Greece - Olympus & Aegen

We left the campsite yesterday after watching the sun rise over the rocks and headed towards Mount Olympus—home of the ancient Greek gods.

But first, we had to stop for a tortoise.

Sarah wasn't familiar with the greek myth, but after my recital, she swore she’d seen Zeus in the clouds. (Naked, apparently, like the statues we’d seen.) 

The mountain dominates the landscape, like, erm… a mountain. But unlike the Alps, it doesn't have a multitude of peaks, just one huge, soaring monolith shrouded in cloud. (Above and below) You can kind of understand how ancient men imagined the stories.

Lush green landscapes for miles, a far cry from my memories of greek island holidays.

From there we reached the Aegean and immediately dipped in, the ocean cooling the travellers heat. We drew a few looks, pulling up, stripping to our budgey smugglers and running in. 

We avoided the motorway, taking older service and farm roads. Bliss.

Later we passed through Thessaloniki, a city on the Aegean coastline. The suburbs had an Athens like feel, hot, dusty, traffic lights seemingly designed to prevent movement, and packed with traffic. The central area, along the port, was well presented, spacious, and affluent, but we just rolled on by.

During the day, our conversation centred on how much it really costs to travel for an extended period. In pursuit of an answer, we’ve been keeping tabs.All the talk of budgeting, however, went the way of the dodo when we checked into the Akti Retzika Hotel and Camping. It was £160 for a room and £35 to camp. We camped.

I ordered two bottles of beer at the beach bar and it came to £14! The next two beers came from the little beach shop for £4. My Yorkshire tightness satisfied.

The beach bar was relaxing with stunning views… such a shame about the rotund gentleman lying with his legs open facing us, one of his testicles had slipped out of his trunks leg hole. Glad it wasnt two, that would be rude.