India Overland - Greece, Thessaloniki to Athens

Greece - Athens
We awake early and arrive at the Greek border just after breakfast. It is a remote spot and the Yugoslav guards are not friendly. They spend a long time checking our passports and ask some strange questions before finally lifting the barrier and allowing us to pass through. The Greek side is much nicer smiles all round and they want to know if anyone is from Melbourne. An other gem I've learnt, Melbourne is the third largest Greek city in the world after Athens and Thessaloniki and it seems everyone has a brother that lives in Melbourne and drives a taxi. We are soon rolling down the highway towards Thessaloniki but it is slightly out of our way and as we will pass through it later we opt not to visit. Soon the Mediterranean comes into view, its nice to see the sea again. This road is much busier and in good condition enabling us to make good time.	Breakfast
We stop at Thermopoli next to the Sparticus memorial and bath in the volcanic water while morning tea is prepared. Sparticus was the founder of the Spartans who ruled Greece many centuries ago. They were hard rulers but good soldiers. The memorial marks the site of a battle between them and the Persians. The Spartans won and two Persian princes were killed, we will visit the tombs of these princes later, which are empty as their bodies were buried in Greece. We have a long way to go so the stop is short, we pass by here again in a few days lets hope we have more time to relax. The road to Athens is good and by late afternoon we see a sign for the town of Marathon. We must be close as the Marathon race commemorate the 42 kilometer run to Athens by a Greek courier to deliver a message to the Parthenon. Athens is a big city and we are soon in its outskirts, the traffic builds up and going is slow In some ways this is a good thing as it gives us time to work out were we are.	Thermopoli
We are looking for a right turn that leads to our campsite that will be home for our two day stay. Against all odds we find it first time and within 10 minutes are pulling into a very nice spot under large pine trees. The place is packed and half the site is fenced off for a wine festival that is to take place the day after tomorrow. Most of the passengers have not been to Athens so are excited about the next two days. We get set up, then most people decide to go to an alfresco restaurant over the road from the campsite to sample the Greek cuisine. The food is wonderful the wine is a bit unusual its the first time most of us have tried Retsina (a wine made from the sap of pine trees). The Retsina grows on you and its so cheap that everyone has plenty to drink. Soon members of the other Greek families eating there start to dance, at first its the men then the women get up to dance. Something I find unusual happens, women, some with husbands and children get up and come over to our table and take our men by the hand and lead them out onto the dance floor for (Zorba's dance). It was a great evening and we promised to come back.	Greek Taverna
Early the next day everyone is keen to get into Athens and do some sightseeing. We drive them into town and drop everyone at the base of the Acropolis, the bus will be back at 4.00pm or they can make their own way back to camp. We find somewhere to park and catch a taxi back to the centre of the city. Geoff and I go for a wander round some of the older parts of town trying to find something interesting. We have several cups of coffee and try out all the Greek sweets, we both have a weakness for anything sweet. Not far from the base of the Acropolis we find a shop that sells wine, not in bottles but bulk out of the barrel. We are given a little cup and can wander round and sample everything. We both admitted this could be dangerous. Most of the barrels were Retsina and there was a lot of variation in the taste. By the time we had found one we liked I think we were ready to drink anything. Time for some lunch to settle our stomachs. We found a small restaurant and ordered fish and salad which without asking was served with a carafe of retsina. So much for no more drink. We finished up with several cups of thick black coffee, which I always referred to as Turkish coffee but that I learnt was not the thing to do in Greece, they do not get on with the Turks.	Parthenon - Athens
Parthenon at night	Athens
We got back to the bus a bit late only to find Fred pacing up and down like an expectant mother. Geoff and I had a bit to drink so we talked Fred into driving, he was not all that keen but we convinced him it would be good to learn in case anything happened to us. We finally found the troops and made our way back to the campsite. Geoff took over the driving half way home it was safer with him even though he was half pissed. Fred wanted us to go to a restaurant he had been to on the way over and he sold it so well that most of the troops wanted to tag along. We set off for the resturant and had been walking for 15 minutes when we entered a square that had roads leading in from all corners with a large garden in the middle. The restaurant was very small and situated in one of the corner buildings, there were no tables in the restaurant the waiter took us across the road and seated us in the gardens in the middle of the road. This is first time I had seen a restaurant separated from its eating area by a main road. The waiters would dash across the road with plates of food dodging in and out of the traffic. The evening was terrific and watching the kamakarse waiters kept us all amused. There were about half a dozen restaurant and all had the same setup, creating and endless stream of crockery dancing around in the traffic.	Athens
The next day was the wine festival, most people wanted to spend the morning in Athens then come back to the wine festival which was expected to liven up in late afternoon. We ran everyone into town and dropped them near the flea market and left them to find their own way back. We set of looking for something to flush the radiator as we had been having problems with the engine overheating. The hunt led us down to docks area of Athens where we found a garage that assured us they could flush out the cooling system with a mild acid that would dissolve any calcium. It took about an hour and we felt reasonably confident it would fix the problem. While we waited we purchased enough oil to do an oil change and gave the bus a once over including a full grease. On our return to the campsite we found the wine festival in full swing. It was much the same set up as the wine shop the day before, grab a glass and start tasting. There was lots of people, dancing ( music - Comme Tei ) and even more wine. There were going to be some sore heads in the morning and as we were leaving for Delphi Geoff and I took it a little slow and turned in early.
The trip continued	Map of trip so far