Greece Days 8-9: Next Time, Albania, Next Time! Also, there are Dead Hedgehogs, and We Leave Greece.

The sun was shining when we woke up on Wednesday morning for our last full day here in Aristi. 

I savored my second-to-last breakfast here and may have actually had two breakfasts. I really can't say enough good things about the mini croissant-nutella-strawberry jam  combination. After you have swirled your mini croissant in the nutella-jam, then you must spoon the remaining chocolatey- jammy goodness into your jar of full-fat plain Greek yogurt, swirl it all around, and then enjoy. If you want, you can also add honey to the mix but the Nutella is, in my opinion, superior.

This brings me to an important question: why do we not have chocolate flavored yogurt? Kent is insisting that chocolate yogurt is a dime-a-dozen at home but I'm not convinced. I see I have a new mission ahead of me.

Just a reminder in case you missed this the first time around.

Anyway after breakfast our big plan was to try and visit Albania for the day. It's about a 45 minute drive to the border from Aristi and we made good time.

For us Gen Xers, having grown up during the cold War, Albania was always the pinnacle of mystery. No one could ever go there, and you never met an Albanian as long as you lived as they were not allowed to leave and no one could go in. The only thing I ever knew about Albania was that they had a King, Zog, for a while before WW2, and then he was deposed and a horrible dictator, Hoxha, moved in who ruled with an iron hand for the next 40 years or something like that until the fall of the USSR in the 90s. 

And so we were pretty excited to finally get a chance to see the country. Unfortunately, our rental car company had other ideas, and we were turned back at the border for not having the right insurance by a border guard eating a very large and messy sandwich. 

So this is as far into Albania as we made it:

I tried pleading with the Gods but they are obviously busy elsewhere.

Me: Hey sorry to bother you but just wondering if you could pull some strings and get us in to Albania just for the day?

Gods (looking at maps and making notes): You're joking, right?

Me: Well...

Gods: No.

Me: OK sorry to bother you.

Gods (busy texting and making calls): Yes you should be. Have you watched the news?

Me: Right. I'll just go find a beach then.

Gods *shakes head*: Must be nice. Have a swim for us.

Me:

Gods:

After cursing various other entities for a short period of time and experiencing various stages of disappointment, we regrouped and decided to find a beach instead.  Next time, Albania, next time. 

Me after we couldn't get into Albania.

The coast was a bit of a drive but fortunately there's always something interesting to see around here so a couple of hours flashed by and we found ourselves gazing at the blue waters of the Ionion Sea, with the coast of Albania stretching off to the north, and Corfu in the distance.

We stopped at the little town of Plataria first for a beach nap. Kent of course went straight in to the water, declaring it "warmer than Hornby will ever be", while I fumed on the beach after realizing my bathing suit was in the hotel room still. I waded in the water anyway, then crashed on the beach for a nap. 

After a bite to eat at a local restaurant, we were back in the car and on our way to Syvota, a charming little boating/ beach community in the next bay over.

The water was clear, the sailboats gorgeous, and the ice cream delicious.

We didn't want to leave and could quite happily have spent a few days here boating around to the offshore islands and exploring all the little coves and harbours. Next time.

One of the things we have noticed on our travels is that at any point, some sort of animal, dead or alive, will be on the road whether it's a dog or ten dogs, a cat or five, flocks of goats or sheep, feral donkeys, cows, even  hedgehogs. 

These guys were hanging around just outside Aristi as we left town.

We also saw lots of signs warning of wild boars, deer and bears on the roads but didn't see any.

Of the above list, the hedgehogs fared the worst. Given the fact that the wild dogs here just lay around in the middle of the road in packs, I thought we would see more dead dogs but they have figured out how to move at the last second. The hedgehogs, not so much. 

This may not be the right time to announce that I was victorious in our ongoing game of Dead Hedgehog, aka Deadgehog for short, in which the first person to spot a dead hedgehog on the road gains a point, similar to Dead Badger which I have played before in the UK. By the end of all the driving, a winner is declared and that was me, by a wide margin of my 4 deadgehogs to Kent's 1. Poor little guys.

Back at the hotel we set about trying to stuff everything back into our suitcase and backpack in preparation for an early departure the next morning.

We did linger over our last breakfast before getting in the car for the three and a half hour drive back across Greece to Thessaloniki for our 2:30pm flight to Barcelona, via Stuttgart. 

The roads here are virtually empty of traffic, and in places, the limit is 130km/h. Distances fly by at this speed, especially when the road goes right through the  mountains with the help of 54 tunnels (yes, I counted them). Why can we not have tunnels at home? The Malahat, for instance, would be no different than many of the kms long tunnels that go directly through huge mountains here. So much safer and efficient.

But I can't even imagine the process involved in that discussion... 

Anyway, I wss sorry to say goodbye to Greece but happy for the amazing times, and that we made it to the airport with time to spare. I am of the opinion that you can never get to the airport too early, an opinion Kent does not share. Anyway we made it and checked in with Eurowings for our flight to Stuttgart and then on to Barcelona. 

An unexpected choice of Lego available at a Relay in Stuttgart.

There was a little kid repeatedly asking his mum what it was. Bit disappointing when you're hoping for a Star Wars set and this is all they have.

Eurowings is Lufthansa's budget airline and it seems that they code share with any number of budget small airlines in Europe so you never know who you're going to be flying with. This was especially true on the second leg which was on a plane that they hadn't bothered to paint yet so it really was a mystery. The flight attendants muttered something about Avian Express, I think, which made it sound like the thing was going to be pulled by a flock of birds which may have been the case as it was one of the bumpiest flights I've been on in a long time so we didn't even have a chance to pay 5€ for a cup of warm water.

We were a slightly sorry lot upon arrival in Barcelona, where it was 24° and raining. After a quick train ride to Barcelona Sants train station, we stumbled around through the heavy crowds trying to find the entrance to our hotel, which was above the station and, I might add, has a very cool space theme complete with a robot delivering stuff around the hotel and an R2D2.

The woman behind the counter at the hotel must have felt sorry for us as she gave us an upgrade to a huge suite with two bathrooms, separate rooms, two huge tvs, remote control blinds, and a very fancy WC with all sorts of 'features'. The room even came with its own shoe shiner which I, in my diminished state, could not figure out how to use.

We had big plans to go wander around Barcelona but it was 9pm and raining and Kent had already been a trooper all day and needed to rest and so we ordered grilled sandwiches and French fries that came with little jars and bottles of ketchup and mayonnaise and mustard and olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a salad, and lounged around our suite watching the news on BBC. The situation in Israel and Gaza seems a lot closer here. So heartbreaking.

As I write this, the sun is coming up and Barcelona is bustling.

There's lots to see here but we are boarding a fast train to Narbonne, France, in a couple of hours so it will have to wait. We will have hit four countries in 24 hours, including driving across one of them, by Friday morning so sometimes the need to rest wins out over the need to see a cool old Cathedral.

Another time, as I like to say.

On Friday we start Part 2 of this trip, which is a week in a canal  boat in Southern France with my Uncle Pete, with whom we are meant to rendezvous today at Noon in Narbonne- sounds like the title to an exciting drama. 

Stay tuned to find out if we actually find him at the station, and make it to the tiny village or Argens to get our canal boat.

Thanks for traveling along with us:)