Day 205 Tues 8 May 2007 Canakkale, Turkey to Alexandropolus, Greece

Crossing back to Europe on a short ferry ride to Kilitbahir we stop to explore the magnificent castle built by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1452 and later enlarged by Suleiman the Magnificent before driving round the Saroz bay to the Greek border. It takes about an hour and half of waiting around and following the little man who holds our carnet and passports before we get the necessary collection of stamps. Its a bit of a game as one customs man passes the papers to another who passes them to another and you have to keep track of who’s got the docs and follow them everywhere they go, which is back and forth between the office building and the booths about four or five times. On one occasion they do a dummy pass and you end up following the wrong man for quarter of an hour and then have to race back to see if you can spot the original man and make sure he doesn’t slope off home or change shifts before the paperwork’s finished. Occasionally you get ushered into the boss man’s office, where there is a line of chairs and you move up like in a doctors waiting room or outside the headmasters study. Even the bossman looks at the docs like their written in a foreign language, which of course they are. Just as well we stopped for lunch.

Then its into Greece where the sniffer dogs are too busy pulling a Croatian Ford transit to pieces to bother with us and we’re on the motorway heading west. We stop for petrol in Alexandropolus (about half the price of Turkey) and decide to stop for the night in a waterfront hotel (about twice the price of Turkey) and find a taverna for dinner where we try to decipher the alphabet – its like a full time algebra lesson just as we were getting comfortable with Turkish.

We are sad to be leaving Turkey which has a been a surprise highlight of the trip, with its fascinating and varied scenery, historic buildings and possibly the world’s most hospitable and genuinely helpful, friendly people. The weather’s great, if still a little cold at this time of year, the hotels are generally good with modern plumbing, the roads of a high standard and driving well above average despite its reputation. Even the food was quite good although a bit limited – hope they have bacon in Greece - and the power is reliable. Only the petrol and wine are ridiculously priced - you need a second mortgage (well at least $250) to fill the tank, with either, and the customs service runs a close second to India in bureaucratic obfuscation. In Greece by contrast, there’s no one to carry your bags, wash your car or serve you tea or Turkish delight at petrol stations, but at least you can afford to go to them although unlike Turkey they are very few and far between. However we are beginning to miss the universal Turkish breakfasts, bread, olives, yoghurt, cheeses, cucumber, tomato, honey and tea. Greece tends to be some old bread, jam and Nescafe (from a sample of one).