.....to Uganda

26 of October...i'm flying headed to Konstantinoulopis aka Istanbul with Turkish airlines. I had to wait for almost 3 hours there to take the first flight to Entebbe airport of Uganda.27 of October.6 in the morning. We were landing through a storm at Entebbe airport. I saw many UN aircraft parked around.I took my baggage then fill out the visa form and then payed 50 USD to take my visa. I was in Uganda for real.Someone supposed to waiting for me but...nothing...none.Some guys from other NGOs had already picked up. I was left alone.I start chatting with a taxi driver and he told me not to worry about. Half an hour later was my turn. I climbed into the Land Cruiser heading to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. I stopped to exchange some dollars to shillings and to buy a brand new SIM card for my phone."Now i've got my Ugandian cell phone number on MTN network"...to be continued

.......









...it's just a beautiful country. Totally green. With nice and very warm people.
You have to visit Uganda.
Kampala is the capital. Here, people driving like crazy. I used to say that Greeks are driving like lunatics but you have to see what's going on here. Only from Edebbe airport to Kampala i saw a car accident and few minutes later a motorbike accident. Beyond this it's perfect. I also ate very good Indian food ...yes in Uganda.
Now i'm ready to go north west of the country ....so see you around.






































































West Nile. NW of Uganda. Moving around between 2 bases. One in Yumbe and the other in Moyo. Guys here are taking care of a project about sleeping sickness, a disease coming from tse-tse fly.




Moving every day to a different place-village for active screening , mobilization and sensitization of the people living nearby the 2 cities.




More about in a few days.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............
Oh no..... sleeping sickness!!!
Can not keep my eyes open.
I'm sorry , i have to sleep for some years

.....Barcelona 12-25 September

...no comments...


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...Sifnos island 20-26 August 2010

(wonder) :
Hey, what's goin' on with all these fully-dark tanned chicks and dudes? Do they suffer from TANorexia? Please check yourselves in for treatment or something.

trail map



Story:

"Can't you scoot over dammit? Look how much space you have." i said to a stinky-armpit man with the wifebeater who set himself right next to me when all the ship deck was almost empty. He left. Good for him cause i had a bunch of bitchy comments ready to spit. I hate when they do that.
Well, i was on the deck of the ship watching the tiny little islands drifted by as the ship headed to Sifnos island. I knew that ship well. Not only me but everyone who used to go to Cyclades islands over the last 30 years. "Saint George" Yes it uses steam to move its body. It's the one with the unlimited layers of oil-based paint. You've got to dig deep just to find the very first color. Every year a layer, every layer a part of history. It's like a growing metal tree. By cutting the trunk you can see the tree rings which shows one year's growth. The tree rings are now the paint layers. Between them you can find 30 years old air, flies and insects that used to live many years ago, etc. It's a moving museum. Perfect place for archeologists. I felt like Indiana Jones on that ship. And you know something...i think it's too slow because of these layers.
I took a deep breath, some pictures and the stairs to where we seated ourselves , me-nick and peter. I've been in Sifnos 2 years ago with my girlfriend and we had great time.(i wish she was down to earth again :( ...)Anyways.
After 4 to 5 hours we reached the island. I called Aristidis (Aegean Eye), booked a room for 3 and we went to Vathi to eat something. We sat right next to the sea we ordered seafood we ate well even if the portions was the smallest i have ever seen. It was a meal for kids not for 3 hungry adults. If you wanna take a picture of a platter you have to put your camera to the 'macro' mode. WTF. "These tapas are great" i said to the owner but she didn't understand my black humor. But i'm pretty sure she understood the little tiny small-like-her portion tip. Then we left. Next stop was our room. Not much to say about it. Descent. The room master, Aristidis, was a very cool person and that made us happy. We had no beer at all so Nick went to the Tavern Leonidas next door to bought some but the owner said to Nick "No, i don't wanna give you beers" "Why? I'm gonna pay for bottles also" Nick said "Because" she reply. Wow what an asshole, she was so rude, so we put that tavern in our big black list.
Our room was at a place called Kastro (castle). It was an old castle at the top of a rocky hill surrounded by houses. We were in Kastro and suddenly we found the Fidel. Yes, we were face to face with Fidel Kastro the leader of Cuba. Not the real one but the greatest fan of Fidel Kastro in Greece or...all over the world. Mr Kostas, the owner of the Cafe Kavos. The best place in Sifnos, with an amazing view and with the best,friendly and relaxing atmosphere. Mr Kostas was crazy about Fidel and Cuba. He was late 60, dressed in a khaki T-shirt with Fidel's face on it and blue jean shorts. The same set everyday. He was the DJ or better the CD-changer. He was playing only mambo music and only from Cuban musicians that never crossed the sea to go to US and Miami. If a musician abandoned Cuba automatically took place at his black list. You'll never gonna listen to Tito Puente in cafe Kavos. He did the same with the drinks. Only Havana-Club rum not Bacardi or stuff like this. He was a weirdo but in a good way. I like him. He is so authentic. We were drinking at Mr Kostas-Fidel every single night. I was drinking Caipirinha. It's a Brazilian drink but Mr Fidel was all right with that.
I don't know why but i like figs and Sifnos is full of fig trees, so i was always picking figs and believe me were really yummy, a bless for my taste buds.Like the food at Troulaki restaurant.Wooow great super tasty food straight from the wooden oven. Meat that melts in your mouth, extra fresh herbs, giant portions the way that you would invited all your friends just to help you finish the food and...an exotic goat cheese. It wasn't a cheese it was a poem to flavor. Handmade goat cheese that had taken a 'nap' and rest for many months into the lees at the bottom of wine barrels.If your destination is Sifnos you should go and eat at Troulaki and you'll enjoy food better than mom would make if she was getting paid for. You'd better go around 8 o'clock just to see the sunset while you are eating. We did that way and it was awesome guys!
Couple of hours before troulaki we had been at a small rocky beach where only 4 girls was lying on the sunbeds. Topless, full-tanned and lonely. What a combination huh? All of a sudden, a 6 member Norwegian family popped up from the trees around.The moment they arrived the girls found their top and lost their happy mood.So did we.They turned over...we turned the car around and hit the road.
Next day found us in Heronissos at the top-north of the island, a traditional fishing village, where we ate fishes (don't remember what kind of) next to the sea using our hands and gave the left-overs to the stray cats. Before that fresh fish food party i had checked out the sea bed around and found that was full of fish-soles trying hide themselves into the sand.I wish i had an underwater camera. But hey, i've just seen a cool gadget in a magazine insert.It's a scuba diving mask with a built-in high definition micro camera.This is what i want for the next summer.That would be hilarious but i think it can be used for sky-diving also.
Maybe i'm one of hmm.. 3 people out of millions who really like to raising my hands up against the sun, watching my fingers glows red.Sifnos has great strong pure light,like any other island in Cyclades complex. And when there is a good light....you'll get nice photos.(i'd like to believe)So i hung my Nikon FM2n on my shoulder and went to the edge of the Kastro.There's a tiny church on a rocky hill surrounded by the sea.The light wasn't so straight and that made shadows look great.I wanna see the results but i have to wait till i develop that b&w film.
Well, the last day came. "Where are we going to eat now?" was the question. I did palms-up. "Is there anywhere left?" Yes there was. One of these little restaurants at the center square of Artemonas...and we went there and we picked one. It look like the sort of place where a person would eat well but ...no. The last meal was totally awful.A couple next to us complained because they found bags into their bread and hit the road, but we had already finished our food.As we 'run away' from the restaurant i saw a happy couple ready to go there. I look them in the eyes and made a sticking-my finger-down my throat gagging motion. I hope they got my point.Then we chugged some beers while we are waiting the boat to took us home.
As a conclusion. Sifnos is a great island, with great light, great food (except that in Artemonas -the first on the left hand when you entering the square), very friendly and smiling people, good at heart.
Lot of figs to picking at. But the most important is Kastro and Kavos bar with Mr Kostas.
Already start missing those great drinks that amazing view that relaxing atmosphere
and Mr Kostas motto. "Asta siempre"
Asta siempre guys. See you later. Follow me in Barcelona Spain where the first part of the Preparation Course with the "MSF" would take place.


Check this slideshow out

...Thassos Island (12-14 of August)

Trail map



My sister Angie and George my brother in law had already planned a trip to Thassos island about two months ago. I had been invited as well to join them for a couple of days and i said 'yes' without hesitation.
Wednesday 12 of August. I was on the ferry to Thassos. Feeding seagulls can be a lot of fun. That's why kids was feeding them all the time. They swooped down to the stretched hands and grabbed the snacks. By the way, it is illegal to feed seagulls in some US states but not in Greece like money-feeding or bribery as well.
So i was enjoying the feeding and taking pictures of it. It took about half an hour to get from Keramoti to Limenas, the main port of Thassos and the capital of the island.
The guys were waiting for me at the port. Their hotel was fully booked so they spend some time to found for me a room in a hotel nearby.It was a descent two bed room with A/C a shower bathroom, a sea view and it stank like an ashtray.That stinky odor came from the 'never been cleaned' made in Japan A/C. So i had to choose between stinky and sweaty nights. I took the stinky nights and felt again like a real smoker.
I dressed in my 4 years old boardshorts swimsuit, we climbed into the car and all headed to the Alykes beach at the opposite side of the island.
We saw the beach from upstairs. It was a great place with turquoise water and fine white sand about 200 meters length from side to side. We passed through a tavern to reached the seashore, we snag a free set of sunbeds and an umbrella then we were ready for a seasplash. I was about 100 meter away from the seashore, wearing my goggles and watching the sea bed. It was like a private swimming pool not with tiles but with blond sand instead. I took my head out of the water staring at the beach. Then i realized that all along the 200 meters seashore there were 7 taverns in a row. Not even a meter of empty space, just taverns. This is insane! We have to give a new name at the beach something like "The 7 taverns beach" or "Snow white beach and the 7 taverns" "The Magnificent 7 tavern beach" etc. Anyway, we choose just one to drink a beer and then we drove away up to the mountain to Theologos village, famous for its yummy goat-kid and lamb meat. The small center of the village was full of taverns. Exactly like Alykes beach but 500 meters higher and without the beach.It was the beachless version of Alykes.If i had visited only those two places i could easily named Thassos "The tavern island". When i stopped counting taverns i realized that we were in the middle of a smoky cloud. Smoke came over every single tavern.That smell reminded me of something but i couldn't say exactly what it was.I found it out when we stepped inside the tavern. It was smoke from a burning coffee powder. They put some coffee in a dish, put it on fire and ..voila.They did that to whisk away the wasps the way we smoke bees. The place was full of smoking aluminum dishes. For every dish with food was an extra smoking dish. Smoking dishes was like "side-dishes" for everything you ordered. We took 3 main dishes and 2 salads and they brought us 5 extra smoking dishes. I double checked the Menu for that special dish with no luck. "Hope we don't have to pay for these" i thought. Firstly, in that table we were just the 3 of us. After the dishes arrived 3 dozen of wasps popped out from nowhere and took place around the meat.They started eating in the first place.They didn't even waiting for us. My sister has a DNA-wise fear of wasps so we moved into the tavern to get rid of them. Then the sweat came. Totally butt-sweated we got up, passed through the coffee smoke cloud and some flocks of wasps took the way all around the island to go to our rooms.
Day 2. To avoid wasps we decided not to eat when the sun is up. Wasps never do night flights.
So, we found a nice beach to relaxed. Paradise beach. East side. Perfect sea, perfect sand, perfect sea bed, too many kids dammit.So we started playing frisbee. We hit a couple of persons around. When parents saw that we were playing deadly frisbee one after the other removed their children from us.A-ha...We defined our triangle territory. Later my sister split...then we stopped playing...then kids came back.
We stopped at Potos to drink a coffee or have a snack and see the sunset. Then we went to a fish tavern named "kleisma" .In Greek , if you just heard the name "kleisma" without see it written it sounds like "enema" , cool huh? Besides the cool double-meaning name, the food was excellent. Still got that great taste of the calamari in my mouth.After that fantastic meal we went to Limenas just to drink a Bacardi breezer right next to the sea, gazing at the shooting stars. I saw 4 in a row, George only one, my sister none.
Day 3. I got a "mpougatsa" for breakfast and a chocolate milk and then drove by to picked my sister and George up from their hotel. We just passed from a place name "Skala Maries". I used to go there 18 years ago with some very special friends eating octopus and calamaris.The place has changed a lot and i couldn't found that little tavern we used to eat at. Anyway, we went to "Rosogkremos beach, climbed on our sunbeds collecting sun-rays. Then back to Limenas for a quick shower and again back to Limenaria for lobster-pasta with my classmate Stelios and his family. We ate well, finished the meal with some 'loukoumades" (deep fried-dough-pastry with honey on top) and having great time.Then again back to Limenas to my smokey-smelling room.
We spend the next day to "Pefkospilia" (pine tree cave) till the time i took the ferry to Keramoti.
Last time i was in Thassos was 1992-93. I guess not many thing has changed since. I found Thassos much smokey and full of wasps. I couldn't found that little fish tavern in Skala Maries and that made me sad.At least tavern "kleisma" is still there offering great food. So...don't be afraid because in greek sounds like "enema" , try it out and you're gonna like it.

And remember. In Thassos , you don't have to drink coffee, you can also smoke some instead.
c.u.later

...Parnonas Mountain (17&18 July 2010)

This is the trail map


Every trip starts, usually, with a phone call but this one started with a toast. We just raised our glasses and we all said "To Parnonas" and we drunk the beers to its honor. We already knew where we gonna go.

Me, Sakis, Maria and Peter were driving up the road to Parnonas Mountain headed to "Profitis Elias" upland, 1770 meters high.
Just before getting into the dirt roads we stopped at "Agios Petros" (Saint Peter) for something cold to drink and for last minute supply. Among all 5 cafes around we choose the most oldfashion-ready to fall down-authentic-traditional-no facilities-ancient one. A cafe with too much "couleur locale" (local color) as French used to say. It had a lot of local color but no toilet so Maria had to go to the next door cafe instead. The funny thing is that we payed only 2 euros for our 4 drinks and coffees . Half a euro each. Amazing huh? The old lady who owned the cafe was just counting heads. 1 head-half euro, 4 heads-2 euros. I suddenly felt like a zillionaire i could buy everything around but soon i realized i was just a ...head.So we took our heads and hit the road.

I didn't begin life hating arsonists but after all these late devastating fires around the Greece i start hating them. And guess what? A few kilometers away we saw heavy smoke coming up from the woods. We went closer and we found out that the forest was on fire and we were in the middle. We turn back and went to a safer place where i called to the Fire Department. "There is a huge fire in here. Do you want the coordinates from my GPS?" i said. "No thank you!!!" was the answer. "We are gonna send a vehicle just to check the area out". As a member of an Emergency Team i knew what we had to do. Safety first. So we started stopping the cars, telling drivers that there was a big fire ahead. We didn't even try to pulling the fire out because it was out of control. 15 minutes later a fire department car with two uniforms crew reached the area. Then they ask me for coordinates . Then a bigger fire track came and start setting the fire hoses. We gave them a helping hand, then we left and left them to hosed the fire down the way they knew.

An hour later we had reached our destination. In front of us it was the magnificent upland of "Profitis Elias". So flat, so big, so green, so beautiful. Around the upland there were a few hills. If you live in Netherlands you could call them mountain as well. Even if we were in the middle of the summer the temperature was quite low.That made us put some extra clothes at the first place.
We pitched the tents around a pine tree, set the table and the chairs and we started checking the area out. The place was full of wild mountain tea and tiny grasshoppers.The fresh air was passing through our nostrils made our lungs happy and all of us hungry. So we lit a fire for two reasons. To grilled our steaks and 'souvlakia" and to kept us warm enough.We ate like kings and a queen. With a beer in our hand we were all gazing at stars. We could see every single star from up there.We talk about everything and then everyone stepped in his-her tent. Then "the Wind" came.I knew that Chicago Illinois nickname is "The Windy City" but that night, that place was about to win the "Windy" nickname from the official owner, Chicago. My dome-tent was not like turtle-shape anymore. It was like a turtle crushed twice by an 18 wheller overloaded semi-truck. It was a flat-shape tent or like a no-shape tent. I tried to fix the bending poles problem with some ropes but with no luck. With the poles down on my face all night long i tried to fall asleep. Poles were hitting my nose and made me think stupid things like "am i a big noser?" "Do i look like Steve Martin in Roxanne?" "Do i have a nose or a snout?" etc. Then i made "the pillow trick". Usually we used the pillow to place our head on it. I used the pillow to set my head under it. Now the tent poles were hitting the pillow not my nice nose. But i was still thinking stupid things. "Am i the only person in the world who put his pillow over his head?" "Are there any overpillowers like me?" And then the Morpheus (sandman) the ancient Greek god of sleep took me to his hands.
Normal people count sheep when they are going to bed in order to sleep. Nah-ha. I found myself counting sheep when i woke up. Is that normal or what?
It was around 7 o clock in the morning when i got awakened by a bell symphony .I stuck my head out of the tent only to see we were surrounded by sheep. Hundreds of sheep each one with its own little bell tinkling. A "master dog" guided them through the fields. I name it "master dog" because he was the master of the flock. Like a real border collie guided the flock of sheep using "The Eye technique" He direct stared at sheep and intimidated them. That was great. No need for a shepherd ...just a good dog, a master dog. But even a master dog could be a hungry dog. He just ate every little left-over from our last night grand meal. After he cleaned everything up , took his flock and went away.
I stepped out of my tent, climbed up on the hills, fixed the tent's poles and i was waiting the rest of the company to woke up.
Then we were hanging around the upland trying to found places that none step a foot before and a better place for ...number two.
Later we lit a fire, eat again, drinking beers, enjoying the silence, took some pictures and finally fell asleep. I did the pillow trick again...just in case. Next morning found me counting sheep again but i slept well. I caught myself counting sheep heads.
I think head-counting it's something like a local tradition. I count our heads once more before we left the upland. I found us four. OK. Then we drove back to Athens. I was sleeping almost for the entire trip but you know something? I saw no head in my sleep. I was cured.

See you later overpillowers.
kostas.
Check this slideshow out

....Panio Mountain 9th Aegean Contest (4 July 2010)

this is the trail map. Way to the former base.


I have no much to say about that day. Actually it was the second day of the 9th Aegean Contest.For someone who is not a "ham" (radioamateur) that means nothing but for a ham is like a fest. Ham teams looking for the best place to set up all their equipment (tranceivers-cables-antennas-power supplies-laptops etc). That what the J41P team did. They set up everything at the top of the mountain Panio using the buildings of the former NATO military base as their headquarter. And they did the right choice.

When i reached the top i found the team in a frenzy. 4 operators in a row with microphones on their hands talking loudly , calling CQ-CQ (seek for any radioamateur) and spelling various callsigns [every radioamateur get a callsign -something like a car license plate- and none else in the world can get the same. My callsign is SV1LHJ and it's one of a kind. Each part of the callsign has its own meaning. For instant, SV-1-LHJ. SV means Greece.Number 1 means a specific geographic part of Greece (a ham from Crete has no9 (SV9) from Macedonia no2 (SV2) etc. And the 3 letters at the end of the callsign is something like a serial number. The ham before me got the LHI and the next one got the LHK and so on.]


It was the second day of the contest and they were exhausted. I was forced to replaced a team member in order to took a nap. Ok. I made a long distance contact and the rest of the time i was screaming CQ-CQ with no reply. I was on 2 meters band in SSB with a horizontally polarized antenna. Because of the screaming my voice became totally husky, something that many women like but there weren't any around.

Anyway, my shift in front of the microphone was ended and i was enjoying the view from up there.




Then i drank a cold beer, took some pictures of the building debris around and drove back home. Then came the 'end' of a long weekend.

73 de SV1LHJ *


* 73 in radioamateur language means "bye" it's a salute. So. 73 to everyone.

...Parnitha Mountain (3 July 2010)

Trail map



Friday, 2 of July, 9 p.m. I was on the phone, asking my mother what sort of childhood vaccines doctors gave me when i was a child. Sometime between diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio my cellphone rang. With one phone already up to my ear i answered the cell. It was captain Sakis. "Hey dude! What about a Parnitha tour?" "When?" i reply. "Tomorrow, 10.30." "OK. See you tomorrow." End of conversation. I really like this kind of chat between friends when you say everything you wanna say in three words.No more-no less. Anyway, then turned to my mom and said "so...what about measles? Did i get it or no?"

3 of July. The Range Rover was already off the road and into the fields. Magpies and crows must really hate off road vehicles because everytime we passing through fields they start making loud throaty screams like they say "Get out of here you pervs! Stay at your ugly cities. Don't say that you love nature using a 4000 cc car with a huge tailpipe." And they are right.

After a crazy driving in the fields with many ups and downs i got the feeling that all the liquids in my stomach transformed to foam. I felt better only when we hit the dirt road again but the foamy feeling was down there for hours.
All of a sudden we saw a forest fire station right at the top of the hill. It was decided to go there to see what the fireman could see. Well, the view was excellent. You could see the most of Imitos mountain, a part of Saronikos gulf and southwest, something like a ancient castle.
With my handheld radio on my hand i took part in the 9th VHF Aegean Contest that was running that weekend. I made a fine contact with J41P radio station located at Panio mountain (East-Northeast from where i was). But our minds was stuck in that ancient castle. So without hesitation we went there. We found out that it was build in 4th century B.C. and as almost every ancient place in Greece was untended. We got into the "Filis Castle" like a charm. We saw those huge stones of the walls, we saw many plastic bottles around and some goat shit but finally we enjoyed the glorious view from the top of the wall. With all that shitty perfume around me i realized that "Greece don't give a shit about ancient castles....but goats do!!!"
We left the ancient Filis Castle and the shitty perfume behind us and then we stopped for a while near a spring just to drink some fresh real water that was coming out from mother earth. Then we saw a sing named "This tavern is open 24 hours but only the odd months of the year." Is this kind of weird or what?
It was already July but we were not hungry. So we decided to visited that tavern in ...2 months.

With this hilarious sing in our minds we drove back to Athens. We made a quick stop just to pick up some wild oregano and mint and that was all about.

Mount Parnitha is a great place, even now, after the big fire it's still green and wild and....smelly.






c.u. later.
kostas.

...Galaxidi-Pantabrexei-Oeta Mountain (19&20 June 2010)

This is the trail map.


Well, it’s not because I’ve got the grooming habits of a chimpanzee but that day I was peeling 3 bunches of bananas and throwing the peelings away, trying to hit a watermelon about 3 meters away. Nop, I wasn’t at Fiji islands or somewhere else exotic but at home in Athens. I had too many fruits in the fridge so I was in a holy mission to “extinguish” them all. I was in a fine mood ‘cause next day we would go to a place that I really wanted to be. Pantabrexei. In English that means “Always raining”. So, we were about to go to the “Always raining land”.
The next day came. Actually it was night or better early in the morning. We choose to travel at night just to earn some time.Captain Sakis already knew a place to spend the night peacefully near the sea. So, after a couple of hours of driving we were hit the beach. We drove through till we reached the end of the shore. "This is the place i told you about" he said. "Looks pretty cool dude'' i said and got my hand into my backpack to find my flashlight. While Sakis was pitching his tent like a modern Kadafi i was explore the area around. Hmmm next to us was a suspicious car parked among the pine trees.Then i saw an empty boat trailer lying beside the car. "Fishermen" i thought and then...a big truck passed by going west roaring like a lion in its first attempt to smoke the very first cigarette. "What the hell is going on here?" i said. Where were we? Do you know were we were? 15 meters away and 2 meters down from the main road. All the damn traffic was going to passed over our heads.Great!

I was totally pissed off and i didn't want to pitch my tent so i jumped into the backseat trying to found the most comfortable sleeping configuration.After i killed all the mosquitoes and read 3 chapters from Augusten Burroughs "Running with scissors", then finally i fell to sleep. Two hours later i waked up from my sleep mode. The fishermen came back and they were trying to pull the boat out of the water but in a noisy way.Probably they would be very happy from what they got into their nets.For some reason they decided to bang every tin-made thing around them. Was like a god gave the missing arm back to Def Leppard's drummer and then, he, just to say "thank you god" started to playing all the songs he knew like a maniac...but with 2 arms and twice louder.
Then took their boat and went away.I fell a sleep once more.

Next day. The first sun-ray hit my left eye. The second, hit my right, then a car hit the crash barrier.It was a really huge bang. We, Sakis and i, both went where the bang had come from to found out what the hell had happened. We saw a crashed car and an old lady who was yelling at his husband.He was the driver, you know. Both were out of the car, in "fine condition" staring at the car that was like shit. We acted like a team. Sakis asked them if they were OK, i took the collapsible road safety triangle from the trunk and put it 50 meters away.The car assistant truck came an hour later.Then we splashed into the sea.Wow!
Next stop was Galaxidi, a few kilometers away. We were salty from the sea and hungry enough to kill for food .We went straight to the center of the city to found a bakery. Two cheese pies and milk was our breakfast plus some ‘koulouria’ . We sat at the nice harbor of Galaxidi eating and watching the view, the boats and the amazing buildings.
With our stomachs in a happy mood, we had already gone to our next stop, the famous Pantabrexei.








It’s nice to driving on an empty road. I mean empty from cars not from animals. So, what was that dark , bulky, huge figure with horns in the middle of the ‘empty’ road? What else. A bull.
Yes, a bull was sitting in the middle of the road.
Fortunately, it was friendly and calm. It let us also to took some pictures of it…or him.
He was the king of the road, we knew that, and with his permission we continued our trip.We were driving up to the mountain when we saw on the left, something like a coffe-bar. We stopped by. I got a cold beer, Sakis got a cappuccino freddo. This is hilarious, cappuccino freddo in the woods. The owner handed me the beer and then brought an extra plate with a small piece of feta cheese, 3-4 baked potatoes and a piece of pasta soufflé. Pretty cool huh? Or... Was i look desperately hungry?
We asked the owner and he told us many useful things about the area like there wasn’t any gas station nearby. We had to go to Galaxidi or to Nafpactos to fill the car up. “But….” he said but. “But you can find some gas at the grocery store. Just go to the next village and ask for the grocer. I’ll call to let him know about you”. A grocery store,selling gas! Have you ever heard of something like this? Only in Greece.
We found the grocer. He got only 20 liter of gas. We dropped them into the gas tank then we went to the next village, asked for the grocer and bought extra 40 liters.
Now you know. If you are around and need some gas , just go to the grocery.
Sounds funny and easy, but this gas adventure took us 2 ‘precious’ hours.
To cut a long story short, we didn’t have enough time to cross along the river and reached Pantabrexei. We had to cross about a 1000 meters but when we hit the middle we had to go back because it was getting dark. We took some pictures and both said “Goodbye Pantabrexei. See you next time”. Totally pissed off, we were driving up to the mountain “Kaliakouda”. It was the worst dirt road I had ever seen.Extremly narrow, 180 degrees turns, 9 Beaufort strong wind and there was a very steep slope just before we reached the top of the mountain. With the differential gear always locked in low ranges we crossed the mountain and finally, we reached the place that we would eat and sleep. Mikro palio horio. “Little Old Village”. We ate like horses and pitched the tent near the lake. I slept in the car, again. I think that everytime I’m pissed off, I hate the tents and love the backseats. In that case I did the right thing!
4 o’clock in the morning. Sakis knocked the window and made me scared to death. He took an extra sleeping bag and a jacket, because of the low temperature. But I was in the car and I was fine.
Sunday. But without the sun was only an ordinary day. We should had call it Clouday. Anyway, few hours later Clouday became Sunday and we were at the top of the mountain (Οίτη) Oeta or Oeti.One of the best places i’ve ever been. Totally green. The green that we all like not the blue poisoned with some yellow. A glorious green. Tall fir trees as it was a huge Christmas tree salon and a fantastic upland. Few steps away it was a lodge. We checked it out but we found the door locked. This is a place I wanna come back and stay for a while.

We had already started driving down the mountain, leaving all these great scenes and pictures of green behind us. I was tired but my brain was full of nice informations. I had 2 days beard that made me look like a diesel dyke but I felt happy. As a conclusion…. I would definitely do it again.

Do it, but with a tank full of gas. ;)



Check this slideshow out

...Mountain Kitheronas (29 May 2010)

The weather was kind of hot. I was at home, fooling around with my HF tranceiver in hopes of fixing it.The phone rang. It was Sakis on the other side. "let's do something dude." he said. "Like what?" i said. "Let's go to Kitheronas mountain. I just pick my car up from Rover service and i think it's time to check it out. Are you gonna come or what?"
Half an hour later i was outside Resenda Pastry-Shop. Peter, one of the owner, would come with us also. Nick, (the other owner) would stay back to run the store.Great!
So, we all packed in the car and hit the road.
Few hours later we were at the foot of the mountain.
At the top there's a former American military base. I'm sure, it was great when the base was active, but now it's just a pile of debris.
The view is more than great. From up there you can see a big part of the western Corinthian gulf, a lot of Kopaida flatland and a part from Eleysina, Salamina and Saronikos gulf. You can see clearly the 3 big mountain that hugging Athens. Parnitha, Penteli and Imitos. What a great place for telecommunication military base! I've been there once more a couple a years ago, as a HAM, during Aegean VHF Contest.
Well, we were at the top but we were not alone. A huge fleet of ladybirds took off from the grass and thousands of coleoptera was flying around and among us like they wanted to say welcome. They were landing wherever they wanted to. Arms, legs, eyes, sunglasses,necks,noses,t-shirts were fine runways for them. I've never seen something like this before. It was like a big cloud full of ladybirds. We were throwing them out politely. They were 'ladies' after-all, you know.

Anyway, i took my handheld transceiver and start scanning for repeaters and links.
Petros was enjoying the view while Sakis taking pictures. Ladybirds were still using us as their personal airports.





That heavy air traffic pissed us off and we decided to go somewhere else. Somewhere away from there. Anywere but there. So we all 3 said the same word. Parnitha.
We took the way back...we took some dirt roads full of gravels , we powered on the GPS tracking and about an hour later we were at the foot of the Parnitha. There was good and bad news on the air for us. Good news: We got maps. Bad news: We did not have the right map. We just had a general map of the area with no details at all. But you know something? We got time. So, we decided to go forward. And then we were lost. What's the best thing you can do when you are sooo lost in the woods? Take a picture. That's what we did. "The loosers" The "Tres Hermanos" full of pride posing in front of the Rover.
We were running out of time , out of water, out of humor, we were starving but we were lucky. Couple of miles later we found a farmer who saw us the right way to go back.
When we hit the main road we found a fire truck. We asked the fire man where we could find the best place to eat something. He tell us to go to a taverna 500 meters away. Everything was great but the olive oil. It was like an engine oil. We knew that if we ate this bloody oil we were going to be the new Transformers with an extra head, 3 legs, 5 eyes with no eyelashes and 5 collar-bones instead of fingers. So we asked the owner to bring us a new fresh salad and olive oil to started over again.
We ate well, we had great time, we were happy and then we were home.
We are gonna do that again.
See you over here dudes, at this blog .
kou-gou

p.s.: After all these ladybirds i don't wanna listen to "The Beatles" anymore.