Day 19-20: Istanbul

There is only one word to describe Istanbul - CRAAAZY. It really is one crazy Euro-Asian town, with crazy traffic, crazy people and oh well, also crazy prices. When you get there, the heat and humidity hits you straight in your face and even a short walk uphill is a huge effort requiring regular stopovers about every 10 min.

We spent most of our time exploring the streets of the Sultanahmet district, the great bazaar and we also made a short trip to Asia, where we wandered along the streets around the Taksim square. We stuffed ourselves with as many different Turkish dishes as possible and made a conclusion that we're definitely coming back again.

Istanbul's cheapest durum

Inside of Agia Sophia


The crazy streets of Istanbul

The Galata bridge connecting Europe with Asia

They came all the way from the UK

Day 14 - 18: Greece

We started our journey across Greece in Zagoria villages in the north, where we visted two remote villages in the middle of Pindus mountain range and did a short trek up to the Dragon Lake. After this we decided to chill out on one of the best wind-surfing spots in Europe, Lefkada, but this time just as tourists. After spending a night in a »very top-spot price« camp we continued our journey with a two-day stroll through the Peloponnese, where we visited all the touristy must-sees including Ancient olympia, Epidavros and Corinth. After roasting in Athens we had to cool ourselves in the turquise waters of Haldikiki peninsula and then headed towards Asia.

The Dragon Lake in the Pindus Mountains

The village of Micro Papingo

Attacked by a gang of horses

Lefkada

The Greek coast

Coming to Peloponnese

Ancient Olympia

On our way to Sparta

Very little is left of ancient Sparta

Trying Greek desserts in Neapolis

Epidavros

The Lion gate, Mycenae

Corinth

Day 11-13: Albania

When people heard we were going to Albania they were telling us that we were going to get mugged, that our car was going to get stolen or at least broken by someone/something (i.e. potholes) and that we should be extra careful about everything.

Seriously, they made us really terrified, but in the end everything turned out ok. The people were nice (we got a coffee invitation from a car in the middle of the motorway), the roads a bit less, therefore we decided to spare our Ferdo a couple more kilometres on the Albanian roads and we didn't visit Korçe, but drove straight to Greece from Gjirokastra, which we visited after Vlore, Apollonia and Tirane.

Tirane

A little tortoise at the Apollonia ruins

Apollonia

Berat

Gjirokaster

Around Vlore