Week 14
Crossing into Greece was the best border crossing by far. Having exited the EU to enter Turkey, the river that separated Turkey with Greece was heavily manned by military and even the bridge had a line down the middle. Although I am not sure that Greece being in the EU and Turkey not had much to do with it as we breezed through border control after the official muttered “oh, your New Zealanders”. We drove to a border town called Alexandroupolis and decided to stay a couple of nights to catch up on administration (this blog!) and skype home. It wasn’t a bad campground, albeit a little vacant. It was on the beach so we enjoyed the sunset the first evening with a glass of wine, pretty much on our own. And we made friends; well I think she befriended us, with a large dog that followed us into town the first day and even slept under the van at night-James named her Wolfie. While in town we tried our first Gyros (a pita filled with shaved pork or chicken, salad and tzatziki) and were happy for the most maker, as opposed to the dry kebabs in Turkey. Later that day I wandered back into town in search of ice cream and found despite three shops advertising them, only one stocked them. Perhaps our second sign of Greece’s austerity measures (second to the price of fuel, which seems to fluctuate by 20 cents or so per station-the highest price being 1.98 euro/litre).
The next day was purely administration and funnily enough I read MSN NZ news to read that Greece was having a national strike regarding the austerity measures enforced on them (higher taxes and less in their pay packets). I don’t think the message reached Alexandroupolis though, as all stores were operating as normal.
Farewelling Wolfie goodbye (who had gotten so used to following us around that she even walked into the shower with me!) we drove to a beach outside of Nikiti and decided to free camp the night, alongside a German couple. It was another great afternoon swimming and sunbathing at the beach and we watched a fabulous sunset from the van too. A gang of cats visited us around 9pm and we gave them a pat or two before heading to bed. We woke to a fantastic view of the sun rising on the Aegean sea and a few fisherman on the water.
We drove onto Meteora that day and at times it was over some windy and rough roads. We settled at Meteora Garden campsite and instantly made friends with two kittens who decided to invite themselves into the van. We made sure to sweep the van for felines before bed and settled in for the night. It was a great nights sleep until I rolled over at 5am and felt fur and then a heartbeat through my foot. One of the kittens had fallen a sleep under our seat and had made itself comfortable at the end of my bed. Thankfully it had not needed a toilet stop during the night, but we kicked “Furby” out and went back to sleep. That day we visited two of the six remaining monasteries (origionally there were 24) all of which are perched on individual rocky pinnacles around 400m above sea level. Thankfully the days of reaching them by rope ladder are now over and we were able to walk up the stairs carved into the rock face to visit. We managed to see all six from the outside, drivng the 5km stretch of winding roads to see them. It was an amazing sight and one we would recommend to others visiting Greece.
That afternoon we drove to Delphi over some huge mountain ranges. I suspect the Garmin thought it was a shortcut but we ended up driving down the side of one mountain range and up another and drove 30km in one hour! It was not cool, it was extremely steep and windy (it would make a good episode on Top Gear) as Dusty’s brakes were smelling by the end of it! We ended up camping near Delphi for a bargin price of 11 euro (an accident as the owner’s wife quoted us that and it was meant to be 19 euro!). James gave Dusty the once over and discovered we had worn the front tyres down to the first layer of material. We agreed to sort a tyre change in Athens.
Delphi is a place the ancient Greek’s regarded as the centre of the world; as Zeus released two eagles at opposite ends of the world, meeting at Delphi. It was a place where pilgrims consulted the oracle of Delphi and she would answer questions translated by a priest on wars, voyages and business transactions. We walked through the remains of the town where various pillars remain standing and various treasures remain preserved at the neighbouring museum.
After Delphi we were having lunch in the van when an Englishman approached us and asked if we were in Bucharest a month ago. Turns out we stayed at the same campground as them! They were now on their way back to France so we wished them safe travels. We drove onto Athens campsite, 6km outside the city centre and had a quiet night in planning our itinerary for Athens.
Week 15
We rose early the next morning to get a head start on the tour groups going through the Acropolis. We were slowed slightly by rush hour traffic on the bus, but reached the metro and it was all plain sailing from here. The Acropolis was an impressive sight, despite it being really hot to be walking around ancient ruins. We stopped at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, which was being set up for a concert and they were playing “Man in the mirror” by Michael Jackson. The acoustics were great. We headed up the top via the Temple of Athena Nike on to gaze upon the Parthenon and the Erechthelon. From the Acropolis we had a great view of the city of Athens and could even see the boats coming into Piraeus Port. After taking some great photos we headed down through Roman Agora before having a delicious gyros at the near by restaurants. After lunch we checked out the local markets and managed to find a Greek embroidered flag (along with a few others we were missing) and James contemplated but decided against purchasing a metal gladiator helmet. We spent the afternoon checking out the ferry schedules to the Greek Islands before visiting the Temple of Olympian Zeus, another amazing site and finally onto Piraeus Port (an unsuccessful attempt at finding parking for Dusty). After a dinner of pork souvlaki we headed back to the campsite, exhausted.
We had a nice sleep in before arranging Dusty to stay at the campground while we backpacked the Greek islands. Before departing we headed back into Athens for a gyros for lunch. We ordered our gyros and the waiter brought us an unwrapped gyros (basically the same thing, but unwrapped and costing another 7 Euro each!). We think he was trying it on but after a few sharp exchange of words between ourselves and the waiter, we made him take it back and bring us the 2 Euro gyros that we ordered. He probably spat in it, but it still tasted ok! Oh, and the waiter ignored us completely after this! Oh the drama!
We then visited Acropolis museum, filled with pottery and marble artefacts that were well preserved. The museum itself had a glass floor with an archaeological site below to see which was pretty neat too.
We collected our bags from Camping Athens and caught a bus to Piraeus Port, having a gyros and bottle of wine for dinner before boarding our massive boat to Crete at 9pm. We sailed through the night and got to Souda Port at 6.30am. Given that we thought we were arriving at Chania port, we were quite worried for a minute that we had boarded the wrong boat. We soon realised that Souda port was the closest to Chania-6km away. We managed to bus to Chania with most other people leaving the boat. We explored old town Chania that morning, including their market and wharf before catching a bus to Kissamos. Upon arriving, we found some accommodation and booked a cruise for the next day to Balos lagoon before heading to bed for a sleep-were shattered after a sleep deprived night on the boat. We woke for an early dinner and went to a local taverna where we ate gyros and pizza before being served some raki (a small bottle), two shot glasses and a small dessert each. We had read this is what happens at a taverna-which is essentially a family run restaurant. We spent the rest of the night lazing in bed watching a movie.
We woke excited to be going to one of Crete’s top beaches for the day. We had managed to get the bus depot to store our luggage for the day while we explored Balos lagoon so we bused to the port and jumped on the boat (a huge people mover which was full with tourists) and sailed away. First stop was Gramvousa where despite it’s beautiful beach with turquoise waters, the main attraction was to climb the hillside to an old castle ruins (built around 15th century). Beating the crowds we reached the top, admired the awesome view and headed to the beach to explore the shipwreck near to the shore. After lunch we headed to Balos Lagoon, which was nothing short of awesome. We read that Crete had some beautiful beaches and they weren’t wrong. Balos lagoon did not disappoint. It was a rocky shoreline before the crystal clear shallow waters of the lagoon appeared and beyond that a beautiful white sandy beach. I hope the photos we took do it justice as we think this is probably the best beach we have seen. Arriving back at the port we jumped on the bus and collected our luggage at the bus depot before driving back to Chania. We found a room for rent near the wharf so checked in before enjoying a beautiful dinner at Moutopaki Taverna on one of the back streets, huddled between the old town wall and with grape vines overhead. James had a delicious pork souvlaki and I had aubergine stuffed with mince meat and béchamel sauce. We also tried dolmades (rice wrapped in grape vine leaves) and although hot with greek yoghurt-we were used to having them cold, we were still not impressed, despite friends promising us they would be. Ah, I guess they are not for us. The Taverna also sold wine by the litre, so we enjoyed their Retsina (home made wine) before once again being offered a shot of Raki and a tasty dessert. By far the best meal we have had in Greece.
It was an early rise to catch the 7.30am bus that took us up to Sumatra Gorge. The gorge is the longest in Europe and one of the most popular walks too. The bus winded up the narrow roads on some very tight hairpin corners, and dropped us at the summit. We were amazed to see how mountainous Crete was. We started the 13km walk (mostly downhill) on some rough rocky steps that lead us to the dried riverbed. We walked through the riverbed past old churches and Sumatra village, which was inhabited up until 1960 when the gorge became a National Park. It was amazing scenery, as he gorge rose above us on both sides and you could see fossils in some of the rocks. Lunch was the only negative as we were swarmed by wasps! We completed the walk in 4.5 hours and walked down to the beach (another 3km) for our first view of southern Crete. The beach was quite isolated, being cut off by the surrounding mountains and was black sand. We bought a couple of beers, lazed on the sun chairs and enjoyed 3 swims in the Libyan Sea, each time sprinting to the water as the black sand was super burning hot. Catching the ferry back to Agia Romeli we were once again confronted with beautiful beaches cut off by mountains. We even saw a carved walkway to a beach that was cut into a previous slip. From the port town we caught a bus back to Chania, arrived back at 8.30pm, in time for a gyros for dinner and an early night.
Rain woke us at about 6.00am, the first rain we have heard or seen since Timisoara in Romania (in over a month). We decided to catch a bus to Heraklion, Crete’s capital, in preparation for departing Crete for Santorini the next day. Before leaving Chania we also managed to book a ferry and first night’s accommodation in Thira, Santorini via a travel agent, a good idea given we arrive at 9pm at night.
We got into Heraklion and proceeded to look for somewhere to stay which proved quite an effort, especially in the heat. We finally found a place to stay, settled in and then hit the pavement for a look around and something to eat as it was about 1530. Our lunch was awesome in Heraklion we had a sort of tapas theme going on. The best thing was barley rust covered in a tomato olive oil and feta concoction. We then went to the venetian port which house Herklion port. It was a nice senic walk but we were stuffed from lunch so we headed to a supermarket for some snacks for tea and had an early night.
We rose early to go to Knossos (Knossos palace the home of the Minatour). It was Crete’s number 1 attraction but unfortunately we were extremely underwhelmed at the ruins but I guess we can now say we went to Knossos which only dates back to 7000 bc. After Knossos we had a big lunch in preparation of our 5 hour ferry trip to Santorini. Again lunch was quite tasty with James having fried octopus and I had Moussaka. We then hung out for our ferry for a while and were on our way to Santorini at 4pm.
Week 16
We arrived in Santorini about 10pm so it was dark and we couldn’t appreciate the view except for the lights of Thira and Oia perched up in the night sky. We caught a bus up into Thira and got to Petros pension at about 1030pm, I think we may have awoken the owners who thought we must have been a no show. We dumped our stuff and shot into the town square for a bite to eat. It was still quite lively at 1100pm for the off season and there was heaps to pick from. James manage to pick up the biggest Gyros he had come across so far, it was so big he actually blew out and had to throw away ¼ of the pork.
We had a sleep in the next morning as we were so stuffed. We dragged ourselves out of bed and got going toward the Cliff side in Thira where we could get these Caldera views that are so famous. The view didn’t disappoint it was fantastic. Steep cliffs with typical Greek housing running down the cliff faces and the picturesque blue top churches you see on the post cards. We walked north around the cliff face toward Oia as I thought it was only a 3-4 km walk, turns out it was a 3-4 hr walk and 16km. We continued north until we found a taverna where we had a break from the sun and something to eat and decided we would catch the bus around to Oia. Oia was stunning, with the cave houses looking much older than those in Thira. We walked through the village snapping photos left, right and centre and eventually decided to relax and have a drink at an upstairs garden bar overlooking the caldera before watching the sunset from the castle. We have seen many sunsets on this trip now but I have to say it was the most picturesque. We caught the bus back to Thira and James made a sprint to the pension to collect our bag, just making our hourly bus to Perissa beach. We arrived at 9pm at our hotel, 100m away from the beach and crashed for the night.
After a nice sleep in and a huge breakfast we walked down Perissa beach and managed to find some free sun chairs to relax on for a couple of hours. Planning on hiring an ATV to cruise the island we got sidetracked by a local restaurant where we dined on pork gyros and aubergine. We hired a 50cc ATV (to save money!) and it was rubbish. I could have run faster uphill than it-James reckon’s the top speed downhill was 55km/h and uphill 18km/h. We managed to cruise to Red Beach for a look and a swim. It was a very sheltered spot with a rock cliff face of red pumice rocks. Afterwards we cruised to the end of the peninsula and climbed up near the lighthouse for great views of the caldera. Deciding the sunset was not going to be great through all of the cloud we drove back to the hotel for an early night.
The next day we took the four wheeler over to Kamari Beach and lazed the morning away before catching a bus back to Fira and checking into a traditional cave room with a caldera view. It was a cute wee room with a spectacular view and a huge balcony all for our selves. It was great. The room came with a kitchenette so we cooked ourselves a bacon and egg dinner (what we were craving after so much rich Greek food!) and had nibbles and wine as we watched the sun go down.
The next day we caught a ferry to Ios and were pleased to see Sal, the owner of Hotel Mediterraneo at the Port ready and waiting to pick us up, along with an Australian couple. Sal was a great host and had a cool Labrador called Nana, who followed him around and was very sociable with the guests. Ios was pretty much 90% closed down for the season, which was why we had lots of trouble finding something to eat for lunch –managing only a few supermarket snacks. We spent the afternoon wandering around the labyrinth of the village before joining the other 6 guests in the hotel at the bar together before deciding to go out for dinner. We had a nice dinner of pork penne in a tomato sauce and James had a juicy steak that he wasn’t so impressed with as they covered it in oregano. After many a kilo of wine (they serve their local wine by the half or whole kilo!) we ended up back at our hotel pool bar for the rest of the evening. Needless to say we were both feeling a bit worse for wear the next day.
After a slow morning, and farewelling our drinking friends we decided to hire a scooter to cruise the island. We drove down to the port initially and dined in Susana’s Taverna where James had the tastiest kebab to date-a seafood kebab consisting of two large prawns wrapped in bacon, two mussels wrapped in bacon, two pieces of swordfish and grilled squid. It was all so fresh and tasty. We then drove out to Homer’s tomb (a famous Greek poet) and to three different beaches (where we were the only ones on the beach!). We managed to see all the surrounding islands, including a fantastic view of Santorini, before taking a back road (literally a dirt road that resembles a farm race!) down the steep hill back to the hotel via the main beach, Metropolis Beach. After a quick shower we drove back to the port to the same place for dinner where James at the same seafood kebab while I ate a whole fish, very tasty. We headed to bed early.
The next day we drove to Metropolis Beach and lounged there for the morning before returning the bike. Sal drove us down to the port and we bid him farewell before jumping on the fast ferry back to Athens. We arrived back at Athens Camping at 8pm, found some dinner down the road and settled in for the night, pleased to see Dusty in good shape, safe and sound.
We decided to stay on in Athens for another day, as it was Sunday and we needed to replace the front tyres before driving any further. It was an admin day with the blog being updated, calls home made and a load of washing done. We managed to scrap together an evening meal with the canned food in the cupboard (as all supermarkets are shut on Sunday’s in Greece).
