Albania, Greece and beyond

13^th November 2017

Athens Moka Hotel
A cool and rainy 16 degrees

Get yourself a cuppa, it’s going to take a while .........

So here we are, just about at the end of the European part of our tour (4500 kms), in Athens.  My last entry was to say that the tablet had bitten the dust, so going back to Albania and The Llagoro Pass, this is how it’s all gone since:

The Llagoro Pass in southern Albania is one of those places that people long to do, to drive, or cycle it.  It’s elevation is  only 1024 metres but the gradients are unkind and the climb is less than 12 kms.  Most of the way we saw the 10% signs, but they are either giving averages, or, they’ve lost the numbers 1-5 because BW’s computer stops recording once it’s reached 12.5% (for some unknown reason) and it was blank for most of the climb.  The weather was hot and sunny, not so great on the way up, but led to amazing views and clarity at the top and on the way down.  There is a video, which we will be posting on YouTube soon, link to follow.

The Llagoro Pass

After making it to Sarande we hopped on a ferry to Corfu, where we didn’t do very much at all.  We met a couple of Aussies, Therese and Nick, who we managed to meet again in Athens, they were also touring on bicycles and we have unashamedly taken all the information and experience they could throw at us and used it with regards to boxing up the bikes, transport to the airport etc, so thanks guys!

It's always nice to find a Bristol

From Corfu we made our way down to Lefkadis, and onto Kefallonia.  Finding ferry information in Greece is not easy. Everywhere you go there are advertisements for ferries to every corner of Greece but when you enquire there are very few, ‘that’s the summer schedule’ we heard time and time again.  The internet is even worse, but, we found enough information to know that we couldn’t get from any of the islands to Patra, despite the ferries destined to and from Italy stopping at the islands.

On the way to kefalonia

Kefalonia

Kefallonia was our favourite island.  At this time of year not very touristy, but the weather was still 24 and sunny. The geography lends itself to goats and sheep, oh, and tourism, although it hasn’t succumbed in quite the same way as other places in Greece.

From Kefallonia we took the only ferry available to us to Kyllini, on the mainland.  The cycling between Kyllini and Athens, has, for the most part, not been great.  Patras was a port town with seemingly more problems than most cities.  We watched in horror as 4 police officers in full riot gear, on 2 motorbikes, raided a café opposite the passenger ferry terminal, forcing everyone to scatter.  Young men all of them, looking for a better life.  Further down the road we came across a massive factory, empty of the thousands of workers who at some point worked there, now home to refugees and the tons of rubbish they produce.

We passed over the Corinth Canal, still impressive the second time around, but only a small vessel went through this time so no WOW photos.

Corinth canal

And so onto Athens.  Parts of the coast were beautiful but sadly now neglected.  Like any major city, the outlying towns all, eventually, begin to merge into one long suburb.  The traffic was horrendous, the pollution worse than we’ve experienced in a long time and just not the kind of cycling we wanted to be doing.

On the way to Athens

Then it was chores.  We needed to work out how to box up the bikes and get them to the airport.  Recommendations from Therese and Nick meant we sorted that one pretty quickly by contacting Marios at www.cyclelovers.gr who is boxing up the bikes (E30 for both) and Greek Economy Transfer who are taxiing us, the bikes and luggage to the airport for E58.  The other thing I had to do was get a lump in my armpit checked out. We had a bank holiday weekend to contemplate the options, in the end we headed for a private clinic armed with all the information I could glean from Mr Google and the NHS websites. After a very thorough examination, ultrasound and blood tests, I was deemed fit and healthy and the proud owner of a fatty lump, something to do with my age and being post menopausal.  Phew.  Onward and upward.

Changing of the guard

Traffic is a huge problem in Athens

The Athenian Riviera left a bit to be desired but we really enjoyed Cape Sounion.  By the time we were on our way back to Athens to deliver the bikes to Marios the weather had changed. It’s cooler (most of the time), today it rained for the first time since we’ve been in Greece and the temperature dropped to 16 at one point, but it’s still very mild.  Remember Austria in August?  Eight degrees and 4 layers of clothing; Greece is not so bad.

Cape Sounion

Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok.  We have been shopping and bought a camera, I’ve decided I don’t like using the phone, and anyway, BW has the phone most of the time for navigation which is why we don’t have that many photos on the road.  BW has renewed his beard trimmer and we have a shiny, new laptop, on which I am now typing!  I can’t bring myself to chuck the foldable keyboard, so we’re going to keep it as a spare for now.  We’ve had a right good clear out too.  The little Chinese cooker (which was brilliant by the way) was dumped at the campsite at Cape Sounion, along with the coolbag, some clothes and a variety of herbs and spices and cooking accoutrements we no longer need. 

We’ve also given ourselves a good talking to. We’ve been guilty of ‘passing through’ Europe without seeing most of it as a destination.  I don’t know if that’s something to do with our mindset, we always think that Europe is very doable from the UK, just a short flight or ferry away.  Or perhaps because when we set off we always saw Europe as the ‘training ground’ for the rest of the trip.  We have now decided that everywhere is a destination to be explored!

We’re currently in dispute with Booking.com over accommodation we booked through them, and consequently have moved to a hotel, for the same price, in another part of town.  It was the Athens Marathon yesterday, meaning fewer reasonable hotel rooms available.  So we have ended up in a nice hotel, clean and basic, but in a rather grotty part of the city.  When walking to and from the hotel it’s common to see drug deals and prostitutes, but hey, I think you get that in most cities.  There are a lot of people sleeping rough too and we think part of the authorities’ attempt at moving people on and cleaning up at the same time, is to hose down the doorways early every morning.  What a life, I can’t imagine.

Rough sleeper

In the past we have felt time and/or financial restrictions, some of them perceived rather than real.  This time we have let go of the ‘budgetitis’ strings a bit and are taking things a tad easier, hence Marios  boxing up the bike and taking a taxi to the airport.  We know there will be times when we will end up in parts of the world where it’s going to be difficult to find a decent hotel, let alone a restaurant with a menu, and therefore limiting our ability to spend money.  So while we are in tourist areas, and there are nice hotels and restaurants, we are making use of them. Having said that, we still can’t find it in our hearts to use really expensive hotels/restaurants, the kinds our friends/family use on a regular basis, but we’re getting better at it!  

On the subject of touristy areas, can I just say that after several days, let alone weeks or months (as in South America), in the wilds of some continents, it’s so NICE to be in a tourist area.  There’s the obvious stuff like food, hotels and beer, the icing on the cake is meeting people who share the same language, possibly sense of humour, and, if you’re really lucky, those people are also cycle tourists!  Today, while in McDonalds (I know, tut tut, but sometimes it just has to be done, coffee and wifi E2, it was chuffing it down with rain) I overheard a guy trying to organise for his bicycle to be boxed to fly to France tomorrow.  What’s the chances of that happening?  I mean, we haven’t been in McDonalds for years!  We got chatting, were able to put them in touch with Marios and had a chat about routes and experiences.  It’s just a lovely thing meeting like-minded people, especially when we seem to be getting a bit thin on the ground.  It’ll be interesting to see how many we meet in Asia.

We were last in Thailand in 2009 and before that 1989, the differences were HUGE.  Can’t wait to see what’s happened in the last 8 years.  Good news - our friend Claire is going to be in Asia while we are in Bangkok, so with a bit of time to spare she decided to hop on a flight from HCM to Bangkok and spend the weekend with us!  Exciting or what?  We have been away almost 5 months and while we WhatsApp friends and family all the time, it’s not the same is it?  We’ve already earmarked the floating market, a foot massage and some clothes shopping; BW will probably be building the bikes!

I apologise for the lack of detail in this entry but I’m not very good at this ‘catching up’ business, I much prefer to write entries on a daily, or at least weekly, basis.  I bet you’re looking forward to that aren’t you?

Laters

All boxed up and ready to go!