I sit here tonight writing on a small deserted beach over looking the last reminants of a glorious sunset over Corfu. We've made it to Greece. We don't seem to have travelled very fsr today and yet we've been on the road for a long time. We woke at 6.30 this morning to behold the rosey then goldern light of dawn on our private beach. Once we were on the road we realised we hadn't really discussed our priorities for Greece much at all so we stopped at a roadside cafe, got out all the maps and guidebooks and had a think. We could see northern Greece and still get to dip into southern Macedonia or go to southern Greece and get a ferry over to Turkey but then we could only fit in Mascedonia's wonderful wild country on the way back at the expense of Romania. In the end we decided to head south to priortise seeing Delphie and Athens.
That decided, we continued on our way to find the ruins at Butrint. After a while we realised that we were on a road going parellel to the one we wanted but decided to go to the end to check if there was a border crossing- our map and guidebook indicated not but actually there was! Glad we had saved ourselves a much bigger loop around later, we drove back to the ruins. We were suprised to find this route included a very basic but functional push you pull me ferry across a stretch of water- it looked ropey but got us accross fine
The ruins were extensive and both from the Roman and pre Roman Greek eras, with a litte medevial thrown in! I found the Greek workmanship astounding- they used huge blocks of dense stone- three feet by two by two usually- perfectly cut with razor sharp edges to fit perfectly with the blocks surrounding it, often meeting at angles, each one is cut precisely to fit that spot. They use no motar and there are no gaps between the blocks- much the same skill involved as the pyramids I'm sure. The Roman additions to site seemed crudely put together by coparison- lots of little rocks and bricks held together with motar. Strange to find a context where Roman ruins are relatively modern.
We got chatting to some folk there as one was quoting Hamlet and other such things in the remarkably intact Roman Theatre and we joined his friends in cheering him on. They apprached us later in the car park. It turned out they were a French, Brit and AUstralian who were hitching about and teamed up. They were looking for a way to get to COrfu where the girls had their next job lined up. They happily all piled in the back on the bed platform with their bags on the roof, We never thought they'd fit but they looked pretty comfy by the time they were in. A local lady with her shopping was also trying to hitch but we thought that would just be radiculous!
The boarder Guard gave us a very amused look when we first passed two, then three, then four then five passeports out to him through the front window, of mixed nationality to boot! The hitchers were behind slightly tinted windows so it was a bit of a suprise for him! The Greek boarder guard got us all to get out so he could meet the Australian- I guess it gerts boring when you are an EU boarder guard and hardly anyone else needs a stamp!
We drove on the the port town and they found they could get ferry tickets leaving for Corfu in just two hours. We were very tempted to stay for dinner and a drink with them but didn't fancy finding out our camping spot in the dark,(all accomidation in that town was reportably expensive and the campsites shut). A few miles down the road we came accoss this lovely wee beach, tucked out the way. The cicardes are singing loudly now the sun is down and I think I smell dinner comming from the car...
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