Korcë in Albania - Meteora in Greece

The staircase from the room to the reception is scary for someone with mobility issues, and David tells me that the continuation down to the basement where the breakfast area is, is even worse, with rickety metal steps and no hand rail. He suggests that I give them a miss and he brings me some food to the room instead.

The steps to the basement as seen from the reception area

The stairs to the basement as seen from the basement

The breakfast area

My 'room service' breakfast

Macedonia – Greece border

The Greek border is a short distance from Korcë. Vladimir is very surprised, pleasantly surprised I may add, that there is no-one in front of us at the border. “Sometimes the queue can be an hour or more” he tells us.

Our first stop in Greece is to take our morning coffee at a small café.

Two Austrian couples who have driven down from Austria also stop here – a great chance for me to practice my German.

Vladimir phones the local guide, who claims he has no knowledge of our booking for tomorrow. Vladimir explains that we will be touring by car and not climbing up to any of the lofty monasteries, which means he can manage to fit us in. That’s a relief, as this is likely to be one of the highlights of our trip.

Hotel Kastraki

The road leading to Meteora and our hotel for the night, winds its way around the steep peaks this region is famous for. Our accommodation is on the outskirts of the main town, with a superb setting.

As we pull up in the car park, I say to David: “I would love to have that room (circled). Someone somewhere must have been listening to my thoughts, as that is our room for the next two nights.

The view from our balcony is pretty spectacular!

The hotel itself does not have a restaurant, but there is a Taverna slightly further down the road which is owned by the same person.

Taverna on the right, hotel in the 'distance' on the left

Meteora Vavitsas Restaurant

The menu is fairly short and simple, with mostly classic Greek dishes, and everything seems to come with chips.

My chicken Souvlaki - with chips

David's Pork Souvlaki and Chips

The cats around here are well fed!

The best baklava ever!

At the end of the meal we are offered a glass of 40% raki on the house along with loukoumi, the Greek version of Turkish Delight.

We return to our room balcony where we enjoy the last of the duty free rum while watching the birds and the squirrels and the mist come down to envelop those gorgeous peaks. I have seriously fallen in love with this place.

Thank you to Undiscovered Destinations for arranging this private and bespoke tour of the Balkans.