After the weekend in Mount Olympus National Park, we needed a bit of a break, to clean up, and plus another work week is coming, so we won't be sticking our noses out of the van for a while again. We parked near the town of Elassona. The white van by the playground was completely inconspicuous, so we stayed there for two days straight. The sun was blazing, the solar panels were charging sufficiently, and since it's December, no one even came to the playground.

We need to do laundry again. And there's a lot of it. It won't fit in our travel washing machine. I picked out a public laundromat in Larissa, so we headed there. For the first time we experienced firsthand the city traffic during the day in typical Greek streets, which are terribly narrow. Sometimes we were both leaning out the windows and checking the cars we were driving past to see if we were scraping or not. In the end we parked in a public parking lot near the center. From there it was about 15 minutes for me to the laundromat right through the center. So I could combine duty with a tour of the most touristy part of the city.

From Larissa we headed to Meteora and spent three days there. The first day it rained all through, plus we ran out of water and the battery was completely drained. It wouldn't even start for us, so we pushed it downhill and it surprisingly caught. They say you shouldn't do this with old diesel engines, but what were we supposed to do when there was no one around and we had to leave? The sun was nowhere in sight, so the only thing keeping the battery alive is the engine. We decided to drive to get water and back, that we'd at least charge a bit by doing that. But even that wasn't great, so we bought a big car charger and for the first time on our journey we stayed in a campsite. We took advantage of everything it offered. A proper hot shower and charging the battery all night. It really liked it and we liked that shower too!

The next day the sun was even shining and since Leo can't move away from work now, I set out to explore the surroundings alone. From the town of Kastraki it led me into the rocks. I thought I'd somehow get through... well, not all paths lead through between the rocks. While going around one massif I met a few nice people - an Australian couple and one Englishman and I joined them. We climbed to one viewpoint, had lunch there, and chatted. They were very nice and now we're even officially friends - on Facebook! :D

Then I said goodbye to them and ran back to Leo to drag him out so he'd get something out of it too. We moved to a parking lot near Varlaam Monastery and just enjoyed the views and sunset.

On our last day in Meteora we visited the oldest and largest of the monasteries - Great Meteoro. In Czech it would be something like 'floating in the clouds'. I can warmly recommend visiting at least this monastery. If you ignore all those tourists around, it's really an experience.

Imagine that you first have to get there over a bridge between rocks, then crawl through a carved passage, continue up several dozen steps to get to the level of the monastery itself. Behind its walls are stored several precious historical monuments and icons and one really beautifully decorated chapel with relics of some saints (no idea which ones, it was in Greek...). Besides that, a few rooms are dedicated to showing the old kitchen and cellar. You can't get into the monks' private rooms, but it was an experience for me anyway.

We only looked at the remaining monasteries from the road. Took a few last photos of the landscapes and moved on again. The next destination was Thermopylae. I wanted to see with my own eyes where that famous battle took place. Well, it doesn't look like in the movie. But there was some hint of a gorge there. But what attracted us even more were the thermal springs that meet there in a smaller stream. And it's really warm! Before it has time to cool down, it flows for several hundred meters and you can get in everywhere and relax.

We really liked the bath and would have stayed at this place overnight too, except that several people came to tap on our window, even repeatedly, and when I looked out, they were gesturing vigorously that something was wrong with our car (they didn't speak English, so I didn't understand what specifically). By the time I put on my shoes and went to check, they were already gone and I didn't find anything wrong with the van. So they probably just wanted to lure us out and then rob us or I don't know. We'd rather leave somewhere else for the night... why provoke when it's not necessary?

We drove all the way to Delphi, where the next day we walked through the monuments, museum, and went into town for gyros and coffee. A great day and weather to go with it! When we sat on the cafe terrace, the sun was shining and there was a light breeze. The owner assured us we could feel free to go sit inside if we were cold. And what got him most was when Leo even ordered ice cream! :D

The weekend is over and work awaits us again. We moved to the mountain town of Arachova and spent two days by the local church. The sun was blazing, solar panels were charging, and we could work undisturbed. We went for a walk into the town, to see the center and how they decorated it for pre-Christmas, and bought loose tea and ground coffee for the van. Our first Christmas present! :D

Now we're already on the way further east and the island of Euboea awaits us, the second largest island in Greece! Google promised a few nice natural places, so we're curious what we'll discover.