First week in Italy

Days 216 - 222

The boat ride to Italy was, um, interesting. We went through a very large storm that was rocking that boat like crazy. We would go over the crest of each wave and then a few seconds later the front of the boat would smash into the water to the trough of the wave. I was attempting to sleep in the lounge area and the chairs were sliding back forth across the floor. I had to grab onto the table next to me to make sure I didn't roll off the bench I was lying on. Exciting stuff. 

I arrived in Italy mid morning and without much of a plan. And hungry. I cycle into the centre of Brindisi and discovered that Italians don't believe in breakfast. A small pastry will have to hold me over until I find a supermarket. 

I come up with a very vague plan of heading to Lecce and then exploring the 'heel' of Italy before heading north to umm, somewhere. It's a cold and grey day but the cycling is pleasant. I stumble accross a small road, winding through vineyards and olive orchards, in the general direction I want to travel. The main traffic I have to cotend with are these cute little three wheeled utes that the farmers drive. I can almost keep up with them. 

The afternoon brings colder weather and drizzle. I find a concrete building amongst some olive trees and hide from the weather for the night in there. 

The morning brings sunshine and I meander into a village for a coffee and pastry. The day continues in a similar vein to yesterday, quiet roads, pretty countryside. A drizzly afternoon. I find a abandoned house in the countryside with an unlocked door. It's quite clean inside. I even have a rooftop balcony. Yep, this will do for the night. 

I wake up in the morning to rain. I roll over and snooze the morning away, I have a roof over my head and no real motivation to cycle through cold rain. I decide to stay put in my house for the day. 

I while away the time drinking tea, eating noodles I found at the bottom of my food pannier (from Kyrgyzstan!), reading a book and I even found time to replace my bike chain. 

In the morning I have sunshine. I cycle the last few kilometres to Lecce. Once there I check my email and find that I have a couchsurfing host for the night. I spend the rest of the morning wandering around the old city. It's full of lovely buildings and fancy marble. 

Whilst whiling away the day I meet a local, Tobia, who tells me about a bike kitchen nearby and also offers his couch. I arrange to meet up with him in a few days. 

Once at Sandro's house I am shown my room. Suite more like it. I have a lovely room with kitchen and bathroom. It usually gets rented out in summer as a BnB. Fancy. Dinner that night is hand made pasta with chick peas. 

That following day I cycle back into town, wander around a little, eat more pastries and drink more coffee. This is quickly becoming a habit. I like it. In the afternoon I manage to wash all the mud from Greece off my bike and panniers. 

The next day I bid farewell to Sandro and his family and head into town to meet up with Tobia, drink coffee and eat pastries. I the plan is to head south east towards Otranto after this. As it turns out best laid plans sometimes go awry. 

After coffee Tobia and I head to one of his friends houses out of town for lunch. By this time the wind has picked up and is crazy. I agree to another couple of days in Lecce.  I visit and old castle in a nearby village before headig back to town. That evening the three if us head to the old town for pizza and beer. Delicious. 

The next day I find an outdoor shop and buy some seam sealer for my tent. Hopefully rainy nights will be a little less wet from now on. The afternoon is spent at the bike kitchen. I am treated like a celebrity and it's a little overwhelming. When you do something everyday it becomes quite ordinary (not to say that I am not enjoying this) and to have a whole heap of attention laid on me for essentially riding my bike for a few hours each day, eating lots of food and not showering nearly often enough is a little overwhelming. But I happily answer a bunch of questions and for the millionth time, I am not going to write a book about this trip. However, the bike kitchen is awesome. Lots of artwork, many tools, old bikes and a thriving community. 

In the evening there is a band playing. It's awesome Balkan music mixed wth electronic music. Great stuff. After some gelato it time to head back indoors and warmth.  Although I am in the south of Italy it's still cold. A good day is a light wind, sunshine and and max of10 degrees. Bad days of rain and wind are well, bad. Evenings are very chilly. 

31/1 Brindisi - past Brindisi: rode 21km

1/2 past Brindisi - somewhere near Lecce: rode 38km

3/1 somewhere near Lecce - Lecce: rode 19km

4/1 Lecce: rode 19km

5/1 Lecce: rode 41km

6/1 Lecce: rode 21km

Total 6342km

Athens and my last few days in Greece

Days 210 - 215

Due to the crazy wind my boat to Athens was delayed. Instead of arriving in Athens at the reasonable time of 1pm, I arrived at 2 am. I wondered what to do. Cycle around the city until the sun comes up? Find a secluded spot in the city to sleep? Try and find a cheap hotel? 

About 15 minutes after I hopped off the boat it started raining. That confirmed option number 3. The safest option and would have happened anyway. I found a hotel pretty quickly for 30 euros. Not so expensive as a once off but I definitely can't make a habit of this. By 3 am I was in a warm bed. 

I had arranged for a couchsurfing host but he was busy until late afternoon. I whiled away the day drinking coffee, eating pizza and battling crazy Athens traffic. 

I managed to find Dimitri's house and was welcomed in. He recently cycled across the states and then across Europe, back to his homeland. We enjoyed some of his mums cooking and a few beers that evening, swapping bicycle touring stories. He is planning to go to Central Asia next year so it was nice to feel helpful, giving some route and visa advice. 

The next day I headed to the city to meet up with another local that was going to host me but was unable to. He treated me to a delicious lunch and a beer (happy Australia Day!) and we wandered around the city. One of the highlights was going down an alleyway of butchers, where you can purchase a whole bunny rabbit with its tail intact. We also went to a camping shop and after months of (not) sleeping on a a crappy closed cell foam mat I finally upgraded to a therma rest neo air. Oh and there were a couple of old buildings as well.

For dinner I cooked some sausages with mash potato. Not authentic Australia Day tucker but the best I could do in the circumstances. Of course this was washed down with a few beers. 

The morning arrived with a whole bunch of rain. Dimitri kindly let me stay another night. I spent most of the day of the couch. Dinner that night was an olive oil and garlic extravaganza. Home made bread served with olive oil and feta for a starter. Pork chops cooked with olive oil and garlic. Zucchini fried with olive oil and garlic. Eggplant cooked with olive oil and garlic. Left over mash potato made into a patties with garlic cooked in olive oil. Washed down with a few beers and followed with some fancy little deserts. Delicious. 

The sun eventually arrived the following day and I made my way towards Patra. Unfortunately I had to battle a whole heap of horrible city cycling to get out of Athens. I do not reccomend Athens for cycling. I made it unscathed and followed the old highway. Unfortunately at one point a creeper on a motorcycle took a liking to me. Normally I try not to write about all the creepers but this one was very persistent, trying to ride me off the road. 

After a bunch of swearing and yelling from me he must have got the idea and left. I cycled the rest of the day with a large rock easily accessible, checking every time I heard a motorcycle to make sure it wasn't him. I hate that one incident like that can have such a big impact on my day. I mean the weather was nice, I had a tail wind and the scenery was good. But I had my guard up all day. I thought that once I left Turkey this would stop but apparently not. 

Anyway, I ended up cycling past a whole bunch of refineries as the afternoon wore on, wondering where to camp. I found a bit of land with a few gum trees and set up my tent there, just in time before the rain arrived. 

It continued all night. I put on all my rain gear and packed up a wet tent in the morning. By lunchtime the rain had cleared and the cycling became more scenic again. I passed small towns along the ocean. 

I found one of the best spots of all time to camp. From the old highway I spied a beach with a few empty looking buildings near it. I went and had a look and found a bar closed for winter. Undercover, protected from the wind with ocean views. The best. I dried out my tent and set my sleeping pad behind the bar, hidden from prying eyes and the wind. There was even electricity to charge my phone. 

Sunrise was beautiful but was quickly followed by more rain. No matter. On goes the rain gear. I only had about 65km to get to Patra to catch the evening ferry to Italy. 

My legs did not want to play the game this morning so I found a bakery and recharged with a very large pastry and coffee. I then cycled through some roadworks and ended up very muddy. As if I didn't look like enough of a hobo now my jumper and only pair of pants were splattered with mud. Not to mention my bicycle. 

After battling a chilly headwind for the last couple of hours I finally made it to Patra. By 5pm I was settled on the boat, ready to go to the land of pizza and pasta. 

25/1 Athens: 25km

28/1 Athens - Before Corinthos: 89km

29/1 Before Corinthos - Before Diakopto: 84km

30/1 Before Diakopto - Patra: 64km

ODO: 6179km

Greece - Kos and Rhodes

Days 201 - 209

I am up early on Friday morning to get the ferry. I am pretty excited to be finally stepping into Europe. I have been dreaming and looking forward to this for months. When people ask me where I am going I just say 'oh, on my way to Europe' and now the only thing in my way is a 45 minute ferry ride. Customs is a breeze, with a stamp in my passport and a cursory glance inside a couple of my panniers I am in. 

I am immediately asked if I want a pension (cheap hotel) which I decline but keep in the back of my thoughts - it's only €10. Before I decide anything I need to change the last of my lira, grab some more euros and figure out my plan. Kos is a pretty small island and there is not a lot going on - it's winter and there are no tourists. I buy a ticket for the ferry to Rhodes the following day. I spend the afternoon in a cafe interneting and wandering around this sleepy town. I succumb to the offer of the cheap guesthouse. 

I find myself waiting for the ferry and sunrise in the morning. The ferry arrives and it's the biggest boat I have ever been on. Inbetween reading, snoozing and snacking the four hour ferry ride is over before I know it. I call my couchsurfing host, Sevi and make my way to her places, about 20km from Rhodes city. Rhodes has an old city - built about 600 years ago. It has been inhabited by the Romans and the Ottomans. 

Sevi is a Greek woman that has travelled quite a bit through Europe and a little in the Middle East. The afternoon is spent drinking tea and napping. After some of we mums cooking we drive into to town to catch up with some of her friends, drink some beer and listen to some live music. 

On Sunday we join the historical preservation society (I think?) for there end of year dinner. A bunch of speeches in Greek and then the part I had been waiting for - cake! Following the cake eating and mulled wine drinking we went on a tour of the old city, looking at a bunch of churches that are normally closed. 

We finished off the afternoon by spending it at a taverna, eating Greek mezze, drinking carafes of wine and enjoying some more greek music. Between the cheap wine, delicious food and fine company greece was exceeding my expectations. 

I figured it was about time I actually rode my bike somewhere and try to reduce my winter belly. I still can't get the buttons done up on my shorts!  I guessed that it will take four or five days to cycle a loop of the island at a cruisy holiday pace. I set off from Sevi's house and enjoy the flat, easy cycling. In the afternoon I find a campsite next to an empty caravan. Conveniently there were some chairs available for me to borrow. Luxury. An afternoon of tea drinking, reading and admiring the view of the castle and the ocean was in order. 

Under grey skies I continue in the morning, up and down hills, through small villages, past olive orchards. The scenery is unsurprisingly very similar to Southern Turkey. The people are freindly except I can't help but notice the lack of invitations to join groups of me for çay. 

The countryside is dotted with many small chapels, often unlocked, full of religious icons, candles and incense. Along the road there are many roadside shrines, often situated where someone has died in a car crash. Many of the are well looked after, oil burners lit. 

Once back at sea level I fight my way into a fierce headwind. I planned on camping at the beach here but it's not very protected and I don't want to deal with the wind all night. I head across the island and camp amongst some olive trees, well camouflaged from the road protected from the wind. 

I thought that since I had a head wind yesterday and was pretty much going back the other direction I would have a tail wind today. Nope. Of course not. 

I reach Lindos by mid arvo and have a wander around. This is a village famous for it's 'captain's houses' - houses that the captains of the boats used to live in during the 14th, 15th and 16th century. Of course, being winter everything in town is shut.

 I did have a nice wander around town and some of the pebble floors were nice. As I leave town the sky looks ominous, it feels like the rain is going to start any minute. It doesn't eventuate and once agin I camp amongst some olive trees. 

The rest of the ride to Rhodes is easy, if a little unintersting at times. I pass some massive olive trees, trunks over a metre wide. When cycling into a town, there is a long avenue if gum trees. Strange. Another highlight is reaching my first Lidl, similar to Aldi or BIM, Lidl seems to be the holy grail of cheap food in Europe. Every cycle tourist that has been to Europe tends to go on and on about the greatness of Lidl. Finally I have made it. A try milestone. 

I want to catch the ferry to Athens tomorrow night and I could really do with a shower before than. Lucky for me, Sevi is kind enough to take me back for a night. 

On Friday I laze around Sevi's house all morning before making my way into town. It is super windy, of course it's a headwind. Sometimes it feels like no matter which direction I cycle I always have a headwind. Sevi and I meet up with her other couch surfer and and Italian lady that lives in Rhodes, Valentina. After a couple of dunk and a bowl of pasta it's time for me to make my way to the boat. 

I arrive at the dock and get told that the boat might be cancelled due to high winds but I should wait around until they decide whichight not be until 10pm. Great. At about 8.30pm they finally make a decision and let me know that the boat may or may not leave at 6am the next morning. Sevi lives about 20km from town so I can't go to her place. Thankfully I manage to get hold if Valentina and she kindly arranges for me to stay with her upstairs neighbour. 

Valentina lives in a small studio on the old city, her building is over 600 years old. It is such a great little room, old stone walls, wooden ceiling. I love it. I spend the night on her neighbours couch and I am up very early to call the ferry company to find out if the boat is going. Yep, I am off to Athens. 

16/1 Bodrum - Kos: rode 3km

17/1 Kos - Rhodes - Damatria: rode 25km

19/1 Damatria - near Kamiros: rode 35km

20/1 near Kamiros - near Kattavi: rode 50km

21/1 near Kattavia - past Lindos: ride 49

22/1 past Lindos - Rhodes - Damatria: rode 69km

23/1 Damatria - Rhodes: rode 27km

24/1 Rhodes - Athens: rode 3km

ODO 5913km