After ordering salad and cheese and an omelette and tea and water I suddenly realised I may not be able to pay for all the food. The omelette was not as we know an omelette, but rather two eggs just dropped into a heated ceramic bowl with cheese. The eggs looked almost raw and gradually cooked as I was eating the salad.
When it came to the bill I didn't have enough TL and looked in my side pocket of the wallet and miraculously found a €20 note. The bill was 20TL and so he happily accepted the €20 note and gave me back 20 TL. So I now had no euros and 30TL.
Set off for the border and I started to remember that when I left Turkey to go to Northern Cyprus the Turkish Authorities charged me a departure tax. I was desperately trying to remember how much they had charged and came to the conclusion it was about 30-40TL and I had paid that in Euros. So I took a small detour into a town and eventually found an ATM and withdrew another 30 TL just to be on the safe side.
Arrived at the border crossing and no problems at all with either the Turkish or Greek authorities and no tax either! So now I was in Greece with no money other than 60 TL and a few coins of Euros.
The Greek side of the border was like the "Marie Celeste" no ATM or bank or money exchange, it was like it was shut for "Thursday".
Anyway hpy to get out my Tomtom and thought all would be back to normal with a machine happily telling me where to go. No such luck! When I checked The countries listed in Tomtom Greece was not included. So I have purchased "Western Europe" and "Eastern Europe" from Tomtom and Cyprus and now Greece don't seem to fit into either of these categories. Still I'm a bright lad and it's only one motorway E90 that stretches right across the north so it would be hard to go wrong!!!
First problem with Greek motorways is fuel. There are no service areas with petrol or food, just a small sign before a junction indicating fuel is available if you come off at that particular junction. Easy enough! Off the slip road you go and you arrive at a T junction and are confronted with a choice, left or right, which way is the petrol station, and having made the choice how long do you persist in what seems to be a fruitless journey before you turn round and try your luck in the other direction. I did this dance four or five times and it does not help you remain a calm and collected driver. On one fateful occasion as I came off the slip road there was Y split in the road and I found myself on another motorway. I travelled for 12 miles along this road without a break in the 1 metre high concrete wall between the two sides of the road, nothing! In the end I did 24 miles just to get back to where I had started, not what you want when you are looking for fuel on a motorbike.
The next problem was Thessaloniki, the E90 goes around this city a bit like the M62 goes around the top of Manchester. It changes it's name about 3 times. Another thing about Greek motorways they don't give directions to distant cities, they prefer to just stick to the local towns.
So I'm making progress, somehow managing to get fuel even though they don't seem to like credit cards, they look at you as though they might catch leprosy from your card when you hand it to them, but not yet managed to find an ATM to get any Euros.
Now we start on the toll motorways and I think surely they will accept credit cards. The first one was just €1:40 for motorbikes and even I could find that much amongst all the detritus in my pocket. The next one was €2 and I asked her whether they took credit cards, she said no and shock her head in a very forceful way. We tried our luck again and this time we just managed to cobble together the €2 in tiddly euro coins. I thought we are going to have to do something about this to avoid another "barrier" crisis, and so I came off at the next slip road and guessed my way to a town that might have an ATM. Luckily by chance I came across a petrol station, and thinking I would fill up anyway went in and asked the owner where there was an ATM. He told me there was one about 1pm away, I then asked him to fill up the tank, which he dutifully did. Handed him my credit card and he said "no" and opened his wallet and showed me his money. I opened my wallet and showed him 30 TL !! So I indicated to him that I would go to the ATM and get some money and return to pay him in cash. To be fair to him he never hesitated at all, he was quite happy for me to disappear and trust that I would return. So off I went in search of the elusive ATM. Tracked it down and would you believe it it kept freezing and not completing the transaction!! Asked more people and was directed to another ATM and bingo I greedily withdrew €200 happy that I would never get caught short again. Back to the garage and paid my trusty friend, who clearly is a great judge of character.
Then can you "Adam and Eve it" every toll station along the motorway from this moment on had home made looking signs saying "free pass" stuck to the booth windows. I suspect it may be something to do with the financial crisis in Greece and civil servants being on selective strikes.
The journey from Thessonaliki over to Igoumenitsa goes over a large mountain range I think which is called Pindos range and the motorway through these mountains is by far the best motorway journey I have ever made. Apparently they have been building this road for the last 20 years and it was just completed last year. I must have passed 15-20 huge signs adjacent to different sections all indicating an EEC funded project and most were of the order of €200,000,000. There was hardly any traffic on the road!
Basically I can see why the Greeks have a financial crisis, they can't organise their roads to let people fuel up or eat, drink or go to the loo. They build the most expensive road you could imagine in places where nobody seems to need to go to, and then they don't charge the users they have more than €3:40.
But good on them, it was a great way for me to end an otherwise very frustrating day.
Oh and bye the way here is an overhead warning sign that I saw as I was travelling along the road. In the light of my Turkish experience with the sign saying not to proceed without 100km of fuel, see if you can understand what this sign is saying. It was only later that I saw that the sign changes between Greek and English, and so I took a copy of each. The English version is posted at the bottom of the page!
Here area a number of photos that try and capture a little of what this road is about.
At the ferry port went to the different companies asking the price of a ferry to Brindisi. First was €37, second €28 and third €73. As I was walking away from the second one a man came up to me and asked where did I want to go. I said Brendisi, he said, "come with me" and went back to the second company desk and talked to them, and then he said you can have it for €15. I asked them why they had changed the price, and they said "this is the boss price". Apparently the man was the owner of the ferry line and I think just wanted to make sure I didn't go to one of his competitors.
So on a fast catamaran that takes just 6 hours to do the journey.
Here is a picture of the fancy clamp they use to secure your bike. The biker behind had to give me a lift because the deckhand wanted my back of my bike manoeuvring slightly so the clamp fitted correctly on the seat.
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So here is my bed for the crossing.
And finally here is the translated sign.
I bet you were not expecting that !!!
More later
TOR
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They have just completed a new piece of motorway round Glasgow. Cost per mile ....... £135m. Makes your road look like a bit of a bargin!
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