Itisallgreek2me

Tuesday, 5 July 2022… In order to get from Litochoro to Igoumenitsa, I had first to travel back to Thessaloniki. Left Litochoro at 07.25 hours, catching my second bus from Katerini at 08.00 hours, arriving in Thessaloniki just in time to catch my third bus of the day to Ioannina at 09.00 hours. Made it with a minute to spare, thereby avoiding a 3 and a half hour wait for the next bus.

The Egnatia Odos Motorway, built at an estimated cost of E6.77bn, is quite simply a miraculous feat of civil engineering. Stretching across Northern Greece from the Turkish border in the east to Igoumenitsa in the west, 50% of that cost was spent on 90km of bridges and tunnels, the longest tunnel being 4.7km. There are countless numbers of these twin-bore tunnels, most of them in the Pindus Mountain range.

On leaving Thessaloniki, at first the journey takes you along plains where various crops and fruit orchards flourish. From Veroia, the climbing begins in earnest and it is not long before you are passing by fields of sunflowers growing on a plateau and the Amyntaio Power Plant. Forested with oak, fir, beech and pine and home to the endangered brown bear, the Pindus Mountain range is nothing short of spectacular.

A bit over an hour’s wait in Ioannina then on to the fourth and final bus of the day… departed at 14.15 hours, arrived in Igoumenitsa around 15.45 hours. Four buses – 422km – cost E46.30.

I was surprised to find that I could hop off the bus at the Port, right opposite my accommodation at Oscar Hotel. After a warm welcome, I settled into my air-conditioned room with a balcony and a view. Home for the next 2 nights… I’m not too bothered about the 36°C temperature outside.

However, what I am bothered about is the lack of buses in this part of Greece and as I have just found out today, that is going to seriously affect my plans over the next 10 days. Buggar… I have some work to do rearranging my itinerary.

Wednesday, 6 July 2022… the reason for my 2 night stay in Igoumenitsa was to make a day trip today to Lia, a tiny village near the Albanian border and scene of atrocities in the Greek Civil War in the 1940’s. Nicholas Gage wrote a very moving book ‘Eleni’ … a true story about his mother who was tortured and murdered there. Her last words to Nick were to leave for America and never return to Greece. However, decades later as an investigative journalist, he did return to seek out those responsible for his mother’s death.

Anyway, as I discovered yesterday, there is only one bus a week to Lia and that leaves Igoumenitsa at 05.00 hours on a Thursday, returning 15.00 hours. Of absolutely no use to me as in the morning I leave for Parga.

It is even hotter out there today than yesterday so I have mostly stayed in my room. Ventured out early to buy things to sustain me through the day as I worked through making changes to my plans. Included in those changes is an extra night back in Igoumenitsa next week so that I will be visiting Lia on Thursday 14th… yay! Other changes to plans will surface as the days roll on.

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