Greece: Sea and History

We leave Ljubljana at 8 in the morning and, unfortunately, we find fog in the first part of the journey which slows us down. We pass Zagreb and Belgrade where we fill up. Toward evening we have already arrived in Nis to sleep and wait for morning to continue, refuelling with diesel. On the road we find a great many Polish caravans, we've hit their summer exodus head-on! The Yugoslav police keep asking for documents and carrying out checks. It is 9.30 pm and most of the traffic, fortunately, has headed, after Nis, toward Sofia. For the motorway we spend about 8,000 dyn, almost all the dinars we had. Inflation is really high.

We leave Nis at 7. While we sleep, my father starts driving along the motorway as far as the first stop to refuel with diesel. We pass through Skopje and, once we reach the Greek border, we find quite a few queues. We only manage to get through customs at 11.30. We have lunch and change dollars into drachmas. At the entrance to Thessaloniki we fill up again and at 4 pm we arrive at Nea Potidea where we stop to sleep, parked near the beach. The sea is turquoise and crystal clear, the beach fine, soft sand! The navigable canal turns the Kassandra peninsula into an island.

We stay in Nea Potidea to get a bit of sea. In the morning the tractors come by to clean the beach and the sand but in the afternoon a traffic warden asks us to move: in fact, 6 or 7 campers had stopped there, including another Italian one. Too many campers near the sea don't please the wardens because, to them, they turn the parking lot into a campsite. One or two, on the other hand, don't bother them. We visit the Sani campsite which is nice but too far from the sea for my mum, who has a broken foot, and is also less nice than the one at Nea Potidea. We drive along the eastern shore of the Kassandra peninsula with beautiful landscapes. In Polihrono we find a campsite near the sea with even 220 V electricity.

so much sea!!! it's 36 degrees but there's a breeze and it really feels good.

We leave Polihrono at 3 pm. Before Larissa we visit the Spring of Daphne. We go down to the river to take some photos. Nice but nothing special; it is nice, however, to think about the history of this place. We also stop at the sanctuary a little further on: there are some stalls and a nice suspended concrete footbridge. We taste some fresh local products, very good. We cross the plain of Larissa in great heat, 40 °C with muggy air; after Larissa we fill up with diesel, have dinner with the products we bought and consider whether to spend the night. The place, however, is full of mosquitoes, so we continue on toward Anfissa. After a few kilometres, a stop at a nice petrol station-bar. In the camper, though, we are still full of the mosquitoes that had got in earlier!

Thursday 06.08.87 THE MUSES!!! We set off in the morning for Anfissa and cross the pass called the Sea of Olives as far as Itea, which we reach by mistake. Once we arrive in Delphi, we pass through the pretty little town but without stopping, heading for the Sanctuary of Apollo: Museum, excavations and the whole route up to the stadium at the top of the hill. The heat is scorching but it's worth it! The heat is too intense for a further stop and we continue on through the carpet country of Arahova, where we buy fruit and vegetables that are always super fresh. The climb toward Parnassus is long and hot; we reach the cable-car forecourt, higher up, around 2 pm. Parnassus has been a mythical mountain for millennia. It is barren, scorched by the sun and surrounded by a crown of harsh peaks. In winter it is used for skiing and we are taking advantage of the ski-lift parking lot.

With my father I struggle up toward the summit of the mountain: from the top, in fact, you can see Athens on one side and the sea on the other. The climb is very hard, the burnt grass is full of bees and bumblebees trying to gather pollen from the few flowers that haven't yet been scorched. There isn't a tree, nothing. At a certain point the thermos of fresh water bursts! We hear the tinkling of a flock and the barking of a dog but we don't see anyone. Meanwhile we meet three lads from Bergamo who were coming up. Toward evening, from the opposite wall of the mountain, a flock comes out of an opening hidden from view. Who knows where it came from! It was certainly the one we had heard earlier. We have dinner with our neighbours, who are travelling with just a car and sleeping bags, offering them a kitchen, table and chairs. They tell us about their travel experience.

It gets late, the wind picks up and they decide to go down in search of a campsite. The full moon is reflected on the white mountains and it almost looks like daytime in a lunar landscape. Suddenly the wind becomes very loud. My father fears for the camper's windows but, once we're out on the forecourt, there isn't a breath of wind! Very strange… At a certain point the muses begin to be heard! Deafening choruses of women singing melodies with closed mouths… the sound is very loud and melodious, they are real songs… but how is it possible? My father goes out onto the forecourt again: the night has turned pitch black, you can't see anything anymore, there isn't a light, the flock has fallen silent as has the dog, the air is still.

The wind, passing through the ridges, the thousand passages over the jagged and barren peaks, creates melodious songs of women: the muses, the famous muses of Parnassus that the Greeks sang about! We are living a unique experience: there are differences compared to back then. We are alone, in the middle of these bare, deserted mountains, with no dwellings, with only dry-stone walls to give shelter to the sheep.

After the sleepless night we head down along the beautiful panoramic road from ITEA surrounded by red rocks as far as Antirio. In the Gulf of Corinth, baked by the heat, we stop to swim in a sea that is almost cold and transparent. Ferry (630 Dr) to Rio (Peloponnese). We pass through Patras where we take the opportunity to do some shopping and have lunch. Before Kiparissia there are beautiful beaches with sea pines and sand dunes similar to Danish beaches. At 4 pm we are in Pylos, where we park near the sea in the Gulf of Navarino and where I met another camper from Milan. We have dinner all together in a little restaurant by the sea. (1600 Drachmas).

We manage, at a hotel, to phone home. The day is dedicated to the sea, lots of swimming and sun! After resting and enjoying the lovely place we set off towards the 17 from Pylos heading for Methoni where, along the road, we buy fresh sultanas from the local growers: spectacular!!!! A new campsite between Methoni and Koroni, nice but still without shade and the temperature is very high. We decide, therefore, to continue, arriving thus at Agios Andreas where we find a campsite finally among the olive trees (500 Dr/g). We even add 1 litre of oil to the engine…

Stop at the campsite in Agios Andreas: the sea is beautiful but the beach is definitely inferior to the Chalkidiki one. At the campsite almost everyone is Greek: most of them are city people on a seaside holiday. Most have degrees in the humanities (lawyers, history, literature) and they all speak perfect English. All films on TV are broadcast only in the original language, so they're used from childhood to trying to understand the language. Near the beach there's a little fish restaurant. (1800 Dr). We buy excellent olive oil from the local farmers. The temperature is around 40 °C and the climate is muggy.

Departure for the Argolid with a stop in Nauplia where we change 400 Dollars into Drachmas. We visit the beautiful Tiryns with its particular vaults of the palace storerooms and, afterward, we reach Epidaurus. We have lunch in the gardens in front of the excavations in search of a little coolness because the temperature is really very high. The archaeological excavations are extremely interesting, the theatre is still perfect. The acoustics, for which it is famous throughout the world. Incredible. From the top of the tiers you can hear the whispers of tourists at the centre of the stage! The Museum, unfortunately, is closed for its weekly rest day. We buy some beautiful postcards at almost all the archaeological sites. After the visit we set off again for the north. We visit Corinth, famous, as well as in history, also for its Canal.

We continue on the motorway where we witness a terrifying head-on crash in the direction opposite to ours, involving some English people (they had got onto the motorway the wrong way). A few minutes later we hear the emergency services arriving. Shaken, we leave the motorway at Madra, to go up into the mountains in the direction of Thiva. Before Lamia we stop by the sea to have dinner, and to swim in very clear water. We continue on again to arrive and sleep a few kilometres from the Baths of Venus, which we will visit the following morning.

We set off toward Thessaloniki and reach the Armenistis campsite at 12. It is 12 km from Sarti, 1802 Dr/day; we stop in the shade of a big sea pine. Our neighbours are very red (in the sense of sunburnt) Germans. The sea is wonderful, the beach beautiful: we decide to stay here for a few days. It is, in fact, the most beautiful sea we have seen in the Mediterranean. My father still has to put 1 kg of oil into the camper's engine…

My father goes to Sarti to buy the necessary electrical extension leads and to make phone calls; the round trip is offered to him by tourists. There are, in fact, no connections of any kind with the rest of the world. Sarti is a small farming village where a little room serves as the post office and where the only public telephone is also found.

until TUESDAY 18 AUGUST

We enjoy the fantastic sea of the Armenistis campsite and the pleasant company of the local tourists as well as a family from Bolzano.

Departure from the campsite for Marmara. I have a high fever and, in Marmara, at Porto Carras in the pharmacy we buy some medicines. They are loose and numbered, and the paracetamol has a really awful taste.

Departure from Marmara, heading to Nea Moudania, from where we call home and also buy some souvenirs. I'm feeling much better. Before the border with Yugoslavia, another fill-up of diesel. It costs decidedly less in Greece! We reach the border after 1 p.m. and arrive in Yugoslavia at 5 p.m. with light rain. At the Duty Free Shop we buy various products but they turn out to be more expensive than in Greece. We change all our Drachmas into Dinars (= 80,000 Din). After the stop we resume the journey until 11 p.m. when we reach Nis.

Yugoslavia

Departure from Nis for Belgrade, then Novi Sad, Vukovar, Osijek, Nasice, Virovitica, Varazdin. This last area of Yugoslavia is very beautiful with big stork nests on the roofs. A Yugoslav man tells us, full of pride, that the stork of their country had 5 baby storks. In Maribor we can't manage to take the road for Dravograd, so, therefore, we decided to follow the signs for Graz. At the border we change the Dinars into Schillings (34,000 Din = 437 Schillings).