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Missing my daily gelato and it looks like the Greeks don't have the same passion for it like the Italians and their close relations.Still we will keep our eyes open as we continue our tour of Greece.
Time zones are odd occurrences but a necessity as the local time must change at some point on the globe every so often.
We probably didn't travel more than 100km directly east as the crow flies from Albania into Greece yesterday but we had to put our clocks forward an hour as the two countries have different time zones.So now,for a while, we will see the sun later in the morning but have it around for longer at night.
We had had a long chat with the owner of the place we stayed at last night and got an understanding of the dire financial situation Greece is in and it seems like their tourist industry has taken a substantial hit.We had a great deal at €25 for the night but as we listened to her tales of financial woe we almost felt like we should pay her more for the room.We didn't of course,it had been comfortable enough but not that
good!We do wish they would put something on the wall in the shower so you can attach the shower head and give you an all over shower without having to wet yourself,turn the water off,soap yourself and then turn the water on and rinse yourself off.Perhaps there is another way to do it.Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are sure we will come up against more of these situations in Greece.
We have a short drive today so we were pretty casual about getting on the road and after all it was Sunday.
We called into Ioannina,the principal town in the area,and checked out the citadel which is essentially the old town.Apart from the outside wall which dates back over 1000 years and a mosque and school from the days of Ali Pasha when the Ottomans ruled this part of the world there wasn't a lot to see.We did get some nice views out over the lake that is also an attraction of this city which also has an island served by small ferry boats that people use to visit the island.
As we hadn't been able to get the internet at the accommodation we
were at we decided to have a coffee at a lakeside café and use their free wi fi to check on exactly where we were heading for today.
The road south west from the city took us past several supermarkets which we needed as we had to top up the grocery box and get something for dinner tonight.However,the Greeks,in this part of the country anyway,respect the Sabbath and all of them were closed.
So too was the giant Ikea store on the outskirts of the city.We had got a bit excited as we saw the tall advertising sign for the store ahead as we travelled along the highway and we were even more excited when we found we could drive off the road we were on to get to the car park of the store.Every other time we have seen Ikea on this trip and our previous one 4 years ago, we have been on a motorway with no exit nearby to negotiate our way to look over the iconic store.
You can imagine our deep disappointment to find that Ikea also observe the Sabbath faithfully and the store was closed and the vast car park.....empty!
The road wound its way through river valleys lined with colourful wild oleanders and hills all around us for about 40km before we emerged onto the coastal plain and shortly thereafter arrived at our overnight accommodation at the small village of Kanali.
Our apartment was located on a hill above the beach which stretched for kilometres both north and south with the azure Ionian sea in front of us.The only thing that wasn't perfect was a stiff breeze,locally called the Meltemi, that was blowing from the sea although it wasn't cooling the hot sun making sitting out on the balcony from the apartment not as pleasant as it would have been if both elements were a little less in their intensity.
We took a walk along the beach where there had been a lot of new houses built on the roadside that ran parallel to the beach.Most of them looked like they had absentee owners as the permanent population of the area looked to be housed in the village about a half kilometre back from the beach.
Thankfully we did find a small supermarket on the national road as we left the beach and got a piece
of frozen fish for dinner tonight.
After dinner,with the internet not working in our apartment we went down to the pool area to check out the directions for tomorrows drive.The father of the owner strolled on over and we had a long conversation about where we w ere from,where we had been and where we were going.He proudly announced he was 82 years old and had been some kind of assistant to a judge in Greece's judicial system all his working life.He had travelled extensively reeling off a huge number of countries he had visited around the world although he hadn't been to our part of the world even though his brother had moved to Australia to live 30 years ago.Mind you he did explain that his brother also owned property in Greece and spent 6 months in each country and never had to endure a winter, fully!
During our conversation he asked if we had been to the war memorial commemerating the Commonweath and British soldiers that died in the battles of Greece and Crete in WW2.He got up and shook my hand firmly when I told him that my Uncle Dan had been killed in the
defence of Crete and his name appeared on one of the walls at the memorial site.He thanked us both for being New Zealanders and being from the small nation so far away that had helped Greece in WW2.It made us feel quite proud and for a bit homesick.He admired the photos of our family and especially the ones from Erin and Brent's wedding making us feel very proud.
He headed off for bed after an hour or so of enjoyable conversation leaving both of us even more convinced that our travels and adventures are just that much more worthwhile when you can every so often spend an hour or so with the local people like Antonis understanding their lives.We didn't end up finding out where we were heading tomorrow but then again we can check the internet anytime but we can't always have such an interesting conversation with one of the locals.As he left he said he would be ready to have a photo taken with 'his Kiwi visitors'
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Leigh
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European Shower Problems!
Do you have a little Kathmandu travel washing line with you? I seem to recall Cormac fashioning a device for the shower out of the washing line and the suction cups it comes with to hold up the showerhead for a proper shower....