This weekend I embarked on a little roadtrip around Northern Greece--and when I say around Northern Greece, I mean that we drove around almost the entire perimeter (west of Thessaloniki).
We (my roommate Evan, another of the fellows Danny, and Dimitri--a Greek friend of Evan's) left Friday evening and drove up to Ioannina (a bustling college town on a lovely lake), getting in around 1 AM, which thank goodness still falls within the Greek dinner time. Had some very succulent pork
Then spent Saturday in Ioannina, starting with a wholesome breakfast:
and then admiring the old town
And the mosque (left from the Ottoman occupation)
Then we continued northward, stopping for a six o'clock "linner" in Metsovo, a quaint town on the side of a mountain that I loved two years ago and never thought I would be back to. Even ate at the same restaurant
(it was as good as I remembered! Smoky, sizzling, crispy fried Metsovon cheese made only in the town--so good we had to order another--incredibly tender slow-roasted lamb, "piglet," oven-crisped potatoes, and veal baked in a tomato sauce with handmade pasta)
Then back on the road, to a town called Kastoria that sits on a peninsula jutting out into a lake.
Sunday we attempted to see what from pictures looked like a town with a quite breathtaking location, but the rain and thick clouds made it nearly impossible, so we continued on up through the mountains to the Prespa Lakes, in the northeast corner of Greece.
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Then we headed eastward towards a bear sanctuary atop a mountain, only reachable by a "two" lane road (really just the size of a bike path, with a yellow line running through the middle) with an ominous sign saying "Road under construction--continue at your own risk". And indeed, we came suddenly upon a bulldozer cleverly parked right after a blind curve--successfully maneuvered past that only to be held up by cows walking down the road--succesfully maneuvered that only to be enveloped in fog that was so thick that we couldn't see more than a car's length in front of us. Finally wound up the entire mountain, only to arrive after the last tour of the day (plus the fog was so thick that it was doubtful we would have seen anything anyhow). So we then had to wind back down the treacherous road through the treacherous fog with darkness encroaching. Made it down alive though! And then it was another six and a half hours home, this time on the eastern side of the mainland.
We (my roommate Evan, another of the fellows Danny, and Dimitri--a Greek friend of Evan's) left Friday evening and drove up to Ioannina (a bustling college town on a lovely lake), getting in around 1 AM, which thank goodness still falls within the Greek dinner time. Had some very succulent pork
succulent pork with a rich fig and thyme sauce, among other things--unusually nouveau-y, modern food for Greece.
and then admiring the old town
And the mosque (left from the Ottoman occupation)
and the island on the lake
Then we continued northward, stopping for a six o'clock "linner" in Metsovo, a quaint town on the side of a mountain that I loved two years ago and never thought I would be back to. Even ate at the same restaurant
(it was as good as I remembered! Smoky, sizzling, crispy fried Metsovon cheese made only in the town--so good we had to order another--incredibly tender slow-roasted lamb, "piglet," oven-crisped potatoes, and veal baked in a tomato sauce with handmade pasta)
Then back on the road, to a town called Kastoria that sits on a peninsula jutting out into a lake.
Sunday we attempted to see what from pictures looked like a town with a quite breathtaking location, but the rain and thick clouds made it nearly impossible, so we continued on up through the mountains to the Prespa Lakes, in the northeast corner of Greece.
from which we could see Albania and Macedonia!
The colors were like no combination I had ever seen before, vibrant greens and rusty reds, and metallic slate blue:
Then we headed eastward towards a bear sanctuary atop a mountain, only reachable by a "two" lane road (really just the size of a bike path, with a yellow line running through the middle) with an ominous sign saying "Road under construction--continue at your own risk". And indeed, we came suddenly upon a bulldozer cleverly parked right after a blind curve--successfully maneuvered past that only to be held up by cows walking down the road--succesfully maneuvered that only to be enveloped in fog that was so thick that we couldn't see more than a car's length in front of us. Finally wound up the entire mountain, only to arrive after the last tour of the day (plus the fog was so thick that it was doubtful we would have seen anything anyhow). So we then had to wind back down the treacherous road through the treacherous fog with darkness encroaching. Made it down alive though! And then it was another six and a half hours home, this time on the eastern side of the mainland.
