Greek week

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Apart from the Mel Gibson movie Gallipoli ,I didn't really know a lot about this peninsula's war time history , so I decided to use our day off to inform myself. Having opted away from the pricey 45L price tag for the day tour I ventured out on my bike to take in Anzac cove and the various monuments and cemeteries leaving Tati to use the day off more wisely back at the hotel, feeling that a combination of war,hills,war and cycling weren't worth the 40 odd km and were definitely very un day off.
Girls!
It was a good day and totally reinforced the claim that during World War one , a soldiers life was pretty much worthless and if you were a front line soldier then you were pretty much fucked.Most of the headstones at the cemeteries were young ANZAC guys in their late teens , early twenties who'd been sent over the top without so much as a prayer, dying in a country they'd never known ,serving a country they'd never been too.
Pretty glad to make the turn west at Kesan and finally get some tailwind into our flagging legs.What a difference,I was flying along but Tati seemed to be struggling all day.She told me I was going too fast but I reassured her that we were at our usual 18KPH.It wasn't til later that evening that she noticed her lock caught around her brake cable pulling the brake blocks in and has pretty much had the proverbial handbrake on all day.We had a funny conversation that night.It started with a film that Viggo Mortensen has made recently called On the road and the possibility that it wasn't the same story as the famous On the road novel by Jack Kerouac.Tati thought this a strange idea.That's crazy she said, imagine they did that with something like Animal Farm.Took me quite some time to stop laughing before explaining the virtues of 1980s pornography.(Apologies to family members included at this point).
After a quick stop in Ispala to rid ourselves of any loose change , we were soon at and through the border,the guard hardly looked at our passports,a far cry from certain African and Asian borders we've been through.And there we were 27 500km later back in the EU.Darkness was descending and with it about a million mossie's fresh out of the border swamps.We beat a quick retreat to a camp spot off the road and before you could say 'Cyprus' our tyre's were full of rosado thorns.Tati somehow got away without any punctures as I was the one who went first effectively hovering up any stray rosado with my bike.I must of had about 20 in each tyre.
That's it!Ive had enough bloody flats with these things,its time to take action.The city of Alexandroupoli provided me with a tyre from Kenda called Komodo iron cap.From the way the sales guy was talking they should of written 'don't fuck with me ' on it as well.He assured that this brand would take care of the thorns.I should hope so, at 18 euro this is an expensive purchase and a reminder that we were well and truly back in the EU.
Greece is currently in financial meltdown having borrowed heavily from its EU cousins and witnessed several union strikes and riots due to austerity measures placed by a very unpopular government.Tati thought it a good time and place to ask for discounts.It worked too!That's right,kick em' when their down.
Most of the chat we had with Greeks was unsurprisingly about price comparison.How much does,milk,bread,beer,cigarettes,fuel etc cost in the UK? One guy asked me quite seriously how much a sandwich costs?
Depends what you want on it,I replied like some sort of cafe worker.Do you eat meat!I felt their frustration,they earn a lot less than we do back in Britain and pay about the same.At one point I almost felt like it was my fault.Maybe I should of apologised!
''Well im sorry but it was all working fine before we left, turn our backs for one minute...".Probably wouldn't of gone down too well.
Its so different now.We go practically unnoticed in this very quiet part of Greece.Far removed from the constant hum of hellos and beeps in Turkey and pretty much anywhere else we've been on this trip.I liked it!One minute we were a cycling variation of Silvester Stallone and Julia Roberts and now we've become a poor mans Dolph Lundgren and Brigitte Nielsen, god rest their acting souls.
Anniversaries and landmarks were coming and going by the bucket load.Firstly , back into Europe,then the EU,followed by one year back on the road and finally, the very next day we passed the thirty thousand KM marker.If youre unsure how far that is in miles, its loads!We would of done the year away and the 30K on the same day but we ran into a couple of German cycling twitcher's complete with binoculars around their necks just in case something rare flew past.Twitchers are always really into their hobby(almost fundamental) and these two were no exception,although I think they would stop short of blowing themselves up for some kind of feathery Jihad.Anyhow they told us of the road ahead which became a rough ,steep track that took us around the coast through ancient olive groves and antique ruins.
Life is sleepy here, most of the holiday places have shut down for the season leaving just a few of us to wander about in the autumn sunshine.Twitching cyclists aside we met five other cyclist during our week in Greece which is more than we saw in our six weeks of riding in Turkey.No doubt they take the coastal route down to Antalya thus avoiding our relatively samey but beautiful plateau ride.
We took the day off in Kavala (my first for 8 days) .Lovely old town full of Ottoman history and buildings, reminding us of the troublesome past of the two neighbouring nations.I don't get why they don't get on,they seem so similar, especially the old boys who sit about in cafe's during the day putting the world to rights (no doubt slagging off each others countries).Amazingly clear water along the coast, I even caught a fish,not a very big one as you'll note from the picture but when you've gone as long as I have (Easter Island and 16 months) since I last had 'tight lines' then he was a veritable monster.And no I didn't eat it,I put it back (never manage that between us).
Refreshed ,we took to the road again and this time started to put serious distance down.In fact surprisingly this would be the first time since Kazakhstan that we've done two consecutive days over 100KM.We even went on the motorway around Thessaloniki to save time, having failed to find a legal alternative.
Our one big sight see was in Pella ,birth place of some bloke called Alexander the Great or big Al to his mates.Quite a place to be!The home town of one of the original traveling, exploring,piss heads and general all round conqueror of most of where we've been lately and then some.
Greece had been pretty flat for us up until Edessa, from here though we went up.Great to be in among the Greeks who don't rely on tourism as a form of income.This to me was a different side to Greece,one im not familiar with but grew to like very quickly.Life remained slow and sleepy as we picked our way north west towards Macedonia.......sorry I mean The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM for short (they are quite particular about this),I made the mistake of saying the 'M' word to a shop owner who was very quick to remind us that we were in fact in the original Macedonia right now thanks.Blimey ,better not mention Cyprus!
Whenever we could we took advantage of LIDL ,everyone's favorite supermarket. Quite weird being back in LIDL as they have that strange supermarket tradition of being exactly the same ANYWHERE in the world,in fact throw in a few Polish people and you'd of convinced me that we were in Gloucester.Without LIDL, shopping in the small villages was an expensive thing to do,sometimes we'd arrive during siesta when the villages would be shut for the afternoon,leaving us a bit high and dry.
The landscape flattens out towards Macedonia,life is very rural,with just the odd bullet hole of retaliation from Macedonian's at any sign post that says FYROM.Come on now children,next thing we'll be seeing is t shirts for sale in Macedonia with Alexander the Great on them,claiming Greece's biggest hero for themselves.Surely not..................

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Photos

30K
eastern Greece

Monster catch
Kavala