We arrived in Greece after a long ship journey, and it was absolutely scorching hot. After driving for about two and a half hours we found a little gem of a camping spot near Athens, Glaros camping. Our tents were about 10 meters from the sea. It was amaaaziiinnng!! Popped up to the shops, bought a few spuds and boiled them in a pot on the campsite barbecue. Yes, we did get a few stares! Still, our first hot dinner we've cooked ourselves since we left Ireland. After that, went for a little dip in the sea and watched Toy Story 3. After having a sneaky nap in the middle of the film, I then went for the best night sleep I've ever had, ever!
The next morning, we got up earlyish (10am) and headed straight for the city of Karynthos to post Old Man Flinn back his passport (we were supposed to leave it for him in Ireland, sorry Flinner). After about 40 min of queuing, we got it finally sent. 35 hour guaranteed door-to-door delivery, boo ya! As we found out later on, that guarantee was as reliable as a Pikey tarmacking your driveway! Anyway, on the way back we passed over a huge canal with a massive ship being towed through it, pretty class looking I have to say.
After that we got back to the campsite, went for a swim, had some homemade Janer burgers cooked on our brand spanking new stove. As usual, awesome dinner Janer!!! Later on, just went to bed. Pretty uneventful day really, but very very relaxing.
After feckin about for two days in Glaros, we decided to do some touristy stuff and headed for Athens (or Athena as the Greeks call it) to see the Parthenon on the Acropolis. of Athens. Athens is a complete tourist city. It's ginormous with 5 million people, most of whom are trying to sell you something; for example, a statue of a penis with wings we saw in one shop right beside a statue of Mary...classy!
Greece is one of the hottest places on earth. It's soul destroying. When we were in Athens and saw the hill up to the Acropolis, we ended up getting the tourist train (similar to the old Mickey D's train in Bray seafront years ago) because we just couldn't be arsed walking up the hill. Myself and Podge got into the Acropolis for free cause we had our student cards with us. After all those years of being a drain on the Irish taxpayer, I got the opportunity to stick it to the Greeks too! On another note, check out Podge's T-Shirt above...yes, it is pink!!!
Athens, and most of Greece is pretty dirty with rubbish everywhere and tonnes of graffiti. Luckily for us, one of the Banksy wannabes favorite places to tag are the English markings on the sign posts. Lots of guess-work required when driving through a city over here.
<---- Here’s a fine example of how the Greeks just dump stuff.
After Athens, we headed up north and as the majestic sun began to slowly set behind the cavernous mountainside (you like that?), we decided to pull off and camp up for the night, free style. This was our first night not in a campsite, we were in what looked like the middle of nowhere, like a desert. It was beautiful; however, as with most things that have happened so far, it didn't go as smoothly as we'd hoped. After having a quick walk around to check our surroundings were ok, we saw a little dog walk down towards us. How cute! When he got near us, we quickly realized he must have been an abandoned dog and the poor little guy’s right ear was hanging off with a massive open wound. I've never seen a more diseased looking animal in my life. Poor little Choncho, he was not looking pretty. The photo doesn't show his ear, you don't want to see it.
Needless to say, the most humane thing to do was crack him over the head with a big rock and put him out of his misery! It had to be done. We held him down and found the sharpest rock we could find, and with one swift blow…No we didn’t, I can’t believe you think we’d do that!!! …We did think about it though.
That night in our tents, with all the other weird sounds going on outside, we could hear footsteps coming towards us at pace (scary shit), but good auld Choncho who was resting under the jeep started barking like mad and scared off our potential intruder. Lets just say, I didn't get much sleep that night with my trusty axe to keep me company!
After that interesting night in the Barron landscape, we gave poor little Choncho his fill of water and some food (bread and Janer’s spaghetti bolognese), and headed off on our way up along the coast where we stopped at a beach for some lunch and some seriously needed swimming and sunbathing. I have to say, I'm quiet shocked that my Moroccan ancestry hasn't payed off yet as my tan is still a mile off looking like George Hamilton's --->.
...All in good time, all in good time!!! After our little siesta by the sea, someone turned the sun up to eleven. I've never experienced such heat. God bless Mitchum and it's 48hr protection. We continued up the coast (sweating buckets) to see Mount Olympus, but with all our chattering, we completely missed it and ended up camping for the night in a campsite on Stakonda beach (or something like that).
We started off early the next day (around 1 pm) and headed for the Turkish border making great time; however, after about 50 km or so, I realized I'd left my phone charging back at the campsite. Our amazing progress went right out the window. Sorry Podge, sorry Janer!!! Drove back, got phone, back on the road towards Thessaloniki (what a hole), and on to Turkey. All that driving can get a little boring...
...we convinced Janer to bleach her ronnie after seeing this photo.
We camped up freestyle that night in the hills near a town aptly called Drama. Our camping area was dotted with goat shit with a nice aroma of horse piss in the air and situated beside a nicely placed pile of dumped rubbish, how very Greek.
Still, as usual Janer saved the day with some spectacular mac and cheese and some diced chorizo which we accompanied with a 3L plastic bottle of wine we picked up in Italy for 3 euro. Bliss!
The day finally arrived for us to get on our way to the Turkish border with visions of dining on kraukalash and cans of crab juice. After a couple of hours on the road, and filling up the tank and two jerry cans with some cheapy cheap diesel, we finally reached the Turkish border. Flew through the Greek security, crossed the long bridge past all the heavily armed soldiers and on into no man’s land. When we got to the Turkish checkpoint, everything was going rosey. Got our 90 day visas for a bargain basement price of 15 euro. Turkey was in our sights.
Then on to the next checkpoint which was for the jeep. As usual, nothing can go as smooth as we planned. Unfortunately we didn’t have a log book for the jeep; so no log book, no Turkey. The guys at the border were the biggest knob ends we’ve ever met, thank God they haven’t been let into the EU yet.
After that we had to join the massive queue of people entering Greece from Turkey which looked something like the Mexican border.
It was tough going… 4 and a half hours to cover about 2 km with 34 degrees heat, no breeze and no air conditioning.
We eventually made it back into Greece and settled down in a nice posh camp site right on the beach for the next week. All we can do now is wait for the log book to be issued from the department of transport in Ireland (we won’t hold our breaths) and get it sent out as soon as possible. Caoimhe, we’re counting on you!!! All that’s left to do now is chillax the cacks and work on my complexion... Let the danger tanning commence!!!
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