Bus Trip Across Northern Greece
By Helen Grubner. Filed in Uncategorized |
Years’ ago, travelling by bus in Greece was not the greatest… memorable only for the bone rattling experience and the inability to know just when you would depart and arrive at your destination. Oh how things have changed. These days the buses are extremely comfortable, air conditioned, Mercedes coaches, often with background music playing and they run on time!
In order to get from Litochoro to Alexandroupoli, I had first to take a bus to Katerini… quick changeover there and on to Thessaloniki. Brief moment of panic when informed the 1300 hours bus to Alexandroupoli was fully booked, however, put my name down on a Wait List and by 1230 hours I had a seat confirmed.
Not only have the buses improved over the years but also the roads… motorway all the way but with more toll booths than I could keep account of. Some impressive tunnels as well. The temperature outside was 35°C so quite nice to sit back in air conditioned comfort taking in the views of the countryside. First there were an overwhelming number of Kiwifruit orchards. Later on, the landscape changed to not only olive groves, vineyards and cornfields, but more interestingly, swathes of yellow Sunflowers, all with their faces pointing in the one direction. Of course, as a snack, Greeks love to nibble on sunflower seeds. Unfortunately, the speed of the bus made it impossible to get any decent photos.
You could say Alexandroupoli connects Europe with Asia… west meeting east. There are no tourists there to speak of and the people go about their business in a very leisurely manner. Their “volta”… evening stroll around town after the heat of the day has gone, dressed decently, seems to bring everyone out on the streets, including me.
But I was only there en route to the island of Samothraki… apparently I booked the high speed ferry which brought me here this morning. Staying at Niki Beach Hotel… seafront, pool, 1st floor room with balcony, bar. 5 nights to relax before I hit Turkey!
