Driving to Greece

Well the last couple of weeks of March were spent driving to Greece and looking at the various sites and places along the way.

We initially eased ourselves into the trip by spending the evening with Pat and Chris for a bon-voyage dinner, before heading for Bodrum early on the morning of Saturday 17^th March. We paused at Yatagan for picnic provisions and then stopped a little way up the road at the ancient site of Lagina. This was an interesting site which has been well excavated over the last 13 years. While we picnicked on bread, olives and cheese on the ruined temple steps, the ticket guy wandered over and showed us the progress shots of the work they’d done and we chatted about the site. The sister site to Lagina is Stratonikae, once joined by a sacred walkway. Now however the enormous power plant that is such a landmark for Yatagan, had open-cast mined right in the middle of that. Stratonikae is also well excavated and old village houses, mostly deserted now, are scatted in amongst the ruined gymnasium, buleterion and amphitheatre. Both sites yielded excellent carved stonework and Greek inscripted text.

Back on the road, we headed on to Bodrum. On the way we stopped a few times to look at the views, the flamingo’s wading in the mud flats and later at the dolphins in their sea pen. Into the town centre we went to find Mustafa, the captain of our Bodrum Cup gulet, and say hello. We had a good catch-up and Iain set up his skype and cleared a lot of the crap off his computer which was affecting his use of the internet. We were joined for a while by the old Sponge diver who was a friend of Mustafa’s and who we'd anchored next to on the fateful night of the Nulifer concert.

After a while we had to say goodbye and go to meet Erhan in Turgutries with whom we were staying. He has a new job and they work him from 8am until 6pm, every day! We met him at their local bar at 6.30pm and after a couple of drinks went back to the house. Canan, his partner, is away in Istanbul due to the sad loss of her mother a couple of weeks before, so he was there alone. He made us dinner and we chatted for a while, but the poor guy was absolutely shattered and headed off to bed fairly early. He’d gone before we were up the next day, so we toured the peninsula, and picnicked on the beach, before getting in provisions to have dinner ready for him when he got home.

Next morning we were up at 7.30am to say goodbye to Erhan who went to work at 8, and then after breakfast we too headed north. We reached Efesus by 11am and fished out the camping gaz for a coffee before our tour. This is one of the most impressive sites in Turkey. The three storey façade of the ancient library building stands and is so iconic here that it appears on one of the bank notes. The site is large with paved streets, columned palastrae, town houses, baths, shops and temples. We found the ancient latrines (as featured in the ‘toilets of the world’ book that mum gave me for Christmas) and a huge agora and amphitheatre. The site was quite busy with American and Japanese tour busses, plus other visitors and many parts were cordoned off – not something we’d been used to so far on our visits to ancient sites in Turkey.

Close by is the house of the Virgin Mary, where Mary Magdalene is supposed to have lived. We parked up and had our lunch before going in. A very peaceful place, the church is tiny and was kept by a young Polish nun. Another ‘toilet of the world’ features here – the men’s urinals have a impressive viewing window to take your mind of the business in hand!

Next leg was through Izmir, and onto Bergama to see the ruins of Pergamon. We arrived at the acropolis just 10 mins before closing, and they suggested we come back the next morning. Back into the pretty little old town we saw a massive large red building so pulled in for a look. They too said they were just closing, but agreed to stay open for another half an hour so we could have a wander around. It turned out to be part of the large amount of Roman remains that mostly still hide beneath the buildings in the town. A huge complex built for Hadrian. The amount of brickwork still standing was incredible flanked by two large towers.

We found a room for the night and next day headed back to the acropolis first thing to beat the ‘crowds’. This is a large site with palaces and temples on the top of a high hill. Some of the main temple has been reconstructed and gives a good idea as to how impressive the buildings must have looked. Etched into the hillside is a huge amphitheatre with a secret passage in from the temple to Minerva at the top. A few coaches had started to arrive, but not that many, so we headed back to the lowlands to see the Asklepion, the medical centre, which once upon a time had a sacred way joining the two places. Another theatre and interesting round buildings here. The wind had picked up, and we decided we’d have a coffee break before heading onwards. The car park attendant saw our difficulties of trying to get the gas going in the wind, so invited us into his little hut to use his gas stove. We shared our coffee with him and chatted about football, where he was from, local stuff and about his national service adventures before heading back to the road.

We wanted to get as far north today as we could, so got some pide to go and ate on the road. By 4.20pm we reached the ferry port at Cannakale and had to wait for the 5pm crossing. Once on the other side of the Dardanelles we headed to Gallipoli. The 18 March had been on the Sunday before with the huge memorial services, but now was fairly quiet. We stayed in a lovely seaside hotel run by the university students. At the reception there was a man who spoke some English, told us he was the entertainment, and we should pop down around 8pm to see him in action. He looked like that guy ‘Shake me up Judy!’, and had an amazing set of false teeth. We went up to our room where we could watch the tankers and boats going up and down the Dardanelles. We washed and changed and went along for dinner. As we descended to the dining room, we could hear the singer/pianist in full flow, bashing out all the evidently Turkish favourites to a packed audience of about 60 women having dinner. Soon after they were up dancing and one of the older ladies took a turn singing at the mike. After our meal, they waved us up to dance, and we had a great time, and at the end of the evening one gave me her sparkly hanky, which they love waving around belly dancer stylee, and they all kissed and hugged me - they were so pleased that we’d joined in.

We sat and had a drink and a chat with the singer, before heading for bed.

Gallipolli faces east so we were greeted by the dawn sun rise as we awoke streaming through the balcony windows. After a Turkish buffet breakfast of eggs, cheese, tomatoes, olives and bread we paid up and got on the road to the border crossing.

We arrived at Ipsala customs around 9.40am, and had first to be checked out of Turkey. Tourist visa’s last 90 days, and I’d calculated that today was ‘day 89’. The Turkish customs official took our passports and said ‘problem…today is problem’ and mentioned the Turkish word for fine. With officials we always pretend to not understand Turkish so we looked quizzical and said we didn’t understand. He got out from his booth and walked over with us to the main office where two colleagues were having tea and watching TV. After a brief conversation they said ‘no problem’. I rechecked my calculation, yes this was day 89 so no fine, the guy duly stamped us out of Turkey. Next up was to get the car off Iain’s passport. After some shenanigans this was achieved. Now over the bridge which is half Turkish (all painted red and white) and into Greece (all painted blue and white). The Greeks were suspicious of us with our old banger, and asked lots of questions about what we were doing, where we worked etc. He got us to unload our stuff and took the spare wheel out to Xray for drugs. Satisfied that we were touring and taking in the historic sites he let us go.

Greece is extremely cheap for petrol, so first chance we got we stopped to fill up. The wind was strong and it looked like heavy rain was coming our way. As the attendant was filling up Iain asked if they took credit cards as we’d not had a chance to get any euros yet. No, cash only. Whoops! ‘You’d better stop’ said Iain. The boss was angry with the lad, and made him drive Iain into the town to get cash out, while I stayed behind with the car.

It was heavy rain and wind for miles and miles, just like the last time we’d driven through in October, and we didn’t start to see the cloud thinning and patches of blue until we were well south past Mount Olympos. We decided we’d push on and try and make Delphi for the night.

We reached Delphi in the dark, and looked for a hotel. We decided that as it was low season still we see what rates we could get at the posh hotels and work our way down. We pulled into the Delphi Palace and asked the receptionist. He wanted 80 euros B&B. Iain said, ‘could I have it for a little bit less?’, OK – 70 euros. The room was excellent, bath, nice toiletries and a balcony with a stunning view over the valley to the sea.

The restaurant in the hotel was not open, so we walked off into town to find somewhere to eat. It’s a pretty little place – lots of hotels, but sympathetically done. We found a nice little place and prepared for our first proper Greek meal. Pork casserole for a starter, followed by lamb chops for Iain and pork in a Marsala wine sauce for me – very nice.

Next morning (Thursday), we headed for Ancient Delphi after breakfast. The Museum is modern and well laid out with so many interesting statues, trinkets and other finds from the excavations. The Greeks themselves, we found, gave an overall impression of bored arrogance. They seemed to think they had the dibs on ancient history, and this makes them give off a superior attitude. Inside the museum are two impressive statues of a pair of twins. Iain said to me, ‘stand over there and I’ll take your picture’. I wandered over and stood still, a little way in front of the statues and looked towards Iain and the camera. In a flash, one of the steely faced staff barked, ‘no posing!’. Eh? How on earth does standing in front of something damage ancient artefacts? Gobsmacked we wandered off. There’d certainly be no picnicking on the temple steps in Greece!

After the museum we went outside to explore the ruined city. It was quite good, but certainly no better that Patara, Arykanda, Tlos or Efesus. The best preserved thing was the Stadium, which was the best I’d seen anywhere.

We drove on, around the coast road to get the bridge over to Patras, in the Peloponnese. A truly impressive suspension bridge, with an impressive toll charge of 10.90 euros. We drove over slowly to get our money’s worth! The rain had caught up with us again, so we decided we head on down the west coast to Olympia – the home of the Olympic games. The weather was lousy, and the Greeks drive like nutters, unsurprisingly we saw a major accident along the way.

On the way, Iain could not resist a short pitstop to replenish provision at…Lidls!

We reached Olympia at 3.30pm, and made for the premier hotel – the Europa, to see how much their rooms were before working our way down the price range. He said 80 euro’s and we got him to agree to 75. Another fabulous room, with seating area, balcony overlooking the pool and with amazing views over the valley below. We ditched our stuff and headed off to spend an hour or so in the ancient site. Unfortunatley it was closed. You could see the site from the road, and it didn’t look very impressive at all anyway. It was pouring still, so we headed into the town for a beer and to look in shop windows. The place was dead, and the locals more brusque Greeks. We headed back to the room.

There were a couple of coach parties in the hotel, Japanese and American, so it was quite busy when we went down for dinner. But the service and food was good. Bread, tapenade and green olive oil for starter, followed by fillet steaks and a nice Macedonia wine.

The storm was raging – thunder, lightening and loads of rain, so we retired to watch TV and drink wine in the room.

The skies cleared alittle the next morning, but we decided Olympia was probably not worth hanging around for, so headed north for Corinth. After a few dead ends and detours where the Greeks had decided to close the road (but not tell you till you get to the end), we arrived and stopped to get out and look at the Corinth canal. It’s very short and soooo deep and narrow. We’d hoped to see one of the liners going through, but were out of luck. On then to find ancient Corinth and lunch. An interesting site, well worth a visit, but the museum is old and badly laid out, and of course you are faced with disinterested, bored looking officials waiting to tell you off for something.

We were heading for Athens now, and to get rid of the car. Approaching the city, the industrial area appeared and we saw a place with old, rusty car shells piled up. A scrap dealer. Eventually we found the way in and looked to find the owner. With no Gree on our part, and little English on theirs, we managed to get it across that we wanted to sell the car. He said he’d give us 100 euros, but didn’t seem that interested. A big, hairy, swarthy and scary guy seemed more interested and started bouncing the bonnet and opening and closing the doors. Iain and one of the guys go off to find an interpreter, and eventually return with a Pakistani guy who was working at a different workshop on the estate. Meanwhile, Bluto has been trying to thrust a hundred euros in my hand and indicating for me to get out of the car. Some chat ensues and I’m saying to Iain, let’s just go. The Indian leans in and says to Iain ‘these are not nice people, go’. Eventually the message gets through and we hot tail it out of there. The experience left us a bit dry-mouthed! We headed onto to Piraeus so suss out the ferries. Piraeus and Athens are manic for traffic and people. Even though I really wanted to see the Acroplis and the Panthenon, we decided that we couldn’t face the hustle and bustle and really just wanted to get the hell out of Greece. Piraeus ferry port was a nightmare to navigate around but eventually we found a booking agent and enquired about ferries out. I’d have liked to go to Santorini first and then head on to Rhodes or Kos, but the schedules were not in our favour, so we booked passage for that evening to Rhodes. We had an hour to get rid of the car. In the end, we couldn’t face trying to find another dodgy scrap dealer so left the car on the dockside and got on the ferry.

It was a nice journey, we had a cabin so slept most of the time, arriving at Kos around 5am and then Rhodes at 8.30.

Rhodes town is beautiful. Enclosed by a huge wall with various gates for pedestrians or cars, inside is a mass of pebbled alleyways, arches and old houses with lovely shady courtyards. We walked past a hotel, and the lady was sitting outside. Yes, she had rooms and they were simple but comfortable with ensuite showers, and just 30 euros a night – no breakfast. She said we’d probably be the only guests and gave us all the keys and left us to it. Next day she’d be over around 10. The weather finally turned clear and sunny, so we had a good explore of the area, visiting the huge palace of St John. Everything inside the old town was beautiful. Several old mosques were here, and many were being restored. At certain times you can walk the entire perimeter of the town on the tops of the walls, but unfortunately this was currently closed for repair. We did however walk around the town in the old moat (now dry) which was an oasis of calm. Outside the old town is the new town, full of high street names, cars and activity.

We investigated when the ferries were to Marmaris and were told the next one was Tuesday, so we had a few days to relax and explore. Each day huge pleasure cruise ships would arrive and decant hoards of American and other tourists. By 5.30, they were all back aboard and gone by the morning.

We ate out a couple of nights, and found it expensive and of average quality. We tried Octopus, cooked on the grill, calamari, pork souvlaki and retsina. Finally we picnicked, high-style, on our exclusive-use roof terrace on various goodies from Lidls - smoked salmon, parma ham, shellfish salads and wine for a fraction of the price.

In the end, we did have to share our empty hotel with a Greek lady, who come from Athens and was planning to work on the Islands as a walking guide. She broke the mould of Greeks we’d met, by being friendly and interesting. Mind you, she too did not really like Greece or Greek people much.

As we had a few days, we decided to hire a car and see the rest of the island. The scenery was good and varied, and there were a few interesting places to see such as the ancient Roman remains at Kamiros, the peak-top monastery at Monolithos and Parsonissi - the farthest point south– where a small bar of sand separates the choppy west coast waters from the calm eastern side. Lindos is also worth a look, but the Acropolis was closed when we visited so we didn’t see it – the small village is however very pretty for a meander.

We were ready to get back to Turkey by now, so were glad to hear that the ferry was indeed running (no guarantee) and that we’d be in Marmaris by 4.30pm. the crossing was busy, and we found ourselves sat next to a couple of Dutch women, who we chatted with the whole time. They were excellent company – one married to a Turk the other out here working. When we disembarked they offered to drive us to the otogar to pick up our Fethiye bus – which was just about to leave. Clockwork.

By 7.50 we arrived at Yaniklar. Pat and Chris were just emerging from having delivered their English classes to the village children, so we asked the driver to pull over next to her car, and transferred our baggage. Home at last.

A few days grace, and then we have to get ready for friends arriving!