Hellenic Getaways- Robbed in Athens!! Meteora too!!

We then headed back to Athens to catch a train to Meteora. Meteora is about 5hrs from Athens and we preferred to go by train since we were traveling with an eight yr old. My daughter has traveled with me so far to China four years ago, India about 4 times, Australia and Canada once,and the first time now to Europe. Traveling with her is not that difficult at all. Main reason is she hates to sleep, so waking her up is absolutely easy and she never ever goes to sleep from 6am till midnight if we are on a train or flight. She eats pasta, pizza or rice anywhere and is absolutely fine if we don't feed her for few hours at a time!!! We changed trains from the airport route to the suburban train to get to Meteora. The metro was so crowded that we were losing sight of each other and our bags when we needed to get down. A bit of panic perhaps with all this confusion and someone was watching us...... While we climbed on the escalator, couple of people barged in between us. We had 4 bags between us and Sahana was walking in front of me and I had a backpack which contained all our documents and our camera and iPad. While I thought Sanjeev was right behind me on the escalator, I felt someone squeeze next behind to me. To my slight shock, Sanjeev was much further down from me and the people who were close to me were 2 young girls and another man standing right next to me and seemed to be talking on the phone on the escalator. Everything happened so fast, that before I knew what was happening, the guy on the cell phone asked me something in Greek, which I found odd. I just shook my head and waited for Sanjeev after I got off the escalator with Sahana holding my hand with the 2 bags. While we walked to the platform to get on the train to the suburban station, we suddenly noticed 2 zippers of the backpack I was holding was open. Sanjeev suddenly looked serious, and I had a bad feeling. Only the top 2 zippers were undone. Sanjeev said that he had kept our train tickets to Meteora in one of them. We looked and searched, our entire backpack and yes, the tickets were indeed gone!! We had bought them in advance and had availed a pretty big discount because of reserving early, but now, alas, those we gone. There were more precious items inside our backpack and even our passports, but since they were so far inside and the time on the escalator was only about 10 seconds, we were saved. One thing, we learnt later on is that those tickets were no value to the thieves unless they intended to travel to Meteora. There were no refunds in Greece for trains. They were obviously amateurs and just petty thieves who most likely threw away our tickets. When we tried to complain, while sympathetic, there was nothing the officials could do. Due to this incident, we had to buy new tickets which costed our extra 100Euros. Meteora houses monasteries built on cliffs in the 10-11the century. The stone cliffs on which these monasteries are built on gives an idea of the hard work and history of the Greek Orthodox church. We went on a Friday when only four of them were open. We first visited the grand Meteora monastery which is e biggest of them all. The climb was about 100 steps, but it was so worth the climb. The actual church itself was so splendid inside with relics and paintings dating back to hundreds of years. They have museums with scrolls nearly 1000 years old. Since photography is not permitted inside the museums or the sanctum sanctorum, it's hard to describe the grandeur of these amazing monasteries. We truly enjoyed the scenic beauty and the history of this place. To get here will take 5hrs minimum, either by road or train. Since we took the train, the Greek countryside with its mountains and small towns was very nice to see. At this time of the year, there were totally no tourists. We had to change trains in a small town called Paleofarsalos. Then it was a small commuter train to the small village of Kalambaka which was packed with locals geting back to their homes after a long day of work. But once you get here, it's truly magical and special. We first went to the Grand Meteora Monatery which is the biggest of them all. The museum in the monastery had scrolls, many sacred texts, wine chalices and other ornate utensils apart from the wine crushing machine dating back hundreds of years. They even had pots and pans with which they cooked and the creepiest was the attic that stored skulls of dead monks!!!eeeks!!! We then visited a nunnery where the female nun gave Sahana some special bookmarks. I guess the nuns were not used to too many kids visiting them. We then visitedone of the monasteries called the Holy Trinity monastery which was featured in the James Bond movie-"For your eyes only". The views on top of these cliffs are remarkable. Apart from these special monasteries, there is nothing too much here. I am thankful we decided to spend only one day here. The ride back seemed longer, and since we got robbed, we were a bit nervous we we landed in Athens at 1030 pm at night. We quickly took a cab and were soon in the comfort of our hotel.