The next day I hopped into the car to visit the monastery that was closed previously, the Great Meteoron. It was fairly large, but not much different than the previous ones.
Two minutes down the road, I visited the Monastery of Rousanou. This one was the smallest by far, with one tiny courtyard and three rooms underneath. Getting into the monastery required going across two shaky bridges. You can't actually see the shaky bridge from the picture below, as it is horizontal and extends from the stone staircase.
Afterwards, I returned to my hotel and ended up needing to take care of medical problems longer than expected. This, combined with my late start, made it so that I would not make it to the two remaining monasteries before they would close, as I had intended a hike. So, I relaxed in the hotel room. The next day I left for Monodendri.
The drive was easy enough, until I was about a half hour away and driving up the mountain. I encountered a fire truck and a tow truck, with a hook that seemingly was going over the side of the mountain. A policewoman instructed myself and others to pull over to the side. After ten minutes, no progress had been made, so I turned around and went back down, remembering that there was an alternative route up the road. This alternative route ended up being an overgrown dirt path, so I hoped that if I kept going, another would show up, and it did.
I arrived at Monodendri, one of forty six villages in the Zagori region. I believe Monodendri to be one of the biggest. After checking in, I walked into the village and then followed a path northeast to the Agia Paraskevi Monastery. There was a notice stating that the woman that stayed here was hard of hearing. I entered the small site and she instructed me in Greek to go to three places. I said that I didn't understand Greek and so she yelled louder, still in Greek. I nodded and took the first entrance.
The main reason to visit was to see the fabulous view from a balcony.
Google Maps had indicated another viewing site just east of town, so I followed that path until I found the abandoned buildings and small amphitheater. Unfortunately, there was no view in site. I tried following the path, knowing that it would lead down into the gorge, but turned around after a few minutes. There was another sign in Greek that I tried following and then doubled back again after the path deteriorated. Finally, I followed the Alltrails app to an indicated photo spot, which ended up being right above the gorge and across from the monastery that I just visited. It was a tremendous view.
Back in town, I admired a sleeping cat for a while and then walked along the cobblestone path back to my hotel.
As it was approaching sunset, I drove ten minutes away to another lookout point for the Gorge, called the Oxya Viewpoint. I had it entirely to myself. At the location of the second picture below was a stone balcony. Just beyond the balcony was a sign saying to pass it at your own risk, with a sheer cliffside off of it, but a narrow path for I assume more views. I read a blog stating that "of course" people went past it anyway. Nope, not me! That drop was insane.
As I returned to my car, a whole bunch of people passed me on the way to the view. I guess it was time for local shepherd's to bring in their flock of goats for the night. I passed a few groups and stopped to take pictures.
The Zagori towns are known for their pies. Vegetable pies, meat pies, and cheese pies. Here is a picture of a Mediterranean pie, which was similar in ingredients and taste to pizza. The cheese pies are not melted mozarrella or anything like that, but a drier, crusty pie with, according to online research, feta and "mizithra" cheese, which I have never heard of. When I was eating dinner, there was only one other couple at the restaurant. When you order the cheese pie, they give you a massive platter of it. As I was leaving, they insisted I take a piece. It was excellent.
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