Day 13 - Ioannina

This city of Ioannina has about 60,000 people and about 120,000 cars, by my count. Most of them are parked. The internet cafes here are huge and cheap, with spanking-new computers with great big screens so everybody can play their favorite shoot-em-up games. It's the fastest connection I've had, and just about the cheapest price. Go figure.

Anyway, yesterday after I blogged, I discovered I had a few hours before the next bus to Ioannina. (The 13:30 bus listed on the website did not exist, so I had to wait until 15:30). I started walking around town and stumbled across a barbershop. I needed a haircut.



Those are the two barbers. Brothers, I believe. They gave me their address and made me promise to mail them the picture. (I doubt they have email.)

Then came lunch. Greek salada, frites, and Mythos "Hellanic lager" (Since 1997!).



That's a big slab of feta cheese on a pile of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and olives, all slathered in olive oil. Pretty tasty.

So then a bus ride through the mountains to Ioannina, where I set about renting a car. All the companies were together on one street, but half of them were closed (it was 18:30, after all). One of the open ones didn't have an automatic, but knew that the Hertz at the airport did. So I talked with Hertz on the phone (55 euros/day), took a taxi to the airport, and was on my way. One drive on the highway and mountain roads as the sun set later, I was at the town of Monodendri.

This morning, after breakfast (hard-boiled egg, bread, coffee), I was hiking. If you haven't gotten enough of precariously-perched monasteries, here's another:



This is the Vikos Gorge, which at its best is deeper than it is wide (just over a klick deep and just under a klick from rim to rim). The trail dives down into the canyon, follows the river down (but the trail does a lot of up and down, actually), and then you can take the trail up to the town of Vikos, back on the rim. At a guess, I'd say that it's about 8 miles with 2000' gain and 3000' loss, Monodendri to Vikos (switch the gain and loss for the opposite direction).



Some parts of the trail were like walking in a park, a lot of the trail was on paving stones (uneven), some parts were scrambling hand over foot, and in one place there was a metal staircase to get down a ten-foot cliff.



They said that it would take six hours to get from Monodendri to the town of Vikos. I thus assumed that I could do it in three hours. I was right. Here's the final hill.



I see that someone has already looked at these photos on Flickr! Whoever you are, fess up. (-;

Here's a shot of Vikos's main square. That's the church.



Unlike most of Greece, which have white stucco walls and red tile roofs, the mountain towns have plain stone walls and stone roofs, with framing of wood or concrete.

I was able to get a modest lunch (and two 1.5-liter bottles of water) at the cafe, even though they had to open it for me. The taverna wouldn't be open until 14:00 (I arrived at noon). I had thought that it was nicer to be somewhere where the locals didn't speak English. I should rephrase that: It's nicer to be somewhere where the locals only speak a little English. I had quite a bit of communication difficulties talking to the townspeople (my few pages of phrases got a workout!).

Here's a picture of the only wildlife that sat still for a photo (black squirrels and little birds didn't).



Halfway back to Monodendri, it started drizzling, but only enough to get all the stones wet. After all that hiking, up and down along the gorge, I let out a cry of joy when I realized I was at the bottom of the final big hill and thus wouldn't have to do any more of that annoying up and down! But that hill was a bugger. Even *I* was dragging on that guy, taking rest breaks every switchback it seemed. But I made it. Three hours to Vikos (including a couple dead-ends trying to get to another town of Papingo), one hour for lunch, and three hours back.

I ate a huge dinner, sitting on the taverna's patio so my stench didn't disturb the other patrons. Had a shower, laid down for a while, and then drove back to Ioannina just to say Hi to y'all. Hi.