8 June 2022
After a long time in the hills, the landscape suddenly changed today.
To dead flat. And flat seems harder! You have to pedal all day…with no relief from the downhills. And flat also means roads can be (& generally are) built dead straight. Not only a bit tedious…but also cars travel much faster! So all in all not a great day’s cycling…with fairly ho hum scenery along the way. But we did find a route away from the main roads, so whilst cars were travelling faster…there were very few of them!
We had a classic coffee stop in a village en route. The guy spoke good English….and having come out with the coffees…and asked where we were from…he asked…”so what the fuck are you doing here then?”. Fair enough…it was a village which probably never sees tourists…but it was funny. And particularly so when I asked how long he had spent in the Uk (to learn colloquial english so well)…he replied he had learnt it all at school!!
And then when I went to pay…he refused anything. “On the house! We do not get visitors!!”. Classic guy!
And so on and on more flat straight roads to our planned overnight stop.
Now….interestingly…on booking.com, airbnb etc etc…there was a big black hole surrounding our intended stop at Farsala. Nothing. Not even a little bed on google maps. Weird really…for it is not a small town.
Encouraging as we approached…a big tourist sign.
All that history!! So…surely there will be somewhere to stay. And the town was really quite pleasant. But no. nothing. Nowhere. Strange indeed.
Except…a big wedding venue 5km or so out of town. And yes…we could stay there! But at an absurd cost…for a very second rate and tired mismash of a place. You have to love the kitchen tap on the basin…which missed it altogether! And when it did manage to hit it..the trap leaked anyway! The joys…..!
So we had to – for the first time – cycle in to town for beers and food.
A barebecue restaurant had been well recommended…but it turned out to be just a burger place! Not too bad though….but odd that all menu heading were in English…in a town where visitors are evidently completely unwelcome!!
Good chat with one keen local though…and we ended up having too many beers to make up for the strange looks we generally received from everyone else!
And to cap it all…we were chased by a pack of four dogs on the way back to our hotel…in the dark!! We had had enough beers for it to be funny…but…..!! Not a place to rush back to!!!
