We had breakfast served by Sydney Hotel owner- this Australian uncle in suit and tie. He was accommodating and polite. Breakfast was coffee or tea, ham, cheese, butter, jam, muffin and orange juice. Simple, but filling enough.
We drove up to the monasteries. Visiting a monasteries I thought I would meet monks, nuns, but I didn’t see any. (Clarence: Got lar, so many nuns you didn’t see meh? Those at the Roussanou are all nuns. You buy the fridge magnet the cashier is a nun already mah…hurhurhur) There were 24 monasteries here, but now only 6 are occupied. We picked 2 to visit. The first one we went was a nunnery called Roussanou. Appropriate clothing is required to visit the monasteries. Shorts, sleeveless, tank tops, mini skirts are no no. I was in my long pants and jacket, but still the lady at the entrance issued me a long wrap skirt. So, you can just grab one of the wrap skirt from the pile at the entrance, instead of worrying about what to wear. You will appreciate this visit more if you know a little about Greek Orthodoxy. No picture taking is allowed inside. Anyway, inside was pretty dimly lit, so quite difficult to take photos.
The place felt very sacred. The ceiling was filled with frescoes, and the walls hung many religious icons from the byzantine era. We picked this one cos Clarence said this is the smallest and the poorest one among them. 
We bought a fridge magnet from their souvenir shop, thinking we might be able to contribute to this little nunnery. 3euro per piece lor!
(Go early to avoid the crowd- from the tour buses)
The second one we went was Great Meteoron monastery, the biggest and the most visitors, so this one must be the richest. By the way, you need to pay an entrance fee. This monastery is quite a climb. It has a church and even a museum, very big. We spent most of the time in the museum. And guess who we met on our way down? We ran into the Taiwanese couple! We stopped and made conversation with them. Such a coincident.
We went back to Sydney Hotel to check out, thinking that we could use the toilet before we hit the road. The chambermaid gave us a buay song face, reminded us our check out time was supposed to be 10am. We were unaware. Anyway, we just act blur, used our toilet, packed our bags and check out. I still remember that black face she gave us when we returned the key and paid for the room. Hello girl, you are in service industry you know?
We wanted to have lunch at a restaurant recommended by LP, but it was closed! So we went to another restaurant with a lot of Greek uncles drinking Ouzu and coffee. This place must be serving authentic greek cuisine we thought. This restaurant was ran by these 2 brothers. We had some really juicy charcoal grilled pork chop, chicken and yummy stuffed tomatoes & peppers. (Clarence: This has to be one of the most authentic greek restaurants we had been to! No tourists, no airs, just plain Greek friendliness from the two brothers! There were elderly men around drinking ouzo at noon you know? Just like our lao uncles over here in Singapore drinking stout in the morning haha! Actually I also feel like drinking hurhurhur…but don’t want lar…haha. And the daughter of one of the brothers is so pretty and cute. She showed us her drawing, which I’m still trying to decifer haha. Too bad we did not take down the name of the restaurant to introduce to you guys. It’s near the church in Kastraki I think…)
After a delicious lunch, we drove back all the way to Athens. Maybe because of the lunch, I couldn’t stay awake throughout the drive, though it was a scenic drive.
The road trip was smooth till we hit Athens, when we didn’t know which exit to exit from the highway. After a few rounds, we finally got back to SIXT at about 6plus. Earlier, the girl who did the paper work for us was not on duty. She previously agreed to give us a discount cos we got the car 1 hr late (because they couldn’t locate that rental car)Apparently, she didn’t give us the discount on the payment invoice, but we told her colleague and she honored the deal. So we paid 75euro per day which includes extra driver + full waiver auto insurance coverage. Not too bad!
From SIXT, we dragged our heavy luggage to Plaka Village. We are staying at this Student & Travellers Inn. 70euro per night for our double bed with WC shower + AC. Clarence took the mix dorm, 25 euro without AC, share with up to 3 other persons.
