Day 36
Time to close the loop...
Our plan is to go back to our starting point by going through Bulgaria and Romania.
We left Lefkada in the morning. We had both a mountain range and a bad weather forecast ahead. Even if the weather forecasts are less and less accurate and helpful, there's one thing to not trifle with in a mountain: bad weather warnings. For these reasons we decided to stop for the night in the plain after the mountain range, i.e. somewhere before or past Thessaloniki.
The highway and the tunnels that cut through the peaks made the crossing easy. Midway, we stopped in small village that must have had a different life before the highway: Metsovo. Now, it is yet another tourist spot that offers mass produced items ranging from giant wooden spoons, Santorini eyes, kitchen towels embroidered with the name of a Greek city, kvala, loukoums, honey... to the waves of tourists brought in by bus, or the unsuspecting traveler who looks for a pit stop on a highway without any resting area. Clearly we belonged to the last category. We had the most expensive coffee and piece of cake of the trip so far, we packed a baklava to share with friends at the end of the trip, and we said goodbye to the little town and the herd of stray dogs that greet the visitors who arrive and depart.
Several hours later we reached the plain further away Thessaloniki engulfs the coast. We stopped in a village 30 km before Thessaloniki. It was demented. Imagine an abandoned house that look like it's been looted several times over the last 20 years, next to a new house or a new bakery / coffee shop about to open, next to another gutted rusty ruin of a house or business, next to another live but unkept house, and so on, on both sides of the main street. The whole is enhanced by dusty cotton flowers that make like a grout on the sides of the road and where the buildings meet the pavement. The whole thing felt eerie, haunted, unwelcoming. We had a bite out of our supplies and we aimed for another spot North of Thessaloniki.
As we approached Thessaloniki, we smelt the stench of more petrochemical processes, and we instantly stopped wondering whether we wanted to visit it the next day.
We arrived at our destination after sunset, under an overcast sky that was diffusing a shy moonlight, that allowed us to make a basic assessment of our surroundings. I slept like the dolphins: with half of my brain awake and keeping watch. I crashed after 4am till 8am. All good. Better safe than sorry.
We had breakfast, a quick wash, and we planned the day ahead: where to in Bulgaria / vignette or toll / allowed or not to sleep in the wild / headlights on during daytime ? These are the basic questions before crossing a EU border. The speed limits are showed when entering the country. The rest is to be learned on the job.