Thursday 15 May 2008

Pilgrimage from Gerakarou to Apollonia 12/05/08

Rising early we actually managed to get going by 07:30! Incredible!!! I think this is our earliest start to date :)

We have a nice stroll through the green rolling hills, waiting for a café to appear to provide us with our morning caffeine fix, but every shop we pass is still closed. Finally at 9am we come across a service station, the gates are shut but looking inside we can see the workers having their morning coffee. We decide it can’t be too long before they open. Nine thirty rolls by and they still haven’t budged :) Surely they will eventually feel sorry for us sitting at their gate...but there is no such luck. By 09:45 feeling sorry for ourselves we decide to keep moving…

This ends up being lucky because 4kms down the road a great little café/bar appears owned by a guy called Vegetis. He is awesome! One of the people that welcomes us openly even though we limp in off the street, smelling like we haven’t showered in weeks (probably because we haven’t ;) ) and still makes us feel at home. He lets me plug my electronics in without even blinking an eyelid, gives us a free shot of ouzo and even asks “what already?” when we go to leave after an hour of lounging in his shop. Even though the bar is only one month old we can see why it already has a steady stream of customers. Cheers mate :)

Listening to Moby as I meander the next 6kms around the lake I have the intense feeling that life is wonderful. It probably has something to do with knowing I am about to arrive at some hot springs very soon and have a bath :)

The Volvi springs look like they are getting a face-lift before summer as it is one big construction site, but at least they are still open!!! Sabine hasn’t eaten anything yet today so we decide to grab lunch before our bath. And it is awesome! The Hungarian/Greek/American couple with the Mexican/American chiwaua sitting next to us recommended the octopus and the beans. A great choice! After eating WAY too much it is time for our bath…

For €4 each it is a bargain! We get a private room with two bug bathtubs and get to soaking our aching bodies. Aaaaah…heaven!!! :)

The last thing we want to do right now is keep walking but it is still early so we figure we better. Also, it isn’t so good to have softened our feet up so much so we take it easy…

A kilometer down the road we run into a surprise. We had been told that the bath where Alexandria the Great stopped to wash, on his way to or from somewhere, was around here…but we thought it would just be a pile of rocks. It seems we were mistaken as right in front of us is a really old hamam. Stopping to enjoy the atmosphere and take pictures of the frogs swimming inside it isn’t long before an hour has disappeared.

Getting going again we reach our goal with an hours sunlight still up our sleeves…

“What about a beer?” Sabine innocently asks as we enter town…

“Hahahaha, of course…why not”

It is dark by the time we stagger out of the bar and stopping at a mini-mart for some munchies I notice something really dangerous. A €2 bottle of ouzo!!! We have to give it a try…

So we do ;) After finding a campsite just out of town I throw on a movie and we sample our ouzo…not bad either :)

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