Greece ENGLISH

When I crossed the Albanian-Greek border the first main difference I noticed was that the people working on the roadside suddenly disappeared. As I rode south the temperatures got increasingly hot making it for a reeally unpleasant ride. 

The quietness of the day changed when I met Valentis in my first night in Greece, he owns a cafe in a village called Kaloneri, when I asked for a suitable camping spot he immediately offered me  a place to crash in his bar. As it happens Kaloneri was celebrating it's saint and the whole town was having a big party in the town square, people from all ages dancing the songs of Zafiris Melas while having some glasses of the popular retsina wine. With very little sleep and slightly hangover, I thanked Valentis for his generosity and continued towards Athens.

In Athens I meet my girlfriend Ane and together spent few days with my family, my uncle and Auntie treated us to a bus tour to Delphi and Meteora which we really enjoyed. Once the tour was over we were eager to start cycling together, slowly leaving the busy city of Athens behind, crossing the Corinthian channel we went into Peloponnese peninsula. We visited Nafplio, Sparta and then stopped at Sotiris and Evi’s house in Melissa, We spent nearly a week with them, they took us to Mani and cape Tenaro as well as some amazing beaches. They both work hard in the farm producing bio olive oil and honey, it was very interesting to see how all is done, now we'll need to volunteer for a whole season picking olives to pay back all they have given to us!!

From Melissa we went to a nearby village called Arna which is famous for having one of the biggest platanus tree in Greece. There we meet Panos (a hiking enthusiast) and went up to mount Taygetos, the highest peak in Peloponnese (2.407m), we slept in the peak and had a chance to witness one of the best sunsets I've ever seen. 

As we have spent over a month in Greece we plan to make another video, here you have the first part:

Grezia ENGLISH from lander on Vimeo.