GREECE - THE LAND OF MONASTERIES

It was sunny and hot this 24th of June 2022 when we finally reached the Greek border. We started to be used to this kind of weather after our stay in Albania. Greece will be no different in this aspect, we were even concerned as previous years , locals witnessed massive wildfires in the country and we really didn’t want to face this danger while cycling. We needed to be very careful with our petrol burner while cooking !

As usual, we thought the next country on the list would finally be flat, as we haven’t descended from flat terrains since Italy’ north plains (and three days in Kosovo). But as always, we were wrong and the mountains were still there, even higher than before !

We started our journey through Greece by climbing on top of a mountain overlooking the city of Joannina and its lake. There lays a small village - Zitsa - where live Kosta, the baker of the village, running with his family so called « Bakery of the Village ». This place is the mecqua of Warmshower/Couchsurfing and we were the happy 1141th person to stay there ! Impressive ! We enjoyed this calm and relaxing environment for two days, time to reload our body and soul, while testing Kosta’s finest pastries and living like locals in this small greek village. Thanks to this amazing family !

We continued our trip, aiming for the Macedonia region (the greek one!). But a major mountain range was standing between us and the hot waters of the greek coast. It took us two days and a lot of sweating to conquer it, finally reaching the 1700m Katara pass. This point represents the hydraulic border between the two seas: Caspian and Aegean. Here we were, riding down full speed to the beach. But there was a mandatory stop on the way: the Meteora !

It was not meant to be a major seeing point of our trip, but stopping by in Kalambaka was definitely one of the high points of the journey. First, we saw them from afar, while cruising down the high mountains to the plains: majestic stone towers, rising from the ground. By getting closer, it felt like being in the middle of a forest of huge, tall trees. Stone trees ! There are 24 peaks in total, named meteora, which literally means « suspended in the air ». It couldn’t be more true, in addition to be suspended in the air, you feel like being suspended in time, with 700 years old Monasteries looking down on you.

We did some grocery shopping at a supermarket and met again with Joakim, the Swiss cycle-Traveler stopping there with its parents. After a nice shower and a couple of beers, we cycled up the 400m of elevation to reach the top of the mountain where lay couple of monasteries. It was a hard push, end of the day, still very hot. But the views at the top were pretty satifying: sunset over the orangish towers, the magnificent monasteries and their tale roofs, the villages in the valley bellow… We pitched the tent near a small church, alone and happy !

The next day we woke up quite early to enjoy the sunset and some nice views without tons of tourists. We were even the first ones to enter the Varlaam Monastery after climbing a fair amount of stairs ! Private moments on the top of the world in this old-like-earth place. Suspended in time and in space.By 10 am hundreds of tourists arrived by bus from all over the world. Meteora transforms itself into a very wealthy business: time to go !

We finally cycled a flat road, that the first since a long time ! We met a couple of French cyclo-travelers on the road, one year they are out of Europe, riding the Aegean Sea! Saddly we were going in opposite ways and can’t share a bivouac ! We ended the day by pitching the tent in a farmer’ garden. He offered us some welcomed watermelon, salvation ! The next day we finally reached the coast, and the sayings were true: the sea is way warmer here ! We continued along the coast, enjoying every meter of flat terrain.

Some technical points about Greece though: the country, and mainly the coast and islands, is very touristic ! Summer time is the worst: lot of traffic on the roads, camping cars and tourists everywhere. Aegean Sea seems to be the favorite destination for Bulgarian tourists. Good side of this massive industry is that the roads are very good, there are water taps and showers everywhere on the beaches ! Big supermarkets as Lidl are everywhere, but prices are veeery high in Greece. We would say: as expensive as in France. Quite difficult when you want to respect your 10€/p/d and your previous countries crossed were Kosovo, North Macedonia and Albania! But thanks to the hospitality of greek people, we managed !

Our last step in Greece was the Thessaloniki area. We reached the city the 1st of July and stayed there 2 nights the time to visit the town and harbor, do some shopping and eat the traditional greek kebab: Giros ! We spend one more night at a warmshower on the hills overlooking the city, discussing about the fate of the world. That was our good rest before an athletic push: reaching Istanbul, 700km away, in a minimum of time ! The first day we were full of energy and managed the extraordinary archivent of cycling 156km (with over 800m of + elevation) ! The day ended up at abandoned hot springs were locals still go to enjoy very hot water ! For us it was a very good treat after this amazing looooong day ! Then two other days at 112km each on the greek coast to reach the Turkish border. This last stretch was beautiful but not very interesting adn very tought, that's why we decided to go faster and to take a good rest in Istanbul.

If we had to summarize our 12 days in the North of Greece, we would say that we crossed amazing territories, breathtaking landscapes and very crowded cities. One common point to all the places we visited: amazing monasteries ! Hunged on top of the Meteora, shinning and brand new on the coast or in the middle of flooded areas… Monasteries were always surprising us by their location and beauty ! Come here and have a look by yourself !