8. Greece: Manteio to Ioannina

We wake up in our hotel (where last night a steady stream of well-healed Greek youths – well, under 40s…. – came up to have a drink) to beautiful but cold dawn. The owner makes us Greek coffee (delicious, better with sugar in it) and tells us in greek-german about his family (14 yr old twins, 11 year old, who board in Ioannina), his 3 brothers. We don’t quite understand whether his parents were sent to a labour camp in Germany but think they maybe did. We sit by his roaring fireplace and drink the coffee and he then appears with candied orange peel dripping in sugary syrup which was amazing. He refuses point blank any payment for coffee or orange peel despite protestations.

Then on to Dudoni archeological site. We get there early doors with all the archeologists arriving for work. We are delighted to see that our old friend Prof S Dakaris of Ioannina University 1950s-70s who figured prominently at all the previous sites we’ve been to gets a mention in the very high brow signs dotted around the site. Greeks take their archeology very seriously and both of us stand slack jawed trying to make sense of the signposts. We then give up and meander through the most ginormous amphitheater and columns just soaking it in.

Then on our final climb before Ioannina and I totally bonk (cycling parlance, not rude, just means you totally run out of juice). I sit on the edge of the road and Jon feeds me large volumes of pitta and cheese until the legs work again. We cycle through a real causse landscape like some of the Larzac – scruffy rocky quarries rusty stuff, hillbilly land. Then finally over the hill to a majestic view of Ioannina and the lake. A brake shuddering descent of hairpins into the outskirts. Nice old boy on his bike with dyed hair (ancient lothario) has the lovely no-shared-language chat and then we zoom into town right into the very old quarter by the waterfront – huge odd city walls, Ottoman buildings (our first mosque) and what feels like ancient thriving trading (silverware shops, hand made knives shop, bakers bakers bakers candlestick makers).

We clock into the excellent youth hostel (Jon the oldest person in the hostel, a few months older than Kosta the boss, from Metsovo, a Vlach). Great chat from Kosta on the complexities of Macedonia, about Vlachs, a good addition to reading Kapka Kassabova’s excellent To the Lake.

We dodge the rain and walk around town, visit the local museum in the old mosque, eat lots of pastries, come back to the hostel for more chat avec Les Français and others. Then local food in a no nonsense local resto.

Ioannina stunning setting thriving university city feel. Nice Greek student we speak to finds it very coooold. She was from Patras.