Flying "solo" Days 1&2
Monday
We left the Kokino house around 7am, arrived at the airport around 9, Connor signed the documents for our rented vehicle and off we went. Cris, Connor, and I. In an attempt to save money we had our GPS set to avoid tolls, so leaving Athens... It decided the best route was through it. Athenian traffic is like Bogota traffic. Motorcycles to your left, motorcycles to your right, no respect between cars, and cops just watching the disaster happen. Connor, as he is the driver, got desperately angry with his navigator, me. I quickly chose to go toll roads at least for a little bit, until we leave the high traffic zone. We drove through the country roads, through the higways, and once or twice through some unpaved roads. It took us about 6.5h to reach our destination. The town is called Kalambaka, located in the Meteora province. Here the hanging monasteries are visible. They are 12 monasteries which are built at the edge off and on the cliff of incredibly high stone pillars. It was a unique sight and definitely worth the long drive. We managed to enter 2 of them before they closed for the day. That afternoon we rested with a nice cool beer, had gyros for dinner found a hostel for the night.
Tuesday
We walked up to 4 other monasteries and entered one of them. Many pictures were taken. The view from each location is stunning. Just like all of Greece. Unfortunately the largest one was closed by the time we got there yesterday and was closed all day Tuesday for some reason. With nothing else holding is back we drove to the Dodona ruins, where one of the oldest oracle's used to be. Beautiful place, the staff are currently working on restoring the theater and pictures were taken. Then we started to drive towards a coastal city called Igoumenitsa. On our drive there, like almost every other drive, we avoid to tolls which lead us into the very winding mountains. Imagine the route "La Linea" for hours on end. The upside being the spectacular and constantly changing scenery around me. As the mountains go up and down, the vegetation and fauna change accordingly to it's temperate zone. We saw changes from Olive trees, to pine trees and several in between. We arrive at Igoumenitsa, take a late lunch break and decide that since Albania was only a couple hours away we would head in that direction and spend the night there. GPS coordinates inputted and off we go. The GPS took us through the mountains, up the most decrepid roads and in-between semi-forgotten towns. But eventually we found a border control booth, with it's bar lowered and nobody in sight... Being the lead navigator and copilot I got out in search of the border guard, I hear a shout from a small hut and walk over there. I come to find out that the border we stumbled upon was not allowed to be used by Americans. Not exclusivly Americans mind you, but members of the EU could not use it either, nor could Greek citizens. What?? Only Greeks citizens who lived in Albania could go through there. How was I supposed to know that??? Graciously the guard told me which city to follow and we were on our way, albiet frustrated. We find the official border control, finally. We are allowed to leave Greece without problems, and then we are denied entry in Albania. So close! From what we understood (which was little) was that our documents are in order, however, the rented vehicle we have is not registered in Albania so we couldn't take it in. It made zero sense but none of us were going to argue with border security guards. So, technically we did visit Albania. We did a U-turn in the country and swiftly left it. On our way back to the coastal city, driving down the main, and only road, of Greece-Albania a herd of goats appear out of nowhere. Like 70 of the just start walking up the street like the own the place. What? We stopped the car, stared incredulously at what was infront of us and pondered on what to do. As that was happening a black car appeared behind us from the mirror I could see it give us a wtf stare and hand gesture. I thought he was motioning at the goats but no. He proceeded to veer around us and straight into the goats!! As if it were just another Tuesday for him. All of us in the car just laughed what just happened and we were in stitches for several minutes. Once recovered we did what he did and the goats avoided the car. Now that we were denied passage and a bizarre event had occured we thought the excitement of the day had passed. We continued to drive yet now with a new destination up in the mountains Eastward of the coastal city. On our way there a street sign popped up with a destination I had suggested before our trip started. To visit the Vikos Gorge. And that we did. And boy was it worth it. Bigger than the Grand Canyon the Vikos Gorge was astounding, and very much greener. Unfortunately we arrived right before sunset so we were more keen and searching for a place to stay the night. Exploration of the Vikos Gorge will have to wait for Wednesday.
We left the Kokino house around 7am, arrived at the airport around 9, Connor signed the documents for our rented vehicle and off we went. Cris, Connor, and I. In an attempt to save money we had our GPS set to avoid tolls, so leaving Athens... It decided the best route was through it. Athenian traffic is like Bogota traffic. Motorcycles to your left, motorcycles to your right, no respect between cars, and cops just watching the disaster happen. Connor, as he is the driver, got desperately angry with his navigator, me. I quickly chose to go toll roads at least for a little bit, until we leave the high traffic zone. We drove through the country roads, through the higways, and once or twice through some unpaved roads. It took us about 6.5h to reach our destination. The town is called Kalambaka, located in the Meteora province. Here the hanging monasteries are visible. They are 12 monasteries which are built at the edge off and on the cliff of incredibly high stone pillars. It was a unique sight and definitely worth the long drive. We managed to enter 2 of them before they closed for the day. That afternoon we rested with a nice cool beer, had gyros for dinner found a hostel for the night.
Tuesday
We walked up to 4 other monasteries and entered one of them. Many pictures were taken. The view from each location is stunning. Just like all of Greece. Unfortunately the largest one was closed by the time we got there yesterday and was closed all day Tuesday for some reason. With nothing else holding is back we drove to the Dodona ruins, where one of the oldest oracle's used to be. Beautiful place, the staff are currently working on restoring the theater and pictures were taken. Then we started to drive towards a coastal city called Igoumenitsa. On our drive there, like almost every other drive, we avoid to tolls which lead us into the very winding mountains. Imagine the route "La Linea" for hours on end. The upside being the spectacular and constantly changing scenery around me. As the mountains go up and down, the vegetation and fauna change accordingly to it's temperate zone. We saw changes from Olive trees, to pine trees and several in between. We arrive at Igoumenitsa, take a late lunch break and decide that since Albania was only a couple hours away we would head in that direction and spend the night there. GPS coordinates inputted and off we go. The GPS took us through the mountains, up the most decrepid roads and in-between semi-forgotten towns. But eventually we found a border control booth, with it's bar lowered and nobody in sight... Being the lead navigator and copilot I got out in search of the border guard, I hear a shout from a small hut and walk over there. I come to find out that the border we stumbled upon was not allowed to be used by Americans. Not exclusivly Americans mind you, but members of the EU could not use it either, nor could Greek citizens. What?? Only Greeks citizens who lived in Albania could go through there. How was I supposed to know that??? Graciously the guard told me which city to follow and we were on our way, albiet frustrated. We find the official border control, finally. We are allowed to leave Greece without problems, and then we are denied entry in Albania. So close! From what we understood (which was little) was that our documents are in order, however, the rented vehicle we have is not registered in Albania so we couldn't take it in. It made zero sense but none of us were going to argue with border security guards. So, technically we did visit Albania. We did a U-turn in the country and swiftly left it. On our way back to the coastal city, driving down the main, and only road, of Greece-Albania a herd of goats appear out of nowhere. Like 70 of the just start walking up the street like the own the place. What? We stopped the car, stared incredulously at what was infront of us and pondered on what to do. As that was happening a black car appeared behind us from the mirror I could see it give us a wtf stare and hand gesture. I thought he was motioning at the goats but no. He proceeded to veer around us and straight into the goats!! As if it were just another Tuesday for him. All of us in the car just laughed what just happened and we were in stitches for several minutes. Once recovered we did what he did and the goats avoided the car. Now that we were denied passage and a bizarre event had occured we thought the excitement of the day had passed. We continued to drive yet now with a new destination up in the mountains Eastward of the coastal city. On our way there a street sign popped up with a destination I had suggested before our trip started. To visit the Vikos Gorge. And that we did. And boy was it worth it. Bigger than the Grand Canyon the Vikos Gorge was astounding, and very much greener. Unfortunately we arrived right before sunset so we were more keen and searching for a place to stay the night. Exploration of the Vikos Gorge will have to wait for Wednesday.
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