Things don't always go according to plan
and would be mad that we thought we could drive around the world without any problems.
But today we've encountered our first problem,
Good morning!
We have woken up and we've actually got our own private Terrace.
It's one of the few times that we've ever had to come out of our van
without stepping!
We're parked up next to the tourist information office here in Edessa,
where we've spent the last couple of days,
and it's we've had a fab time!
The town is absolutely lovely, we found some seriously good food!
We have struggled uploading videos,
because we were unable to buy data,
and we're parked so close to the tourist office,
because they gave us their Wi-Fi code,
but uploading a couple of Gb video,
it's just not going to happen!
Yes, it's been a little bit, difficult so we we're trying to find cafes and things,
but today we are heading along the Greek coast - East
Just to the other side of Thessaloniki.
We think, and hopefully we can find some good internet signal there.
So yeah, onwards we go.
One thing when you're driving round the Edessa,
is that it is all one-way roads!
And they don't seem to be in any logical pattern!
It does make it very hard to navigate and I won't lie,
we have taken a few wrong turns since we've been here.
The online maps struggles to keep up without a sim card in it.
There are just so many fruit trees by the side of the road as we're driving through.
A lot of the fruit trees have actually blossomed, which means spring is coming.
So one of the great things they have, is they have these flashing orange lights,
which indicate to you, that the main traffic light is about to go red.
I think that's really good, stops you going through a red lights!
It's actually good, because if you're approaching a traffic light, it just lets
you know if it's green ... it's about to change!
We normally try to avoid tolls,
but today we have got a little toll here in Greece!
The map is set to avoid tolls, but maybe there's no way of avoiding it !
but I don't think it's particularly expensive anyway.
so here you go!
I like those kind of tolls,
it was only 50 cents!
and just on the outskirts here of Thessaloniki.
Which is a popular holiday destination from the UK,
so I know the name, but I've never been here before.
So we've decided to head to the coast,
and we're going to go towards a town called Stavros.
And see if we can find a cafe or a restaurant or a bar or
something that we can tap into into their Wi-Fi.
So we've arrived in Stavros,
and it's market day!
Which is always nice.
So we're going to have a little walk around,
get a few bits of fruit and vegetables or something,
and then we're going try to find somewhere to park up, that has got Wi-Fi
that we can pick up from the van would be amazing.
The good thing about getting fresh fruit and vegetables from the market is you can actually pick it up,
it's not wrapped in plastic!
and I got all of this, for three euros and eighteen cents.
Delicious!
We've woken up in the town of Stavros here in Greece,
and Marianne has found a new friend!
Every time I stop stroking, he puts his paw on my leg !
You're a bit cute !
Are you beautiful ?
The thing driving around Greece and some of the other countries that we've been to,
is there's a lot of dogs,
back in the UK people would take stray dogs to a dog shelter,
that would be looked after and re-homed,
but here in Greece,
there are loads of dogs,
but they seem really well looked after, they are street smart,
They have had water and food put out for them, and they know, you see the
dog behind me, the cars reversing! the dog moves, he knows.
And when a dog comes from another neighbourhood, they all run together to tell it to leave.
There's loads of them, and they scare off the other dog!
They're not stupid because the cafe that you can see behind me,
they just hang out there and I'm sure that people sneak them a little bit of food,
because they're not looking malnourished at all.
They are all lovely!
But no! We're not having one!
So as we said before the sim card cost here in Greece is really quite expensive.
So the way around it, we try and find parking spaces near cafes, restaurants or somewhere where we can tap into their Wi-Fi.
So yesterday we had a coffee from the cafe that you can see behind me. We got the WiFi code,
and then we use a booster system, which we set up in the van.
It's quite straightforward,
You just plug it in, and then you put the receiver in the windscreen, or pointing to the direction of the cafe
and then you pick up their Wi-Fi.
It does mean that we have to park in town,
which sometimes could be a bit noisy, but yeah it's working great for short-stay here in Greece.
So we've got the the booster plugged in here,
here's the little modem,
and then we use these clips to put the wire up,
because the modem needs to be about a meter from the receiver,
and then we've got the receiver over there in the windscreen and the cafe behind,
and it's working perfectly.
There you go,
I am currently downloading something on Netflix!
There you go, and we've been watching YouTube videos,
and stuff like that, and it's been absolutely fine.
So we'll put a link in the description below of that product that we use.
Usually we buy SIM cards and we don't use it,
but in countries where it's either really expensive or we have problems getting SIMs, it's a very good solution, boosting the signal.
Yeah! Good job,
and another thing that makes me chuckle, we must be at a really safe neighbourhood!
because there's a car behind me, the man has just got out,
he's left the car engine running, the door is open, to go into the cafe.
It must be very safe to leave it there !!
how nice is that that?
You can just leave your car,
and go and buy a coffee
and come back and it's still there!!
There are many a Country or a City, where it wouldn't be!
So next to where we're staying is actually this beach,
I still can't believe the sun is shining down on us,
you must be sick of hearing us saying that every single video,
but it's true,
not photoshopped at all, it is a blue sky.
And today, we are going to head along the coastline,
all the way round that you can see behind us,
probably for about a hundred miles.
To another little port that has been recommended to us,
and one of the lovely dogs is following me over there
It's a really nice town Stavros,
We've only spent one night here,
But yeah, it's got a nice beach,
overlooked by the mountains over there,
and they must get a lot of people here swimming in the summer,
because they got a lifeguard station over there.
So nice to see all the guys fishing behind me.
Catching their lunch,
Okay time to head down the coast.
Did Marianne find a new friend while I was out?
You had a little cuddle and a bit of your cheese!
You've been eating my cheese ?
Oh we were not going to tell Chris that I gave you the cheese !!
Have you been eating my cheese !!
Tread the Globe cancels their trip because Marianne spends thousand of euros on cheese for dogs!!
she keeps feeding the dogs my lunch !!
I made Marianne say goodbye to her dogs in Stavros,
and now we're heading along the coast to a town called Port Lagos, there you go,
recommended to us by one of the guys in the tourist office in Edessa.
I wasn't planning to do a toll !!
Thank you
Ninety cents! It's not a bad toll, and the roads are brilliant !
yeah exactly
Trudy likes these roads!
Yeah I mean we're using Maps.me, and it is set to avoid tolls,
but maybe you can't avoid them? I'm not sure,
No I actually read online, that there are literally little tolls,
that can't be avoided but most of the main roads
which contributes and helps towards the upkeep of the roads,
and it is not really expensive - ninety cents it's not bad.
So as we're heading towards the Turkish border,
you can actually see there's six helicopters
that have just gone over us,
because obviously they're having problems on the Turkish / Greek border at the moment.
so yeah it's going to be an interesting week ahead I think.
it's lovely going along this coastline,
the water is amazing,
and there are loads of little Park ups and areas down there,
if you're ever heading down this way.
Really nice coastline up here, and it's very quiet,
and we're driving so slowly, we're driving the trucks mad!
But we're enjoying the view,
and slowing them down!
It is a bit of a bouncy road now!
Poor Trudy!
You don't really really go to fast down these roads, they're a little bit bumpy!
Right, we've arrived in Port Lagos,
and there is actually a cafe just over there,
and we're going to go and see if they've got internet,
and then hopefully we can get internet in the van again!
Yeah, it's the plan! so let's go check it out.
Okie dokie, we have just got back from the cafe,
just across the road there,
the Internet is working, we're plugged into our system hence the wires everywhere.
Breaking news from Tread the Globe!
We are currently parked in Porto Lagos here in northern Greece.
Things don't always go according to plan,
and we would be mad if we thought we could drive around the world without any problems,
but today we've encountered our first problem,
so we were talking to a gentleman in the cafe yesterday,
who works for the army.
And he's told us that the border with Turkey, is currently actually closed.
That's due to the Syrian refugee crisis.
The borders have been opened from the Turkish side, so they're all trying to
come in to Europe and the Greek authorities have closed the border, and
yesterday we did actually see quite a few army personnel and trucks heading down the road towards the border.
So if the border with Greece is closed,
we've got a couple of options we looked yesterday, to try and get a ferry from Greece to Turkey somehow,
but because of the Coronavirus they've also been cancelled.
So our only option at the moment, is to head up into Bulgaria and then try and
get to the Turkish border.
Obviously migrants if one borders closes, they're going to head to another.
So although Bulgaria / Turkey border looks open at the moment,
I wouldn't be surprised if it closes very soon.
So at today's Saturday we're going power house it's probably about
I don't know six or seven hours drive, with a border crossing,
round to the crossing in the far north of Turkey / Bulgaria
So yeah,
That's interesting,
not the best for our around the world drive,
but we were all on schedule, we were planning to edit a video today,
and Sunday is normally our work day, to write the newsletter and everything.
And then cross the border on Monday.
But now we have to drive.
So we're going to head off now, and fingers crossed we can get into Turkey as soon as possible.
Join us on the next episode, as we leave Greece head over the mountains into Bulgaria, and head towards Turkey