{"id":276,"date":"2019-06-06T04:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T01:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/?p=276"},"modified":"2019-06-06T04:35:01","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T01:35:01","slug":"my-final-day-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/my-final-day-in-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"My Final Day in Greece :: \u0397 \u03a4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c4\u03b1\u03af\u03b1 \u0397\u03bc\u03ad\u03c1\u03b1 \u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u0395\u03bb\u03bb\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u039b\u03c5\u03b3\u03b9\u03ac \u039b\u03b5\u03c5\u03ba\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1\u03c2 :: Lygia, Lefkada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can picture me writing today\u2019s blog update from the top deck (Deck 11) of Minoan Lines\u2019 ship Cruise Olympia, sunbathing as we travel across the Adriatic Sea from \u0397\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03c4\u03c3\u03b1 \/ Igoumenitsa to Venezia \/ Venice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However as the ship’s wifi is expensive I won’t publish the blog until I get to my hotel in Italy [Update: I arrived safely in my hotel, a 6km drive from the Port, at 03:00 local time – keep in mind that Greece is an hour ahead so really for me that’s 04:00<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday\nmorning in \u039b\u03b5\u03c5\u03ba\u03ac\u03b4\u03b1 \/\nLefkada was still very overcast but at least dry so after breakfast at the\napartment, I wandered down to the beach \u2013 not for swimming but to take some\nphotos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the\nwhole day ahead of me and, in terms of distance to travel, really I was just\ntrying to find things to do in order to kill time; The drive to the ferry\nwouldn\u2019t take more than 2 hours but I had 15 hours to do it in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nleaving Lefkada I drove through the Aktio under-sea tunnel and went in to the\ncity of \u03a0\u03c1\u03ad\u03b2\u03b5\u03b6\u03b1 \/\nPreveza. By this time it had unfortunately started to rain again \u2013 there isn\u2019t\na massive amount to do in a Greek city when it\u2019s pouring with rain, other than\nsit in a caf\u00e9 bar with a drink in one hand, and my mobile in the other catching\nup with the latest BBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u03a0\u03c1\u03ad\u03b2\u03b5\u03b6\u03b1 :: Preveza<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I have to\nsay the t-shirt, shorts, sandals and coat look isn\u2019t particularly trendy but it\nseems to be acceptable\u2026 As far as I was concerned, this was my holiday and when\nI\u2019m on holiday, t-shirt and shorts it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rain\npassed before too long which gave me a chance to walk around the city, explore\nsome of the tourist shops, get some postcards, take some photos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nleaving Preveza my next destination was to \u03a3\u03cd\u03b2\u03bf\u03c4\u03b1 \/ Sivota \u2013 a coastal village opposite Corfu\nwhere we have been on holiday 3 times since 2005. I was interested to note\nthat, while in Lefkada and Preveza I\u2019d seen more British cars than everywhere\nelse in Greece put together, in Sivota there were hardly any. In the car park\nwas just one other car \u2013 on GBG (Guernsey) number places. Prior to arriving on\nLefkada I\u2019d not seen British cars in such a high concentration since the German\nAutobahn near Cologne 17 days earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had loads\nof time in Sivota and while it was dry it was still very cloudy so not a beach\nafternoon\u2026yet! I had a late lunch in a caf\u00e9, moved on to a bar for a drink,\nwandered the tourist shops and supermarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u03a3\u03cd\u03b2\u03bf\u03c4\u03b1 \u0398\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03c1\u03c9\u03c4\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 :: Sivota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My car is\nnow fully stocked with 2 coolbags full of Retsina (Greek wine) for Mum and Dad;\nnumerous cartons of fruit juices which aren\u2019t commonly available in the UK; On\ntop of that there\u2019s a few packs of Lay\u2019s oregano flavour crisps (again, can\u2019t\nget them in the UK). I\u2019ve got to take advantage of there being no luggage\nrestrictions, and no weight restrictions! Unlike when travelling by air I\u2019m not\nlimited by the size of my suitcase. By the time you squeeze in with all that:\nmy suitcase, my laptop, beach rug and chair, then there\u2019s all the general junk\nwhich just lives in the car \u2013 it\u2019s quite a tight squeeze to get everything in,\nbut it just about does fit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t\nuntil gone 6 that the cloud finally cleared and it warmed up enough for me to\nspend a couple of hours on the beach \u2013 my last swim in Greece this year. After\ngetting clear of Venice the next Sea I come to will be the English Channel and\nI don\u2019t really think I\u2019ll be stopping to swim in that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then my\nlast meal as I watched the sunset; I had a starter of grilled saganaki cheese\nfollowed by beef stew in a tomato sauce (\u03ba\u03bf\u03ba\u03ba\u03b9\u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc \u03bc\u03bf\u03c3\u03c7\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9) served with rice \u2013 I remember eating that on\nnumerous occasions during our first visit to Sivota 14 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u03a4\u03bf \u03b7\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03af\u03bb\u03b5\u03bc\u03b1 \u03c3\u03c4\u03b1 \u03a3\u03cd\u03b2\u03bf\u03c4\u03b1 :: The Sunset in Sivota<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By 21:30 I\nwas back in the car, ready to make a move \u2013 Although I had only used a little\nover \u00bd a tank since Athens, I filled up with petrol here as Italian prices are\nmore expensive than Greek \u2013 This means I\u2019ll arrive in Venice with more or less\na full tank and should mean I can get as far as at least Switzerland, if not in\nto Germany, on 1 tank of fuel from Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drive\nto the port from Sivota only takes about 40 minutes or so but on arrival at the\nport I was greeted with a queue of truck, after truck, after truck. It took me\na few goes at driving round in circles to figure out that the only way to get\nto the check-in desk inside the terminal building, would be to join the queue\nof trucks and then turn off as the queue passed the terminal \u2013 then I could\ncome out of the terminal in to the car lane to the right of the trucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The queue\nwas caused by very tight security \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen anything like it! Forget\nDover \/ Calais and questions at the border when re-entering Britain \u2013 that\u2019s\njust a formality; Here, the queue of trucks and cars stretched back in to town.\nTrucks were being opened up and car drivers questioned as to where they were going\nor had come from \u2013 me in particular, being a solo driver from so far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Greece\nand Italy are within the borderless Schengen area but border controls do<\/strong>\ntake place when travelling between the two, and the controls are much tighter\nwhen going North. I suspect the main concerns are illegal immigrants and drug\nsmuggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re not\nout of the woods if you choose to travel completely overland either; While it\nis possible to travel without leaving the EU, Romania and Bulgaria are not yet\nwithin the borderless Schengen area. The shorter route, through the likes of\nAlbania, Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia \u2013 just becomes a paperwork nightmare. That\nsaid if I ever get the chance \u2013 time & money being the main hurdles \u2013 I\nwould drive the whole way to\/from Greece overland, although to be honest I\u2019m\nnot sure coming on the ferry has really saved me much in terms of time or\nmoney. It\u2019s just saved a whole day of sitting in the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got\nthrough security OK \u2013 then it was just a case of sit and wait for the ferry. It\nwas supposed to be in at 00:30 and leave at 01:00; Actually it was more like\n01:00 when it came in, and closer to 03:00 when we left. Cars were loaded on\nquite quickly and I enjoyed standing watching them reversing all the trucks on\nbefore we set off. That must have taken the best part of an hour. In the end 2\ntrucks couldn\u2019t fit on (one of them already half way up the ramp) \u2013 and were\nsent away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Minoan Lines – Cruise Olympia
\u0388\u03c6\u03c4\u03b1\u03c3\u03b5 \u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u0397\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03c4\u03c3\u03b1 \u03c3\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2 01:10\u03c0\u03bc :: Arrival of my boat in Igoumenitsa at 01:10am<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I should\nfind this ferry a bit easier than the one on the way out here \u2013 I\u2019ve got on the\nferry having had a good meal before going to the port, rather than gone to bed\nand got up half way through the night. I was able to get on the ferry, sit on\ntop deck and see the lights from Greece disappear in to the distance, before\ngoing to the bar to find a sofa to lie down on for the night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the\nother end, not such a long drive. We\u2019re due in around 1am (I think it\u2019ll be\ncloser to 02:30 which isn\u2019t uncommon for this ferry) \u2013 but early enough that\nI\u2019ll probably just stay up after I\u2019ve eaten, maybe read my book in the bar. Besides,\nthey call people out of their cabins an hour before arrival so there won\u2019t be\nspace to lie down and try to sleep. I\u2019ve got a hotel booked about 3 miles from\nthe port where I can lie down properly and grab a few hours sleep before I get\non the road later in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m getting\nhungry so I\u2019m going in search of food \u2013 They\u2019re serving souvlaki at the bar on\nthe top deck. Don\u2019t get that on the Dover-Calais ferries!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FH.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s Mileage: 99.2
Accumulative Mileage: 2631.4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journey Map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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My GPS froze in Preveza so today’s map comes from Google Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can picture me writing today\u2019s blog update from the top deck (Deck 11) of Minoan Lines\u2019 ship Cruise Olympia, sunbathing as we travel across the Adriatic Sea from \u0397\u03b3\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03af\u03c4\u03c3\u03b1 \/ Igoumenitsa to Venezia \/ Venice.… View Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-epirus","category-ionian-islands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}