Paul made coffee and we took it with us to Meteora to have breakfast on some rocks with views of four monasteries and the valley stretching out beneath. The morning light pulled the warmer hues out of the rock. It was lovely. Just as the day started to feel uncomfortably warm, we took Tim to the pool to try out his floating car in calmer seas. There is a school group of about 60 15 year olds staying, but we got to the pool just before them. It took a few minutes for him to adjust to the size of the pool, but then he enjoyed floating around between Paul and me. The teenagers showed up and we made our exit. In the early afternoon, the rain started with wonderful thunder. It rained off and on all day, which gave us an excuse to relax in the tent and give Tim plenty of time to work on his crawling skills. He still drags his left foot behind him, but he spends some time rocking on his hands and knees now. We ate dinner at a tabepna (that’s a tavern with Greek spelling so we call them tabepnas). It was good but some vegetables would have been nice. Tomorrow we head north to Macedonia.
meteora
meteora
meteora9 august
Our drive to Meteora was relatively short, so we took our time breaking camp. Lonely Planet directed us to a campsite in Kastraki, a village just below the monasteries. I came here in 2004, a week after meeting Paul. I even invited him to join us being ignorant of his visa issues as a South African. He counted with the suggestion that we meet somewhere in Europe in the near future, and the rest is history. When I was here, I never thought that I’d come back and certainly not with a husband and son. Paul put it best when he said that the Acropolis with all it’s history is great but Meteora is far more impressive. I’ll let the photos explain. We drove around to get a view of all of them and then went into Saint Stephens. It’s a nunnary.
8 august
We spent last night on a ferry from Cesme, Turkey to Athens, Greece. I don’t know what classifies something as a ferry. To me, we weren’t on a ferry but a ship. Paul booked us a cabin so that we wouldn’t have to sleep on the floor in the corridors like most of the other low budget travelers. I expected to see 20 something backpackers, but the pensioners surprised me. They must be made of stronger stuff than me. Our cabin was just big enough to fit Tim’s bed beside our bunk beds. We had our own shower and loo. It took me about two hours lying in bed to get used to the motion of the ship. I think it bothered Tim because he woke and had trouble falling back to sleep. When he finally did at 03:30, I slept deeply. The boat left at 23:00 and we docked at 06:30. We were at the Acropolis at 07:20 and driving north by 09:00. I’ve been to Athens before and Paul trusted me when I said there wasn’t anything else worth seeing other than the museum. The British Museum is so good that it makes paying for others too painful sometimes. We set up camp in Kamena Vourla at about 15:00, did some grocery shopping, had a gyro and enjoyed the sea. We bought Tim a floating car in Cesme and tried it out. The sea was a bit too rough, but he enjoyed sitting in it on the shore and letting the soft waves rock him a little. Yesterday was spent in transit. We drove from Selcuk to Cesme, arriving hours before our ferry to make sure our booking was in order. It was, thanks Martin. It took several hours to get through customs. We took a small ferry to Chios, a Greek island, ate dinner in the port, then boarded our ferry for Athens.
the pantheon 
the acropolis
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