Several days ago, we decided to visit the Holy rocks of Meteora along with the teachers of our school. On Friday morning the bus transferred us to this sacred place.

The view from the rocks was breathtaking. We felt awe and fear, when the steep cliffs and rocks came into sight through the windows of the bus. Although we were fearful of the bold cliffs, deep down we knew nothing would go wrong, for we felt that an invisible divine power was protecting us from getting harmed. While gazing at the countless rocks, some of them were taking the shape of human figures while others were converted into works of art, carved by nature itself.

Before we knew it, we arrived at the Monastery of St. Stephen. What we saw is hard to describe. Beneath us laid the Pineios River as a giant snake and an endless straight line was shining at the light of the morning sun and got lost deep inside the Thessaly plain. Far from us, the light blue mountain range of Pindos was standing. The beautiful town of Kalambaka, was resting at the foot of the Meteora rocks.

Having taking several pictures of the picturesque landscape, we walked on a small wooden bridge and reached the entrance of the monastery. We crossed a heavy arched wooden door and entered the monastery.

There, we waited for Sister Nicodeme to show us around.

     First, we visited the Church of Saint Charalambos and all students were welcomed to the Saint’s relic. The church was as old as the others were. There, a group of painters were on scaffolds and painted images of the saints on the walls. We were thoroughly explained how demanding a job is to draw a painting on the surface of a wall.
     Later on, we visited St. Stephen’s Vestry. In this area, old embroidered epitrachilia, epigonatia and vestments are stored. In the vestry we also saw an Episcopal throne made of ivory, some gold crosses, but what really impressed us were some old papyri dating back to the 6th century AD.
    After visiting the Church of St. Stephen, the Holy Mother told us about his story and that Saint Philotheus was one of the founders who came from a nearby village, Rizoma.
     Then, we went to the dining room and the nuns offered us sweets, juice and water. An elderly nun gave us presents, a cross and a bookmark, and wished us a Merry Christmas.
     A bit later, after saying goodbye and thanking the nuns for their hospitality, we headed towards the Holy Monastery of Rousanou. Our ascent was impeded by the number of stairs and the appearance of two bridges.
    This Monastery is smaller than the monastery of St. Stephen. We were really struck by the small church and its old but vivid frescoes. Nun Vasiliki, described the murals and explained their significance in detail.  Patiently, she explained every single thing that we saw in this small church. Despite the fact that we had visited the monastery with our parents again in the past, it was not until now that we really became acquainted with this historic monastery. We were also told that the murals were painted by Tzortzis, a notable painter’s student (Theofanis) whose birthplace was probably Kalambaka, in 1569 AD.

     At the same time, a group of Chinese tourists were also guided to the Holy Monastery. That’s only indicative of the popularity and uniqueness of the Holy Meteora rocks throughout the world.
At the end of our visit, the nuns offered us some fresh treats and wished us all the best.

These were our impressions from our visit to the nunneries of Meteora. Our teachers promised us that in the spring we would visit the rest of the monasteries too, and that we would resume our journey to Meteora.

Translation by Christine Boutsia