So silent we could hear the ringing in our ears, Katja and I wandered the empty streets in bewilderment.    

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Remember when your parents told you not to talk to people you don't know? I wonder if that applies to the time I carpooled with strangers while abroad.

Mitfahrgelegenheit (carpooling in German) is one of the few instances when you have a reason to talk to strangers. Mom and Dad, I am still here, and no, our driver didn’t lure us in with candy. 

Lara, my German friend, contacted our ride the day before with a simple, “20 euros one way, deal. Amsterdam in 5 hours—here we go!”

How we found our ride? It starts online here.

The site includes more than six countries where travelers and commuters can post inquiries for rides (both if you’re in search for a ride or if you're in search for passengers). It’s like Craigslist for travelers and commuters. 

With over 3.5 million registered users from Germany, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Greece, users can stumble upon a trip that embraces the beauty of this weird yet socially acceptable excuse to meet people.

Over 170,824 friendships and six marriages have resulted from this carpooling venture since 2011, according to the company's website.  Likewise, it’s a great way to cut down on travel-related environmental damage. Through 16 million trips, over 530,000 tons of carbon dioxide have been saved!

Our experience with the service was incredible—I couldn't have put a price tag on blasting some Bob Marley with our ultra-reggae Dutch Guyana driver and sharing good stories on the road.   

If you’re the type that’s finds roadtripping, the kindness of strangers, and spontaneity exciting, then this is for you!

We hear it in the news—Greece: financial crisis, the edge of default, Euro near collapse, the brink of bankruptcy!

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   Stoic and jagged, this geological phenomenon has stood proudly for over 60 million years. They pop abruptly from the flat Thessaly plain, as surreal as if they were artificially inserted there in the soil. 

   Some see them as similar to the Grand Canyon, and others say they look like Mars, but they can only be known as Meteora: the monasteries that “float in the air.”

   They're a holy site, an old battleground, a monk’s haven, and a geologist’s dream. Rock climbers, artists, and simply quiet hermits linger here for the benefit of its peace.

   But for us, these rocks bring everything else to a halt. They are a sweet escape; the rat race can wait.

   Kastraki village is unspoiled—time stopped here long ago.  Kastraki’s air smells of a mixture of pine sap and smoked souvlaki. Pickup trucks cruise slowly through the town and kids throw dice on the Tavli board while old women carry baskets full of rosemary. Kastraki, a village untouched by mass tourism and commercialization, is the face of old-school Greece.

   Sydney hotel is a cozy stay, is accommodated well, and is directly across from the bus station that heads for the monasteries or Kalabaka.

   Once we arrive at our first monastery, we absorb the morning light and stillness of the scene.  The structure looks something out of a J.R. R. Tolkien story.  A fiery red shrub entangles the stairwell as we go up. We pay a 2 Euro fee, put on a provided skirt, and enter Saint Athanasius’s creation, the Grand Meteoro (standing since 1370). Taking a few steps up, I ponder the towering drop to the valley below. The tower, a feature since 1520, spews out a net once used to hoist up equipment and even monks.

   We stumble inside a dark kitchen, where old remnants of copper spoons, bowls, and cups hang. The museum harbors a collection of old Byzantine manuscripts, golden iconography, and romanticized battle scenes of the Greek independence and World War Two.

   I step outside to gaze over a balcony and gulp in the thin air. The light unsheathes semi-circular shapes and gnarly crevices on these sandstone giants. Though I am alone, the isolation fades as I soak in the energy around me.

   Meteora fosters a subjective divine—religious, spiritual, or atheist, the sight and place will give you chills.

GO.

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