Greece – Again ! 🇬🇷

by Jeff Gunn | Dec 13, 2025 | Europe

With just 10 days remaining before our flights home we had to cross the rest of Turkey ( not far ), zip up to the Bulgarian border briefly to get Green Card insurance ( as we’d soon be back in Europe ), and then meander down through the major sights of northern and central Greece before flying out. Some of Greece’s very best sights lay ahead, most of which would be completely new to us.

In contrast to the brutal experience when leaving Georgia and entering Turkey, departing Turkey and entering Bulgaria was an absolute breeze – 3 minutes to cross out of Turkey and 5 minutes to cross into Bulgaria, this time not one issue at all with our vehicle registration documents. Fast and friendly ! The Bulgarian border at Edirne is widely reported to be the best place to get Green Card insurance and as it was only 30 minutes or so out of our way we made the detour. All went smoothly and we were shortly afterwards in Greece.

Every time we’ve come to Greece we’ve eagerly anticipated it and this was no exception. Noticeably cooler in this part of Greece ( being inland and further north ), our first impression was how remote it seemed and also how many police checks there were  – turns out this is a major area for people smuggling in to the Schengen zone. We’d become used to these in Turkey, but had now experienced one in Bulgaria and two in Greece in the space of a morning drive.

Once down to highway 2 the route took us straight west across to  Thessaloniki and on to Mount Olympus, the drive in equal parts scenic and also rather dull ( the latter part, weather related ). A couple of great beachside wild camps ( one, a revisit to the scene of the great toilet cap fiasco 😉) broke up the long stretches.

In Greek mythology, Olympus is home to the gods ( Zeus, Aphrodite, Hades and all that crowd 😊 ) and while likely very beautiful in the right conditions we unfortunately caught the leading edge of some rain and cloud so did not see it at its best. Some glimpses through the clouds were tantalizing, while the drive up the very narrow road called for constant attention and some degree of fearlessness. Sadly, not hikable in the conditions.

Heading south west took us to Kalabaka and the absolutely stunning monastery complex at Meteora. Actually 6 separate monasteries, all perched high up on rock bluffs, they are truly a sight to behold. If they look at all familiar, you saw one of them in the James Bond classic, “For Your Eyes Only”. Click on the link to see the scene. Very impressed with Meteora – and to think we almost did not visit 😳! Highly, highly recommended.

Continuing on ( eventually ! ) down towards Athens, the next sight on our route was the archeological complex at Delphi ( famed for its links to Apollo and considered by the ancient Greeks to be the centre of the world ). Not just a great ruin complex but also an incredibly comprehensive museum of artifacts from the period ranging from well “BC” to several centuries “AC”. Initially we were a little underwhelmed, but that feeling soon changed when we reached the top and looked back over the complex from above – just a completely different perspective and easier to realize what an incredible place it was back at its historic peak. An added bonus was a wonderful night of camping at the nearby port/beach community of Itea, with an excellent little bar nearby – we’d forgotten how good Ouzo was !

Regular readers will know that a huge part of our overlanding experience ( the main part ? ) is the chance to drive some of the world’s great roads. While Greece does not have a Carretera Austral, a Route 66, or a Birdsville Track ( that we know of anyway ), it’s Langada-Taygetos Pass offers up a dramatic, twisty,  narrow, scenic, rock cut overhung “road” that we were ( ok, ok…..”I was” ) determined to challenge. Two things attracted us – a 4.9 Google score based on hundreds of reviews, as well as a ranking on the Worlds Most Dangerous Roads site. Described by Tripadvisor as “not for the faint- hearted”, it was somewhat distant from where we were and still a long drive from Athens, but we nonetheless made the trip. Coastal Kalamata is the start of the road, from which it winds 56 torturous kilometres from there to the legendary Greek city of Sparta, the end of the road. It’s definitely a detour road trip we’re glad we did, more so because it was off-season with very little traffic giving us the time and room ( it’s not very wide in places ) to fully enjoy it. While I would not rank it with any of the aforementioned, it was a great road to drive – the unexpected pleasure being the abundance of autumn/fall leaves that were still on the trees – in December !

With this, only the historic Corinth canal lay between us and Athens, a journey we completed easily in the one day.  Corinth was started back in 67AD but only finished in 1893. While no longer used by today’s much larger ships it still functions and is quite a marvel of engineering. Not what I would call a “must do” destination, but we had to drive right through it anyway en route to Athens. Sometimes the sights just conveniently fall in your lap.

It’s always a good idea to manage one’s expectations when returning to a city after a long absence ( 35 years for us ) – we recalled Athens then as being polluted, smog ridden, and traffic snarled ( all of which it once was ). Happy to report that, however, they did it, they’ve certainly cleaned up the pollution, (we saw no smog at all), the days were beautiful and sunny and the traffic was absolutely manageable both going in, coming out and while driving right through the heart of the city.

Having seen most of Athens’ famous sights the first time we’d reconciled ourselves this time to just exploring some bits we’d missed, making shipping inquiries, cleaning up our van and then getting it safely stored while we went home for Christmas. Alas, the allure of the Acropolis/Parthenon complex was too great so we did venture there – thinking surely this time all that scaffolding from 1990 would be gone ( it had been 35 years after all ). Sadly not !

Widely considered one of the greatest ancient structures of the Western world, the complex is still under a degree of renovation ( and will be for some time ). Stunning it definitely is, but disappointing that you still can’t get a clear shot of it all 😟.

With our Athens sights done, a little shopping completed and our van safely stored, we trekked off to Athens airport for the flights  home to Kelowna. An overnight in  London ( always a great stopover ) broke an otherwise lengthy journey, the excitement of seeing our kids and granddaughter tempered only by the knowledge that we were swapping rather balmy Mediterranean weather for a cold blast of Canadian winter. Brrrr !!!

If you’ve been following along we hope you’ve enjoyed the ride and look forward to restarting the blog in mid – January. At this point I’ve exhausted all the “In Case You Wondered” questions we’ve been asked ( all I could remember in any case ! ) but if you are curious about any aspects of overland travel just pop in a comment or send us an email and I’ll address it – we do love hearing from people ! Meanwhile both Lois and I want to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New  Year !

Till 2026 ! …….😊😊

Cyprus 🇨🇾

by Jeff Gunn | Nov 30, 2025 | Europe

Cyprus represented a significant change up from our usual travel routine. Typically heavy on sightseeing, or activities, with significant driving in between, we anticipated doing almost none of the above in Cyprus. While the country does have its share of worthy sights ( and is loaded with history given its central Mediterranean location ), our purpose while here was pretty much to relax, enjoy time in a few hotels or AirBnb’s, and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning ( I’d still be driving, but not nearly so much ). We’d promised something like this to ourselves, had been remiss in not actually doing it, so with Lois’s birthday falling in the middle of this week it seemed like the perfect excuse – and Cyprus was close, just a short ferry ride away from Mersin where we had just arrived.

Having secured our van in the gated and manned Tasucu port parking lot, we boarded the ferry for Girne ( Kyrenia ) the main ferry port in Northern Cyprus.  Here some explanation is required for those readers not familiar with the politics and geography of Cyprus. Ostensibly an independent country since 1960, in 1974 a conflict arose between the predominantly ethnically Turkish citizens in the northern part of the island and the majority ethnic Greek population in the south. It morphed into a full blown war when Turkey invaded to “protect” ethnic Turks The country has since been divided ( a UN supervised “Green Line” exists to this day ) into the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ( TRNC )- a kind of quasi state recognized only by Turkey. Oddly, one gets stamped “out” of Turkey upon departure from  the mainland and stamped “in” to the TRNC upon arrival in Northern Cyprus- almost like another country……only it’s not. Fortunately, movement between northern and southern Cyprus is easy, a quick passport presentation, and one is waived through ( both ways ). Curiously, all driving is on the left, a legacy of decades of British control leading up to 1960. Enough with geo-politics, now to exploring Cyprus.

Coming from Turkey ( to the North of Cyprus ) , and due to ferry schedules, our first and last nights were spent in the TRNC. Apart from driving on  the left, the TRNC seemed pretty much like Turkey. Nicosia ( capital of the Republic of Cyprus ) is split between the north and south as mentioned above. Very Turkish in the north , very Greek in the south. We found it interesting that some of the tourism marketing literature even plays into the division, citing the fact that “Nicosia is Europe’s only remaining divided city” ( admittedly it is quite fascinating to wander around and see just exactly how the division operates ). Life goes on, on both sides, and everything seems calm these days but it is really weird to look down streets and see them completely barricaded off and blue UN insignias everywhere.  

The dedicated pedestrian crossings ensured traffic between the two sides only moves where it can be controlled – while photography is supposedly prohibited at the checkpoints, practically every tourist can be seen snapping away ( us included ). The whole process was easy to navigate, just hard to believe such a division still exists. We asked an elderly Cypriot who lived through the war if he saw the possibility of unification, “Not in my lifetime !” he replied. Indeed both sides seem dug in and the status quo, which kind of works, seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Beyond our time in and around Nicosia it was mostly spent relaxing by pools, swimming in the ( still incredibly warm ) Mediterranean wherever we came across nice beaches, and sampling Greek, Turkish and Cypriot food at the myriad restaurants and food stalls that dot the island. It’s hugely popular with British and European tourists, as one would expect, and while November is typically out of season there were still tourists around. The days ranged between 24 and 26 degrees and were mostly sunny – warmer and sunnier than is typical we were informed ( happy with that ! ). 

Paphos, ( popular with the Brits ) in the western extremity, occupied our first couple of days and Ayia Napa, at the eastern end filled the remainder of the time we spent outside Nicosia. We enjoyed both, possibly preferring  Paphos just a bit ( a little less touristy, perhaps because it was a bit more remote). We’d splashed out just a bit on the Ayia Napa accommodation though, and were delighted with the property- almost devoid of tourists, had a huge pool to ourselves and the owners upgraded us to a huge one bedroom unit with a massive deck. We felt very spoilt ( but loved it ! ).

One of our other project’s on Cyprus was to firm up some plans for future travel given we’d backed out of crossing Iraq by land and then hit some roadblocks with our shipping options out of Turkey. Killing a few birds with one stone we decided to store our van in Athens ( Greece ) over Christmas and fly home for a break with our kids and granddaughter. We’d left time to get from Turkey to Athens, and purchased a couple of return tickets home via London from there. This effectively pushed the onwards shipping decision down the road a bit and placed us in Athens when we returned – a popular port with great connections, hopefully something suitable will arise between now and then. Fingers crossed !

In Case You Wondered:

Q: Are there any “hassles” in particular in owning/driving a North American campervan in Europe ( or elsewhere ) ?

A: It is crowded in places. Roads can also be congested in some parts ( and narrow in others – Holland ! ). Many countries have tolls on their main roads which can get costly ( and they charge more for campers ), though these can usually be avoided if one stays off the toll roads.  Laundromats can be hard to find in some countries, or if you can find them they are of the “we’ll do it for you” variety ( costly, and slow – we prefer self serve ). Mind-boggling ( to us anyway ) is the number of places that have a washing machine only, no dryer ! Not convenient when you don’t want to hang around and waste time watching your clothes dry. Oh, and diesel is expensive in Europe ( as is gasoline ).
That’s a pretty short list of ( fairly minor ) grievances and overall it’s been a wonderful place to travel with a van ( hardly surprising then, that many Europeans also have motorhomes/campervans ). As a result the whole continent is generally well set up with RV infrastructure. It’s been critically important to have a cassette style toilet for easy dumping of waste – many times we use a simple toilet to empty it ( the biggest benefit of a cassette ) as North American style “black water” stations are almost unheard of in many places here. It’s also been helpful to be able to charge our batteries on the European 240v electrical system ( we have a dedicated 240v input charger in addition to our base 120v system ). Used rarely, but good to have. What’s also been critically important to making life manageable so far is our ability to be “off grid” for extended periods – big solar capacity (1,000w), big Lithium battery capacity (500a/h), good DCDC charger, and big water tank ( 165litre in total ). Not “scrambling” for power or water is key! Induction cooking has been wonderful – no searching for propane and struggling with all the different European fittings.

We still have much more of Europe and beyond to explore but that’s a quick overview so far. Hopefully we’ll  continue to feel the same way as we explore further…😊.

Albania 🇦🇱 : The South

by Jeff Gunn | Oct 19, 2025 | Europe

While several times larger than Montenegro, Albania is still very small so getting from north to south does not take long. That said it’s full of amazing little towns, steeped in history and some pretty stunning natural sites. It’s fair to say that we probably found more of these in the south than in the north. 

In addition to its beautiful coastal attractions ( they don’t call it the “Albanian Riviera” by accident, two inland towns in particular stand out on the itinerary of most who are exploring Albania – Berat and Gjirokaster. Berat was probably the favourite in terms of it authentic Ottoman-era architecture while Gjirokaster had the more impressive fort of the two. Both were impressive, full of tourists and one could easily enjoy getting lost in the cobble-stoned streets of their respective old towns. We certainly did ! Again and again wherever we went in Albania we were shown the most amazing hospitality, especially so in these two places. The camp hosts were extremely knowledgeable and willing to go to almost any lengths to ensure we had an enjoyable stay, but we found the same at restaurants, stores, gas stations and just anywhere we came into contact with local people. Curious, always, as to where we came from and how we liked Albania you could absolutely see these were incredibly proud folks, so grateful to be free of their recent past ( the 45 lost years ) and delighted to be back on the European travel circuit. 

From Gjirokaster our ours took us south through another national park and it’s rather unusual natural attraction, the “Blue Eye” ( named after its resemblance to a human iris). An almost two kilometre hike in from the entrance brought us to a crystal clear creek where a crowd had gathered – right there, below the observation deck was this most stunningly deep blue circle of water which looked almost surreal.

From the national park it was not far to the coast where we’d hoped to experience a couple of day on one of Albania’s top beachside towns – Hisame, Saranda and Ksamil among those vying for the distinction of being the best. Here the weather dealt us a bit of unseasonal blow depriving us of the chance to see these places at their best. We explored Saranda and Ksamil and settled on just one day and night a beautiful and somewhat secluded little beach just north of Ksamil. Despite less than ideal swimming conditions ( it being a bit of a cooler day ) the water was really warm making for a nice dip, the last one in the Adriatic for a while anyway.

With that the Greek border was only about 20kms south so we meandered down that way, this time an easy and quick crossing…😊.

Till next week…

In Case You Wondered:

Q: Has it been easy to get water, dump grey water and empty the cassette toilet everywhere ?

A: Mostly, yes, and bear in mind that we almost NEVER use commercial campgrounds ( we are fully self contained so there is usually just no need ). There’s a variety of places to get water – service stations, public parks, paid filling stations, etc, and so far we’ve found no issue locating cassette toilet style “dump” stations ( though easier in some places than others ). Here is a picture of one of the fancier cassette dump stations ( this one in Norway ):

Albania 🇦🇱 : The Road To Theth

by Jeff Gunn | Oct 12, 2025 | Europe

Probably no country on our European journey so far has been more anticipated than Albania. It was new to us, having never visited before, so there was always the allure of the unknown, but more importantly it has been generally less travelled having only been a popular “mainstream” destination in the 2000’s and especially so in recent years. There’s a lot to offer in a small package and first impressions have been generally excellent ( we knew what to expect with the litter and bad roads, so have discounted those things in said impressions ). First a little history.

Anyone in our age demographic will doubtless recall Albania as the “North Korea of Europe”, the most Stalinist state of all, or the “Hermit Kingdom” where the brutally repressive communist regime of dictator, Enver Hoxha ruled with an iron fist from 1946 till his death in 1985 but the regime survived until 1992 when it was finally overthrown by a popular people’s revolution. In the years since it has developed enormously, and while it is still Europe’s poorest, the trappings of an emerging “nouveau riche” class are visible everywhere. Its infrastructure is improving and in just a couple of decades of alignment with the West a new openness has emerged ( it was essentially sealed off from the world for 45 years ). Practically all young people speak English and are eager to engage – so far we’ve been overwhelmed with friendliness and hospitality !

Happened to arrive on what must have been a busy day ( or we just chose the wrong border crossing ) as it was a long wait to cross from Montenegro – once at the border, though, we were give a very warm “Welcome to Albania” by the border guards. Then by the SIM card guy, then by the insurance guy, altogether making for an extremely smooth introduction to Albania.

Shkodër itself offered a few interesting sights – the Ottoman-era Mesi Bridge, the impressive castle ruins at Rozafa and finally ( but on a rather gruesome note ) the “Site of Witness and Memory Museum” which chronicles just some of the atrocities and persecution methods of the Albanian Secret Police and Military during the 45 year communist era. Pretty shocking stuff.

Needing something a little more mellow after the aforementioned museum, we made the trek up to Albania’s very impressive Theth National Park. It’s not a long drive, but it is extremely circuitous, very steep, and the roads are mostly very narrow, making for some hair-raising driving. It is a spectacular drive though and Theth itself is an interesting little village with some great hikes and good examples of old Albanian architecture. The weather was a bit cloudy on the way up, but sunshine broke through in the late afternoon, so we set off for at least one of the hikes we intended to do up to the Grunas waterfall. Lucky we found some Albanians to help us find the way as it was not well marked, but the waterfall at the end was quite spectacular, as were the views out to the surrounding mountains. Theth itself sits in a beautiful valley high up in the Albanian Alps – everywhere you look is panoramic. Sadly, the following day was quite overcast with rain threatening, so we were unable to get in any more hikes. Sometimes you just have to take what you can get, glad we did the waterfall at least. Also enjoyed a beautiful night camping by the river, which provided us one of the most peaceful night’s sleep we can remember.

From the elevated heights of Theth we backtracked to Shkoder and then on down the main highway to Albania’s capital city of Tirana. First stop was the very impressive “House of Leaves” museum ( documenting the history of the former communist regime, and the degree of secret surveillance they employed on citizens ), some Cold War bunker tours ( there were lots of bunkers ! ), a wander through the heart of Tirana and especially Skanderbeg Square where some of their national monuments are located, An extremely interesting day – we learned a ton about Albania.

With that our time in Tirana was done, incredible to think how much this country has changed in the 33 years since the end of communist era and truly interesting to talk to knowledgeable Albanians about their past, present, and hopes for the future. We’ll continue to explore the south of the country in the coming blog.

Till next week……

In Case You Wondered:

Q: What do you do about washing and drying clothes when you spend so long on the road ?

A: In Western Europe no problem, laundromats are everywhere, but we did find them harder to come by in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia  ( and in some cases much more expensive ). We carry enough clothes to go two weeks between washes and that has been a very wise move. The app we use is helpful in locating laundromats or we simply Google search “laundromat near me”.