Greece
Santorini, Mykonos, Ios. All the places you've probably heard of in Greece. All the places we didn't go. With time and geography working against us, and a preference for bike over boat, we stuck to the north of Greece and tracked our way along the north east coastline.
We attempted to spend our first night wild camping on the beach, but had a few issues finding a perch free of garbage and human turds, so we wound up in a campground in Asprovolta. We camped right on the beach and mustered up a hodge podge random jarred goods from the nearby understocked supermarket.
On our way in, a bunch of gents at a service station shared their feelings on the current debt crisis. We had to pay for our fuel in cash as they feared the bank wouldn't give them their money should we pay on card. They also complained about having to pay the next years taxes in advance. We haven't heard whether this is true or not though. There were queues at the ATMs as locals made every attempt to claim their cash whilst they can.
We spent our second night at a campground on a long white sandy beach in a small town called Keramoti. This was our first glimpse of the Greece we had in mind, and we spent the afternoon in the shallows drinking cold beers trying to escape the heat.
En route to our final stay in Greece, Paddy and us got a little too close for comfort at one of Greeces most poorly engineered intersections. The end result was a pannier box skidding down the road, a Kawasaki with a bruised nose and our bike assuming the horizontal position in the middle of the intersection. With no injuries and only minor damage to both bikes, we dusted ourselves off and made for the nearest cold beer.
We found a great little camp site 50 k's short of the Turkish border. There were plenty of other bike travellers there and we camped alongside a Polish couple on Varaderos (Nat was in awe of Magda who was not only on her own bike, but on a bike as big as the Varadero!) who we had a few beers and a meal with.
Overall, the Greek people certainly didn't kill us with kindness, but in the current economic climate this was perfectly justified. We had a nice time there though. Greece must surely be one of the cheapest in the Eurozone - we were eating Souvlakis and Gyros for around a Euro a pop. The roads were fast, the food was great.
Next stop.....Turkey.
We attempted to spend our first night wild camping on the beach, but had a few issues finding a perch free of garbage and human turds, so we wound up in a campground in Asprovolta. We camped right on the beach and mustered up a hodge podge random jarred goods from the nearby understocked supermarket.
On our way in, a bunch of gents at a service station shared their feelings on the current debt crisis. We had to pay for our fuel in cash as they feared the bank wouldn't give them their money should we pay on card. They also complained about having to pay the next years taxes in advance. We haven't heard whether this is true or not though. There were queues at the ATMs as locals made every attempt to claim their cash whilst they can.
We spent our second night at a campground on a long white sandy beach in a small town called Keramoti. This was our first glimpse of the Greece we had in mind, and we spent the afternoon in the shallows drinking cold beers trying to escape the heat.
En route to our final stay in Greece, Paddy and us got a little too close for comfort at one of Greeces most poorly engineered intersections. The end result was a pannier box skidding down the road, a Kawasaki with a bruised nose and our bike assuming the horizontal position in the middle of the intersection. With no injuries and only minor damage to both bikes, we dusted ourselves off and made for the nearest cold beer.
We found a great little camp site 50 k's short of the Turkish border. There were plenty of other bike travellers there and we camped alongside a Polish couple on Varaderos (Nat was in awe of Magda who was not only on her own bike, but on a bike as big as the Varadero!) who we had a few beers and a meal with.
Overall, the Greek people certainly didn't kill us with kindness, but in the current economic climate this was perfectly justified. We had a nice time there though. Greece must surely be one of the cheapest in the Eurozone - we were eating Souvlakis and Gyros for around a Euro a pop. The roads were fast, the food was great.
Next stop.....Turkey.
Keeping cool!
Thanks for a great evening Max (photographer) and Magda!
