Trips in 2016: Parga part 2/2.

I'm finally getting around to sharing the second part of my photos from Greece. (The first part can be found here). Above are some photos from the first outing we went on - to the magnificent UNESCO World Heritage site Meteora. I wanted to go there already during our first visit to Parga, but the tickets for the outing got sold out, and I was soo disappointed. This time I made sure to book the outing in advance.

Meteora was definitely worth the wait! We were so mesmerized that the monks had been able to build all those monasteries high up on mountain summits so many years ago! We got to visit the Monastery of Great Meteoron which is the largest of Meteora's six monasteries, and learned about what life looks like for the (just three) monks who still live there. Afterwards we drove around a bit and got to see more of those beautiful mountains! We also made a stop in the sweet mountain town of Metsovo and suddenly felt almost like we were in the Alps. The cool mountain air was so refreshing after the heat of Meteora. Before it was time to head home we found a café that served milkshake with cookie crumbles in it which was so delicious! (PS. The guide took the photo of the two of us, which is why my feet are cropped out - I would never do that!)






The next day we left Parga early in the morning again, this time on a ferry instead of a bus. After a couple of hours we made it to Corfu town on the island of Corfu. The day was soo warm and did not render itself all that well to exploring a city, but since we had travelled all that way we obviously had to see some of the sights! We spent the day walking around the city's cozy little alleys (which reminded me a lot of other cities in southern Europe like Split and Kotor) and also climbing to the top of the Old Fortress, which I have to say was quite a feat on such a hot day! We ended up spending the last hour or so before heading home at a bar drinking cold drinks, which were MUCH needed :)







Our third and final outing was to Albania. The border is just a few hours away from Parga so it makes for a great day trip destination. It was definitely interesting to see a little bit of a country that tourists are only just beginning to discover. We started out by visiting the archeological site of Butrint (or Buthrotum). A local guide told us about all the different people who have lived there over the years - the site was inhabitated already between the 10th and 8th centuries BC, if not earlier! Afterwards we headed into the town of Saranda which is one of the places most popular among tourists in Albania. We had lunch there and explored the town a bit. It was another very warm day and we mostly tried to stay out of the sun. Since we only had a couple of hours to spend there we didn't feel like getting all sandy on the beach, but I longed for a cooling swim and said that I wished there was a bar where you could also go swimming. Not much later, I found a bar just like that! It was like a dream come true. While we waited for our drinks we climbed down a ladder right next to our table into the water. Before it was time to head home we even had time for another dip. It might just have been my favourite bar ever :)

After all these outings we were quite exhausted so we spent the rest of our trip in Parga, mostly in sun chairs on the beach + in and out of the Mediterranean Sea, so we were well rested when it was time to head home again.