Our first ride came easily, we asked everyone on the ferry from Corfu to the mainland. I, unfortunately, hadn't been learning Greek conducive to hitching so I wasn't much help here (though I was the only one who could read signs and such for us). Eventually Jess managed, with her little knowledge of German, to get a conversation with a lady who was willing to give us all a ride. When the ferry landed she pulled over to us in her beat up white Caddy and shoved our packs in her trunk. We couldn't really talk to her because of the language barrier, but she was taking us inland a ways. What I remember most about that ride is that there were very long tunnels in Greece and the mountains looked so big to me. The ride only lasted an hour before she dropped us off outside of some town. I'd have to look at a map to remember which. We made an Athens sign there out of some cardboard we found in a dumpster. All four of us stood on the side of the highway with our thumbs out for no more than 20 minutes when a little itty bitty Yaris type car with Albanian plates pulled over. I hadn't realized it yet at this point, but I'd learn to love Albanians. The guy got out without a word, opened his hatchback trunk, rearranged some stuff, got back in, and waited with the trunk still open. We walked up to his rolled down windows and he just gestured to us. It was enough. We could only fit one pack in the trunk. Jake sat shotgun and we other three sat in the back, packs in lap, squished into the small car. Again, in this ride, we all experienced the craziness that is driving in Greece as we sped down the highway and around almost every other car. Most of the drive was coastal and it was beautiful. Bridges, tunnels, eveything. I remember seeing some gorges that made my jaw drop and my eyes water with their beauty. For the whole 6 hour drive our Albanian friend said nothing to us. Not one word. 5 hours into the drive he stopped at a bus station next to a waterpark. We all stretched our legs and he had us take the one pack out of the trunk so he could get to some of his stuff. Underneath was a black duffel bag of what looked like some yellow grass and two gallon jugs of an off green liquid. He took these over to the front of the bus stop, no one was there, and put them down outside. Just sat them there right on the sidewalk in front of the station. And walked away wiithout looking back. Then we left. That was it, still said nothing, we just left. Me and my friends had no idea what that stuff was and why he put it there. To this day I still have no idea, but it had the sketchiness of something illegal about it. An hour later he had driven us to the center of Athens. He just stopped there and we got out to go on our merry way.
It was dark when we got into Athens and all we had was the address to this guys house. I'd never Couchsurfed before this, but I wasn't nervous at all. We made our way to his house via subway. I made note of how amazing the graffiti was. When we got there we walked up to his third story apartment. And peering in it was something like you'd expect a Victorian mansion to look like inside. Silver spoons, fine china, and all sorts of ornate things decorating the place. He was very nice and very accommodating. It was a great first experience with couchsurfing. We spent a little while in Athens and I won't bore you with the touristy stuff. Yes, we saw the Parthenon and, yes, it was incredible. There was so much old stuff it was unreal though. I was surprised at how dirty the city was, and the unlimited amount of feral cats. Seriously, they were everywhere. We saw the protestors and Athens is where I first found souvlaki, where I truly and utterly fell in love with Greek food. We switched couchsurfer hosts once and stayed more in the center of town for a bit with a middle eastern college student who spoke little English. But one of my favorite memories was with our first host. He took us to this bar. We walked there through winding paths and back alleys. Stopping to see friends he worked with at the radio station along the way, then to see some more at another bar. We were walking past all this world class graffiti in the dark when he took a left into a dark looking building and went through this kind of tunnel. We followed him and came out into a huge courtyard, tiered around the edges, with a huge tree in the middle of it. The ground was covered in gravel and there were low tables with candles sitting everywhere up on the tiers and the bar around the base of the tree. There were lights dangling from the and I swear it was one of the coolest places I've ever been. It felt like walking into something you can only describe as where you'd believe elves live. Someplace extremely majestic and magical. The drinks were good and we had a strange desert that I can't explain, but it was called silver submarine or something. A type of vanilla clay stuck to a spoon in a glass of water. I kind of hope one day I make it back to that place.
Eventually we left Athens. It was a journey getting out of town on the public bus with Jake, Jess, and Georgie relying on me to read the schedule since I was the only one who knew the Green alphabet well. We made it though, rooted through some trash on the way, and made a sign for Thessaloniki. We decided to split up then and meet in Thessaloniki that night. Jake and Jess went together which left me with Georgie. Jake and Jess made it there no problem. Georgie and I got caught up in a small town and took the night train in later. A kind old man gave me and Georgie some cheese and candy there. I tried to offer him some of my grahm crackers, but he didn't like them. We spent a few days couchsurfing in Thessaloniki, mostly eating Souvlaki and just hanging out with each other. Enjoying the different culture. It was fun, it was nice. And then we turned our sights towards Turkey. Hungry for something new. I do wish that I'd gone to more islands while in Greece, but Jake and Jess wanted to make it back to England for christmas and had invited me to join them. And there were many other places to see along the way. Besides, unbeknownst to me, the day I left Thessalonikki was going to be the best day of my life. It was going to inspire so much faith in humainity within me that I'd never forget it. It was going to truly break me of that rigid and structured life I'd known before all of this. It was the day that I would fall in love with hitchhiking and the free spirit I'd been kindling would take flight.
Be happy y'all,
Beacon
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