We planned our annual holiday to Greece and decided to head towards Lefkada, the island connected to the mainland by a bridge.

We left Kochani early in the morning as we wanted to beat the queues at the border crossing at Gevgelia-Thessaloniki which we managed to pass in 40 minutes! This was pretty good going as in peak times it can take up to 4 hours to get through, so if you are driving across the border choose your time wisely!

Since we were making such good time, we decided to accept an offer from my husband’s colleague, who was staying in Kalyvia, to stop by their place for breakfast. Beside enjoying great French toast, we got to see this charming coastal town framed by the beach on one side and Mount Olympus on the other. While we were there they suggested, or actually said, “you cannnot not go” to see Meteora, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Meteora is a collection of six monasteries built right into the massive rocks. They date back to the 14th century, and the effort and sacrifices made to build them up there are hard to begin to imagine in this day and age. The monasteries have been really well maintained and draw a lot of tourists.

We arrived in the middle of the day, which turned out to be fairly quiet because of the scorching heat! We managed to visit two monasteries before the busloads of tourists arrived, but once the queues started building up, we made a hasty retreat to our air-conditioned car.

I’d say the surrounding scenery and the outside of the monasteries are just as impressive as the inside, so keep that in mind if you ever find yourself waiting in line in the hot sun.

One final tip: modest dress is required to enter the monasteries. It was surprising to see how many people completely ignored those long-standing traditions.

It was well worth the detour and now it was time for the last leg of the journey to Lefkada.