The Greek Odyssey

Greetings one and all, I trust you're well.

Four weeks in Greece and it's time to leave. Thankfully Turkey will be just as sunny as Greece so nothing to be concerned about. How to describe Greece? Well, beautiful countryside without a doubt and some very nice and jolly people (special thanks to the various waiters who handed out free watermelon or ouzo). There are inevitably plenty of archeological sites (in fact, unless you're an archeologist, too many) which are often a pile of carved rocks left in a field (think of Eddie Izzard's 'speed archeology' sketch) with information signs describing the 'third Helladic age (BC 570 to BC 530) with bronze working' in more detail than I'll care for. Ever.

There are some downsides, especially for those equipped with a hire car (as we were): signposting on roads is somewhat slovenly (in some cases a turn is only signposted after the turn has been made) and inevitably we got lost a few times. Greeks drive with a liberal attitude to road rules and their carefree nature also applies to overtaking on tight country roads at high speed or driving like they're in the WRC. Inevitably internationally recognised hand gestures were occasionally required to communicate our disappointment with this attitude. Other shocks: Greek men ... not in general, rather the shabby, obese, balding ones who insist on growing a pony tail and wearing their shirts unbuttoned.

So, the trip itself: an odyssey starting from Athens (where we didn't stay initially) to Thessaloniki by train. After a couple of days there we grabbed a hire car and made a bee-line west to Ioannina then south through Meteora to Livadia (about 1.5 weeks). After that, we skipped past Athens in our 1 litre stallion and did a slow tour of the Peloponnese peninsula from Nafplio, Sparta, Kalamata to Tripolis. Sparta is a large, fairly ugly city which celebrates its warrior past with a life-size statue of King Leonidas (of "300" fame) in front of a low-key sports stadium. As it happens Kalamata and Tripolis are also large, fairly ugly cities buy are within easy driving distance of important piles of rocks (with information signs) and some fantastic beaches.

We took in a few museums too - usually showing rows and rows of vases, trinkets and statues taken from the various archeological sites. We didn't feel compelled, however, to stop at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil. If this tickles your fancy, you can see a quick review here.

That's all I can think of for the moment - four weeks of travel condensed into three short paragraphs. However, pictures tell 1000 words so, if you haven't tuned in yet, go here , or watch the slideshow below, for the best of Greece in pictures (or, to be more exact, the best of the pictures I could take of Greece).

Cheerio until next time and stay well,

Stephen