April 15th – 53 kms, Monastiraki
April 16th – Turkey border crossing

Breakfest with our hosts Dino & Eleni : käse brot, wurst, gürcken… Are they Greek or German? Most likely both, just like Larissa is drinking her french red wine with brazilian sweet concentrated milk. Today the rain has stopped. But we won head wind instead of! At least it eases to dry 🙂
As we are cycling toward Alexandroupoli, we see many archeological ruins along an old national road : no cars and rather direct. In Alexandroupoli, we have a nice lunch in a trattoria suggested by Dino: Elysée. The owner is a good friend of Dino and welcomed us with XL cups of Uzo. We enjoyed the place to work on some administrative stuffs.
During the evening, we met Charles, another French, cycling from Marseille to Istanbul. We discussed a bit and then farewelled, as he booked an hotel to rest and we decided to advance a bit. As we were looking for some water, a very gentle lady stop her car and asked us if we needed some help. With some audacy, we said we were looking for a place to rest. Jackpot! She just said « follow me » and led us to the female club of the village! Dry place, water, heating system, kitchen, toilet, privacy and funny pictures on the walls – it was perfect. Thanks Antonina!
This was our last night in Greece, allowing us to leave the country with good memories.

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Next morning, we enjoyed the place to do a bike maintenance before leaving. The road was then quite straight until the border. As we moved through the different controls, a kind Austrian driver came to have a talk with us, giving some tips on Turkey and offered us chocolates 🙂 It took us surprisingly easily 1 hour to cross this frontier, in Ipsala.

Next to come in Turkey!

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Recap

Distance travelled in the country: 689 kms
Flat tires: 1 (Larissa, km 380)
Frappé: +10
Nights with locals: 6
Bivouac: 6
Hotel: 3

What did we like?
– Café frappé. Even though it is make with lyophilized coffee, the frappé is really a Greek patented drink and part of the country identity.
– Fresh water for free with coffee in the restaurant.
– Easy to communicate – almost everyone speak english or german.
– Beautiful landscapes despite the rain.
– Drivers taking care of cyclists on the roads.

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What did we dislike?
– Abnormal rainy weather for the season. We spent 2 weeks in Greece, we were easily soaked or wet during more than the half time spent. Barely dry.
– Villages were quite empty. Most of people we met on the streets were people revamping the hotels/apartments for the high season. Where are you Greek folks?

What is growing?
– From the parts we have been cycling, we have seen many olive groves, grapes, oignons, cotton fields, goats and sheeps (feta!).
– Most of the fields where ploughed though.

Curious facts we learned:
– Greek langage has 5 differents way to write « i ». And it is always pronounced the same!
– Even though the economical situation of the country is getting slowly better, Greek people seem disappointed with the economical situation of their country. Many youngs we met are not trusting their government anymore and are planning their lives without counting on government’s help. Sad but true.
– For some reasons (likely environmental and economical) there are several ghost cities in the country: place where roads, electricity and water supply have been installed, but not houses. We cycled close to 2 of these ghost cities.