{"id":47,"date":"2020-02-09T23:49:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T21:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/?p=47"},"modified":"2020-02-09T23:51:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T21:51:19","slug":"prespa-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/2020\/02\/09\/prespa-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0395\u03b8\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc \u03a0\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03bf \u03a0\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03ce\u03bd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a cold start this morning with a hard frost. It’s only in the last 2-3 years I’ve started coming to Greece out of season so I’m not used to seeing frost over here. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I enjoyed a buffet breakfast at the hotel – I started with bacon, sausage and egg then had yoghurt and honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u039a\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c1\u03b9\u03ac – Kastoria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First on my list of things to do today was to visit the \u03a3\u03c0\u03b7\u03bb\u03b9\u03ac \u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u0394\u03c1\u03ac\u03ba\u03bf\u03c5 (Cave of the Dragon)<\/a> where I had a guided tour – all in Greek (it was a group of maybe 15-20 people). Inside the cave there are 7 lakes, and 10 rooms in total. The cave and lakes looked very impressive – it is a shame taking photos inside was forbidden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a small cafe next to the cave so I sat there in the sunshine with a drink and some buscuits – It feels very European to sit outsde in freezing weather!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got back in the car and headed out of town; My destination was the \u0395\u03b8\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc \u03a0\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03bf \u03a0\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03ce\u03bd (Prespa National Park). Tucked away near the borders of Albana and Northern Macedonia, the park is great for bird watching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also bear country; In Britain road signs warn you to look out for deer – but here road signs warn you to look out for bears. Even on the motorway, overhead electronic signs along the A2 and A29 motorways read Attention – Danger – Bear’s Habitat – Drive carefully<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two lakes – Megali (Big) and Mikri (Small) Prespa are the highest-altitude lakes in the Balkan region, at about 850m above sea level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u03a8\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2 – Psarades<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My first stop in the area was at \u03a8\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2 – Psarades. The only Greek village on the Megali lake, the name means Fishermen<\/em> – It is a traditional fishing village. I didn’t know what to expect before I arrived. Being in such close proximity to both Albania and Macedonia I wondered whether I’d notice any influence from either of those two countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In truth Psarades felt as Greek as any other place I’ve been to in the country. Tourism has arrived in the village now – Along the main street are tourist shops, cafes and restaurants. The only clue as to the fact an 2 international borders with 2 non-EU countriws lay out in the lake, was the presence of a police boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had time to buy a souvenir from Psarades to take home, and had lunch in the village too. This region is where the Gigantes<\/em> beans are grown on a massive scale. The beans were on sale just about everywhere – and all the restaurants had them on the menu. I know I had gigantes last night – but it would be rude not to. So lunch today was gigantes starter with bread, then grilled chicken served with chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other stop I made was at the village of Agios Achilleos. An island accessible only by a long floating bridge stretching across the lake from the car park on the mainland to the island. The island itself just has one main street with a restaurant and a hotel, and a few residential buildings – plus lots of animals roaming the island: chickens and cattle are in charge here. There’s a good viewpoint on the island too, if you don’t mind climbing up a hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u0397 \u03b8\u03ad\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b7\u03bd \u0392\u03cc\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1 \u039c\u03b1\u03ba\u03b5\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd\u03af\u03b1 – The view towards Northern Macedonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u039c\u03b9\u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03bb\u03af\u03bc\u03bd\u03b7 – Mikrolimni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
\u03a4\u03bf \u03b3\u03ad\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b1 \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 \u0386\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u0391\u03c7\u03af\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 – The floating bridge to Ag. Achilleos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
\u0397 \u03b8\u03ad\u03b1 \u03b1\u03c0\u03cc \u03c4\u03bf \u03b3\u03ad\u03c6\u03c5\u03c1\u03b1 – The view from the bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Kastoria and I had a light meal for dinner – pita gyros and some chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long day tomorrow – Driving all the way back to Athens before I fly back home in the evening. So I’d better get some rest!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u039a\u03b1\u03bb\u03b7\u03bd\u03cd\u03c7\u03c4\u03b1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FH.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My destination was the \u0395\u03b8\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc \u03a0\u03ac\u03c1\u03ba\u03bf \u03a0\u03c1\u03b5\u03c3\u03c0\u03ce\u03bd (Prespa National Park). Tucked away near the borders of Albana and Northern Macedonia, the park is great for bird watching.… View Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kastoria","category-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fred-hart.gr\/greece2020\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}