once in a lifetime, and for me Meteora is one of them. It is unique and deeply moving, yet after experiencing it, I felt quietly satisfied. There are still so many other landscapes and stories I want to see before coming back again. If you’ve never been to Meteora, I would genuinely recommend coming once because scenes like this are truly rare anywhere else in the world. Our guide mentioned that the Game of Thrones production team had wanted to film here, but monasteries here turned them down. After all, this is a living religious site.

We spent three to four hours wandering among the rocks before rushing back to the station for the six-hour train ride back to Athens. By the time night fell, we arrived at a popular restaurant in the city centre. We had tried to come the day before but couldn’t get a table without a reservation. This time we were lucky enough to walk in just before last orders even without reservation. Our waiter, Stephen was a charming, chatty Greek man in his thirties. He greeted us with the warmth and humour that are so typical of the locals. We ended our final day in Athens laughing and chatting under the warm lights. As the night gently settled in, our time in Athens drew to a peaceful, satisfying close.