27-Apr-07
We took the night bus across the border to Thessaloniki; Ellen was still feeling crook but our last course of antibiotics seem to be doing the trick. We have decided to forgo the big sights and head due west across towards Igoumenitsa, a port in the north-west where we can catch a ferry for Italy.
28-Apr-07
No real sleep, and it felt odd at the border returning to territory covered by my passport: no stamp required. Home, I guess.
We arrived at 9 in the morning and caught a bus to Ioannina, the provincial capital and thus transport hub for the little-visited north-west. Actually it turned out to be a gorgeous ancient town that still trades on its Ottoman hey-days when it was a major trade centre. It is situated in lush mountainous countryside that seemed to pulsate with green energy in a way that we haven't seen for a long time, and a signal that we really are back in abundant Europe. The town itself juts out into a large lake and although Johnny Foreigner has yet to discover this little gem the domestic tourism is doing roaring trade.
For us things started to unravel pretty much straight away. Greece at the weekend pretty much closes shop (I get the impression its never exactly hectic at the best of times), including transport, so the idyllic remote mountain villages that we heard about and tried to reach were completely inaccessible to us - even hitch-hiking was a dead loss. After so long in towns and cities because of the pace we are setting ourselves this was incredibly disappointing, especially as we had just come through such a mouth-wateringly tempting landscape. In addition we are here at the beginning of a long weekend because of May Day, which has ensured that rather than consoling ourselves with a little relaxation in this beautiful town we instead spend hours lugging our packs from full hotel to full hotel in search of a bed. Compounding all this was a rush of exhaustion from the general odyssey, the specific lack of recent sleep, and Ellen's food poisoning, amplifying all problems and inducing despondency. None of this was helped by the fact that Greece had spoken to both of us immediately, and knowing that we were fated to barely touch it on our swift march home was incredibly dispiriting. We had always said that we would race through Europe at both ends of the journey, partly because of costs and partly because we can reach it much more easily than Asia in the future; we know it makes sense but this doesn't mean we have to like it. Bah.
Hospitality Club to the rescue! We eventually found an open Internet cafe and, with all fingers crossed, sought out hosts here with phone numbers displayed. It is not common for them to do this but for some reason Ioannina has a disproportionate number who do so, and on Ellen's first attempt she struck gold. within an hour Mario picked us up from the cafe, took us to his favourite bar, and poured beer into me until a smile formed and the first signs of life began to show. He took us to his apartment overlooking the ancient castle where his fiance Agathe was preparing 3 separate dishes in anticipation of Mario's departure the next day to Athens for 3 months. All vegetarian, all delicious. The couple were wonderful white knights in our hour of need and Mario even took me out for the local take on the kebab, as well as serving up countless measures of the local fire water. To add to an already wonderful evening they were silk roadies too and we had much to discuss and compare with our respective trips. The situation was so perfect, and in such juxtaposition to earlier in the day, we were pretty sure we were under some kind of stress- and exhaustion- induced hallucination. What's more, we really didn't care a bit.
29-Apr-07
A very civilised and productive day where everything went like clockwork; we were back in the groove again. We frolicked amongst the ruins of the castle, sauntered along the lakeside, gazed affectionately at the green hills that would escape us this time, and did useful research on the next leg: Italy. We managed to secure passage to Bari on an overnight ferry that had an offer on, meaning we got a cabin (real beds!), and after a couple of hours twisting up and down romantically steep mountains were were in the port watching the sun go down over the Adriatic. By the time midnight, and our boat, came we were dead to the world, and I fell into bed before the temptation to explore the ship overcame me. Woke up in Italy.