Thessaloniki/Trikala/Kalambaka

Ao, eventually we made it back to Thessaloniki from Vergina/Veroia/other places to the west, and when we got there we decided that it was, in fact, time to head off into the wild blue yonder, specifically known as the town of Kalambaka. Kalambaka, while it is a lovely place, was not actually our final destination- we were headed for Meteora, which you might know better as "the place with all the monasteries on the big rocks." But first, we had to get on the bus. I believe that it was this bus which left from the same spot as the bus for Albania. Catharine and I were vaguely concerned that we were going to have another KTEL disaster and end up in Albania, and so we made a pact that if we were driving for a suspiciously long time and/or seemed to be going over an international border, we were going to yell "stasi!" and make a run for it.
Conveniently, we did get on the right bus, and ended up driving through a lot of Thessaly, which is a very pretty place, and making a transfer at Trikala, which is a town in Thessaly known mainly for being smaller than its neighbor, Larisa, and for being bisected by the river Letheos.

Yes, you read that right. The river Letheos. Like the one in the underworld. It was pretty cool. Also, I made a lot of Alcestis references. Mostly because The Alcestis takes place in Thessaly. It's sort of like the wierd cult things we did with The Medea in Corinth and The Agamemnon in Mycenae.
Finally we made it to Kalambaka! We had a picnic lunch. Those mysterious rocks behind Catharine? Those are the Meteora rocks. Yay!
On the way up...