2/1-4/1
We left the sunny beach and drove across cold mountains to Ioanninia. We found a place to park close to the town and went for a ride with our bikes. Ioannina is located at a big lake and I’m sure it’s nice in the summer, but now it was quite cold. We walked around in the center for a while, had some food and then went back to Snigel. It was spa time! There was a big hotel just outside the center that had a small Spa with sauna and pool and that sounded really tempting. We stayed there for a few hours and came back to Snigel very clean and warm.
When we woke up at the hotel parking the day after it was SNOW outside! What?!?! Quick decision: try to find the MPPT charger and head south again, to Patras. We had seen a solar equipment shop on the map so we went there to see if they had the charger we wanted. He didn’t, but he was very helpful and called a lot of places to see if they had one. In the end he found a shop in Patras that had one in stock.
We had heard that the motorway in Greece are very expensive with a camper but we decided to take it anyway, we didn’t want to end up on small roads covered in snow.
When we came to Patras the snow was long gone and it was raining instead. We found a parking in the harbour next to a tivoli that looked deserted, later in the afternoon we noticed it was not… there were actually quite a lot of people there when they opened up again. We went to the shop that had the charger and left the store very happy!
Patras is the third largest city in Greece and a very nice place, we really enjoyed walking around in the center.
When we woke up in the morning it was still raining. We really want to see more of Greece but now doesn’t feel like the right season to do it, so instead we went and bought tickets for the ferry to Bari, Italy. Mike had to park in a tiny space on the ferry but managed without any scratches. Well done!
We had a beer at the bar and watched a lot of series on the iPad to kill some time. It was a 16,5 hours journey and we didn’t book a cabin. Instead we brought blankets and our inflatable sofas to sleep on. It was very difficult to get the air in the sofa in such a small space and I tried to run along the corridor to inflate it. It didn’t turn out perfectly and instead we ended up sleeping in pullman seats which was ok but we didn’t have the best sleep ever.
5/1-6/1
What is happening?? When we arrived in Bari there was snow on the ground but sunny and it felt like a good winter’s day in Sweden. Luckily the snow disappeared after a few kilometers and when we came down to the beach where we parked for the night it was only the sun left.
The day after, Mike installed the MPPT charger and it works perfect!
7/1-9/1
We continued along the coastal road and after a nights sleep in a small village we came to a very nice beach. We were supposed to stay at a campsite but it was closed, when we drove back towards the main road we saw a perfect spot to park for a few nights and celebrate Mike’s birthday
We went for a walk along the beach and then had tapas in the sun. We had a few beers and played games.
At midnight we blew up the balloons and started the real birthday party and stayed up late having fun! We had the most disgusting bubbles ever. We thought it was a rosé Cava, but it just tasted like horrible artificial strawberry bubbles…We pretended that it was good and had some toasts anyway.
Happy Birthday my love!
When we woke up the day after I had made a treasure hunt for Mike. The first clue led him to where he usually sits and when he found the last one he had an idea of what the present might be. After reading all the clues again, he was sure, it was a Hangdrum! Mike has wanted one of these for a very long time but they are difficult to get hold of. Last summer we met a guy in Gothenburg, where we live, that makes them. Now there is an order placed and Mike’s very own Hangdrum will be ready for him when we get back in spring.
Here is a guy that plays the Hangdrum
We weren’t really supposed to have the party yesterday and the beers that we had bought were all gone. We waited until the stores opened again and took our bikes in to town to buy more. It’s amazing how many you can fit in our bags! The plan was to make a BBQ but it was quite windy so we tried to find an open restaurant on the way back from the store. We ended up at a weird pizzeria that was trying to look a bit like a club, it didn’t work… It was only us there and they took good care of us. Maybe not the first place that comes in mind for a birthday dinner, but what can you do… 🙂
With full bellies and more beer we went back to Snigel and had one more birthday party!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND! I LOVE YOU!
10/1-11/1
We drove to Villa San Giovanni where we took the ferry over to Sicily. We thought we bought tickets to go to Messina, but after a while we realised we got tickets for Taormina which is a bit more south. For us it didn’t matter, we were just happy we ended up on the right island:-)
In Sicily there are a lot more campers than in any of the countries we’ve been so far. The roads are not so good, with potholes and just very bumpy and they drive very hectic here.
In Giardini-Naxos we found a camper parking called Aurora where we stayed for two nights. The view from the parking was great and we could see the vulcano Etna from there. A Swedish couple and a Swiss guy that stayed there told us they had seen lava coming from Etna just a few weeks before. We didn’t see any lava but we could see smoke coming from the opening and when the sun set it looked almost like lava coming out.
We went for a walk to the beach and then had a BBQ in the evening.
12/1-14/1
Our plans have changed again… Mike’s brother is coming to visit us! In Malta! We found out that we can take a ferry from Catania to Valletta in Malta. So our next mission is to find the place to buy the tickets. We came to the harbour of Catania and followed the signs where it stood Grimaldi lines. We ended up at the end of the harbour but didn’t find a ticket office. We went back and asked some guards and they pointed forward, when we came to the next guard he told us this was the wrong way and we had to turn back. The first guard now told us to drive on the outside of the harbour and follow it until a big roundabout and turn left in that one. We did, and eventually we found the ticket office that of course was closed and would open again in a few hours. We had an espresso and some biscuits and waited. When I asked the lady behind the counter about the tickets she told me we couldn’t buy the tickets there, it was only for commercial trucks. We had to take the fast ferry from Pozzallo if we wanted to go to Malta. My Italian is as good as her English was and after a few Google translates she told me that maybe we could book the tickets from Catania to Malta on their website but she wasn’t sure. We didn’t feel like taking the risk and book tickets for a ferry we didn’t know if we could go with, so instead we started to drive towards Pozzallo.
It was already late in the afternoon and when we saw an IKEA we thought it looked like the best place to park for the night. We went inside and bought some new towels that we needed and had dinner at the restaurant. It looked very familiar but not really the same as in Sweden. There were not many people eating but a lot of people having coffee at the espresso bar! I was hoping to find some salt liquorice at the Swedish market but they didn’t have any. They did have lösgodis (Swedish sweets), IKEA beer and chips so we got that a enjoyed it in Snigel.
Mission completed! When we arrived at the Virtu Ferries office in Pozzallo it was closed. It said on a note on the door that the office at the harbour would be open two hours before departure so we went there to wait for it to open.
We had no idea if we would be able to get tickets for the ferry that day. If it was full we would have to wait for two days because the next day it was cancelled due to a storm coming in. I went to the ticket counter, he filled in everything and prepared the tickets and I thought we were actually buying them. But no, when he had finished everything he told us that we had to wait and see if there was room for us. We sat in Snigel and waited until 15 minutes before departure time, then one guy came and told us we could go. I ran to the counte to pay, then ran back to Mike and we drove to the ferry. I think we were very lucky to get the tickets because it was totally full at the car-deck after everyone had come aboard. It took about 2,5 hours to go to Valletta. When we arrived it was dark, raining and left hand traffic… We took a few wrong turns but eventually found a good parking for the night at a marina.
Now it’s very windy and rainy here, but tomorrow it’s supposed to be sunshine so we’re waiting with the sight seeing until the sun comes out. Really looking forward to see the capital of Malta tomorrow.
