Drama on the way to Drama…

Leaving Blagoevgrad "in the middle of the night", according to Willi...

I had been up since 5.00am, packing and loading the bike in the dark, the two dogs watching me as I strapped and tied my kit down… The owner of the hotel came out to open the main gate for me, and then very thoughtfully brought a steaming cup of coffee to where I was parked… We sat chatting while I drank my coffee, and then I went to wake Willi…

“It’s the middle of the night for God’s sakes…!!” Willi said when he finally opened his door…

“A very good morning to you too…!!” I replied… “I’ve come to say goodbye…”

“But it’s still dark…!! You’re crazy, man…!!”

He struggled into his long pants and then looked around bleary-eyed, searching for his shoes… He walked outside into the cold and dark morning with me, muttering to himself about “the most dangerous time of the day to be out on the road”…

I could see he was itching to get back to bed, and was grateful that he had taken the trouble to come out in the first place…

“Take it easy up in the mountains, Willi… I checked the forecast this morning… Sorry to tell you this, but you’ve got rain waiting for you further north of here…!!”

He groaned out loud, and then stuck his hand out to shake mine…

“Drive carefully, and maybe we’ll hook up in Turkey in a few weeks time…!!” he said, shivering… “I gotta go in now, my head is beginning to freeze…!!”

I fired up the Big Fella, letting the engine warm up while I selected some music for my trip down into Greece, and did a few stretches to get my muscles warmed up… It was darker than I thought it would be, and after rolling out of the hotel grounds, I cruised slowly through the edge of town and onto the highway heading south…

Traffic was understandably light… It was Sunday morning after all, I told myself, and in this weather, nobody in their right minds would be out and about… I took us up to 120 km/h and then settled in, trying to get used to the frigid air that we were blasting through…

The road curved through a low mountain range, and a sprinkling of rain had left the road surface damper than I would have liked this early in the morning… As the sky began turning from black to grey, I came off a bend and into a long straight… Halfway down it, a guy stepped into the road and began waving frantically… I slowed down and as I approached him, I felt a quick jolt of apprehension…

It was a traffic officer…!! And by his body language, I could see that he was a tad excited…!! I pulled over and greeted him as cheerfully as I could… He was in no mood for pleasantries… He indicated that I should follow him to his car, where he showed me a speed reading of 119 km/h… I complimented him on the accuracy of his radar machine, as that was just about the speed I had been riding at…

Getting out of Bulgaria, my wallet considerably lighter after my brush with the law...

Problem was that I had been doing it in a 50 km/h zone…!! He took my passport and drivers license, and in a mixture of Bulgarian and broken English explained that not only was I liable for a fine of 500.00 Leva (a mere R2400.00 !) but my driver’s license was now also suspended… It would be confiscated and sent to the Bulgarian Embassy in Lisbon, where I could collect it in 3 month’s time…!!

This bit of info did not suit me at all, and I carefully explained this to the blockhead that held my precious documents… He just shrugged his shoulders and then looked pointedly at the wallet I held in my left hand…

I opened my wallet and showed him that I only had 85.00 Leva in it… He gave me a disappointed look and then with his chin, motioned towards the door panel of the car…

“How much do you want…?” I asked…

“All of it…!!” was his reply…

“Amazing how much your English has improved since I opened my wallet, eh…!!” I replied, putting the money into the door panel…

He handed me my license and passport and then shook a finger in my face….

“50 km/h…!!! Only 50….!! Not 120…!!” he almost shouted…

Welcome to Greece...!! The last country on my European Tour...

The rest of the ride to the border was rather boring as you can imagine… It took me twice as long as I had planned, because the Bulgarian traffic authorities had decided to forego church services and were out on the road in almost every town I passed through…

"You have got to be kidding me...!!" I wondered how the heck I was going to find my way around...!! Luckily the Greeks have seen fit to duplicate their signs in English...!!

Entering Greece was a breeze… The authorities there just waved me through, not even bothering to ask for my passport…

Although the first few kilometres were made on a new highway, it was plain to see that the country had fallen on hard times…

All work on the road had come to a stop, and the areas that had been prepared for the new road, had weeds growing on them… The construction equipment stood abandoned on the roadside, and looked as though the various bits of machinery had not been moved in a long time… The economic crisis that has plagued Greece in recent months had spread to almost every sector of the economy…

With not a traffic cop in sight, I picked up the pace, and at Serres, turned off the main road and rode through the countryside… I passed the first large scale Pomegranate farm that I had ever seen, as well as hundreds of other smallholdings that were planted with Olive Trees…

The road was narrow, and the surface slippery in places, but this early on a Sunday morning, there was barely any traffic to impede our progress…

"Excuse me...!!! We are getting a bit thirsty down here...!!" This was only the ninth time the Big Fella had exceeded 400 km on a single tank, since we set out over 7 months ago...

I was running low on fuel, and at Argyroupoli, was forced to stop and refuel… My second problem of the morning came about just as I snapped the fuel tank cover shut, and handed the attendant my Maestro card…

“No cards…” he said in broken English, “only Euro…!!”

I guess that this is one of the little problems you have to face from time to time, when you choose the less traveled roads over the main ones…

“I have no Euro…!! Is there an ATM in this village…?” I asked…

“No ATM here…!! ATM in Drama….That way…!!” he said, pointing down the road…

The amazing thing was that he was quite prepared to let me ride away and return later with the cash…!! €31.00 (almost R300.00) is a sizeable amount to entrust to a complete stranger, and I waited for him to ask me to leave something of value with him while I was away, but he did not…

I asked if he would accept US Dollars in payment, and after consulting with his boss, they agreed to this… I paid them a bit more than the going rate and rode the last 20 km into the town of Drama, arriving there at exactly the time I had told my cousin I would… This despite the hassles I had been through on my way there…

I had not seen Dennis in almost 30 years, and would not have recognized him had he not been waiting on the pavement outside his apartment when I arrived… Not surprising, I guess…!! Thirty years is a long time in anybody’s language…!!

My cousin Dennis, who I have not seen in almost 30 years...

The Gates of Napolis near the ruins of Philippi...

Archway through which entry to the theatre is gained...

After meeting his wife Aristea and daughter Maria, we went for a drive up to one of the highest points surrounding the town. Marble has been mined here for decades, and it is said that most of the marble that is to be seen in Mecca today, comes from these very mountains that surround Drama…

Dennis then took me down to the coastal town of Kavala. On the way we stopped at the ruins of Philippi, the ancient town which was built by the Macedonian King, Philip II, father of Alexander the Great… We strolled around the ruins, and visited the Greek Theatre built in 356 BC, which is still used today for concerts and the like…

In Kavala, we stopped at the little harbour to have coffee and reminisce about our much younger days, when we lived barely a kilometre apart… Long, long ago, and far, far away…

The seaside town of Kavala...

The Roman Aquaduct that runs through Kavala...

This beautiful schooner was moored in the Kavala Harbour...

Aristea and Dennis on Omolofous Beach...

With the light beginning to fade, we drove out to what in the summer time is a popular beach, and walked down to the water’s edge.

On the way back to Drama, Dennis took us through the countryside, where we passed many vineyards, their fruit still hanging on the vines…

The temptation to taste the grapes was too big to ignore, so we got Dennis to stop, while Aristea and I climbed over a low wall and cut the biggest bunch we could find…!!

Dennis did not find our stunt very amusing, and worried that we would be caught and charged… Aristea and I on the other hand wanted to go back and cut as many bunches as the car could carry…!!

I can confirm that the old adage of “stolen fruit being the sweetest” is very true…!!

Even though we had not had any contact over the past three decades, I was settled into my cousin’s home and made comfortable in double quick time…His mother-in-law, who lives in the apartment below, cooked traditional Greeks meals for us, and the volume of food I managed to eat had me reeling…!!

In the evenings, Dennis copied a large amount of movies he has onto a hard drive, for me “to watch when I have nothing to do”… I am not entirely sure if I will get through them all by the time I get home, but at least I now have something to occupy those quiet times in boring hotel rooms…

I was not sure how long my stay in Drama with Dennis and Aristea would be, as I was getting information about dire weather conditions in Eastern Turkey, and also needed to get my visas sorted in Istanbul…

The rain followed me to Drama... View from the balcony of Dennis's apartment...

I could easily have spent more time relaxing in Drama, as the town has a laid back feel about it, and the hospitality shown me by Dennis and Aristea, was more than enough to keep me there for ages, but the open road was still calling, and after a few days and very late nights, it was time to head for Istanbul, and put Europe behind me…

Another birthday experience on the GBWT... This time it is Maria's 15th, in Drama, Greece...

©GBWT 2010