The Curmudgeonly Traveller

  Ioannina – Thessaloniki – 11 th June 2023 We get a taxi to the bus station because it’s hot and our bags are heavy. It’s a three-and-a-half-hour journey through the mountains along the behemoth of a motorway which links Istanbul and Brindisi and which near-bankrupted Greece. The scenery is beautiful as we cross the Pindus mountains, but as we get into Macedonia it becomes flatter and less interesting. The only reason we’re going to Thessaloniki is because it has an international airport and I hate doubling back. I was last here in 1986, failed to hitch to where my friends were on an archaeological dig, and spent a night in a youth hostel. I might have seen a round castle-thing. First impressions? It’s not a pretty city. We get a taxi to our Airbnb which is in the centre, a first-floor apartment in a building described on the website as ‘neoclassical.’ The host, Poloma, works in tourism and it shows. There’s a tiny balcony on which to smoke with a view of the yard. It’s okay....

Gjirokaster-Ioannina – 8 th June 2023 As we’re in the area, we’re now going to Northern Greece, which I can almost see from Ali’s balcony. Most people would return to Saranda, then Corfu, then a ferry to Igoumenitsa, then a bus to Ioannina, but I hate doubling back and why go the long way around? What could go wrong? Ali kindly did some research and the buses to Ioannina are going at six in the morning or nine at night, neither of which are ideal and so, after another huge breakfast, he kindly arranges a taxi on our behalf for a very reasonable 2000 lek (£17). This is to get to the border, 30km away. I was expecting huge queues of Albanian lorries, trucks full of migrants etc. but are just four cars. We walk through the barrier for foot passengers, have our passports stamped by a smiling official and engage in a conversation with a customs guy, who speaks very good English, and who is lovely, because every Albanian we’ve met here is lovely. ‘You’ve just got clothes in your bags,...

Saranda-Gjirokaster – 6 th June 2023 Information on when and where Albanian buses leave from is non-existent. There’s no bus station as such in Saranda, Rome2Rio suggests times that some traveller posted years ago and there are no online timetables. Basically, you show up and ask. A bus might turn up when it feels like it, waits until it’s full and then sets off. We get to the main square where buses are rumoured to leave at 11:00am and I’m told a bus to Gjirokaster will come at 12:30pm. So, we go for a coffee or three. The bus does come at vaguely the right time, but it’s already full. We’re told to wait and another comes half an hour later and we fight to get a seat. Our suicidal driver drives us over a mountain pass in the Albanian style - 70mph or as fast as the poor 30-year-old vehicle can manage, overtaking on bends with sheer drops, right hand and ear on a mobile, left hand on a ciggie. There are some beautiful views of waterfalls within valleys. All information I’ve gl...

Corfu-Saranda 4 th June 2023 In my haste to get Mrs Mad’s humungous suitcase down the stairs I zip it up too quickly and slash my arm on a loose bit of metal. There’s blood everywhere. Luckily, we find some bandages in a first aid kit. It’s a superficial wound but it’s not a good look. One reason for choosing the Airbnb was that it’s a 600m 8-minute walk to the harbour, but that’s just one side of the harbour, not the bit where the boats go from. That’s another kilometre away and it’s burning hot. The Ferry Terminal is rubbish. There’s one tiny snack bar and nothing that says when the ferries are going, or what we should be doing. Some people are queuing, but we’re over an hour early as that’s when they told us to come, and I don’t know which boat they’re queuing for. I ask a lady at the information counter who has absolutely no interest in helping tourists. I then ask a friendly woman at a car rental and she tells me that yes, this is the queue we should be in. They check our...