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A Visa run with a twist. High jinks in ThraceOn a mission... I had an interesting week or so when everybody was on their Bayram holidays. My camper van was impounded by the Turkish customs in Edirne last year and I was told that I couldn't bring it into the country again without leaving Turkey myself for 6 months, hardly practical at the moment. The longer I left it the more it was going to cost me so after it had been there for 2 months I decided that I better go and fetch it. The only solution I could come up with was to try and find somewhere to leave it outside Turkey and Bulgaria and Greece were the only realistic options. So, one night, the Wednesday before my birthday I think (I'm 30 now and find it a good age) I hopped on a bus for Edirne with a big empty bag (to bring back things from the van), a footpump (because I knew the tires would be flat) and as much money as I could raise. I got talking to a student from Edirne on the bus and he very kindly offered me somewhere to sleep for the night. His mother met us from the bus and took us for lentil soup at a little lokanta at 6:00 in the morning. I managed to sleep until 11:00 and then my friend drove me off to talk to the customs guys. Extraction... It was a Bayram day so I wasn't sure they were going to help me out but we managed to get the car released from the compound (it was actually much quicker getting it back than it was having it taken and I think that's because most of the people who usually sign papers and stamp them and write things in books and send you from one office to another just weren't there. I was delighted to find out that had I arrived 3 days earlier the car would have cost me $100 dollars to get back but the extra week had cost me an extra $350. The costing structure had not been properly explained to me when the car was taken. Never mind, I had just about enough money with me. So, by about 3:00pm on Thursday afternoon I was out of Turkey and into Bulgaria. The trail of lies that I had left behind me meant that whatever happened next there was no way I was going to be able to cross the same border on the way back. Where to now... Bulgaria didn't feel like a great place to leave anything so that meant I had to head south for about 30kms and into Greece. It was very nice to be driving again. Ever since I bought the van I've kept one cassette in there at all times, The best of Credence Clearwater Revival. When I left the car with Simon and Alan in London I considered gluing the tape into the player but I'm glad I didn't because the deck only plays in one direction now and I would have lost half the tape. When I picked the car up in the summer the tape was still in it so I knew that it was, I don't know, the 'soul' of the vehicle. It just seemed like that to me (you know how I am about cars). When they took the car away from me last November I was furious, it was the first time that anybody had been able to take something from me in a way that left me powerless to intervene and I promised myself that I would pick the car up before the 3 months limit was up and ownership was transferred to the government. I took the tape out of the deck and it was one of the few things I brought back from the van. But, as I was saying, I was enjoying the drive. It was bloody cold (about -2 I think) but I'd made it past the first hurdle. I'd handed out mandarin oranges to every customs official I'd met and apart from one Bulgarian guy who shouted at me and ran out his booth to be cross it seemed to have worked. I was in Greece before it got dark. The Greek customs officials were very curious as to why I'd come through Bulgaria rather than straight into Greece but I just told them the truth and relied on their antipathy to things Turkish to help me out. Aegean bound... After the tension of the van retrieval and border crossings it occurred to me that, although I still has a couple of oranges, my Credence tape and 2 sleeping bags (well you never know), I lacked a plan. I was in Greece but had no idea where to go. I looked at the map and figured that I might as well head south for Alexandropolis, Greece's Easternmost Aegean Port. It looked like a big enough city to find someone who would be my friend. By the time I reached this decision I was 80km into Greece and the sea was about 2 hours away. It was about 5:30:pm, dark and fairly chilly but I was driving and I didn't mind. The car was going well and the roads were empty, little Greek villages were rumbling by and I stopped in a couple to try and call Ludo and let him know how I was getting on. It's an interesting, but not entirely surprising, fact that you cannot phone Turkey direct from Greece, I couldn't anyway. Every time I tried I just got a busy signal and I find it hard to believe that the line(s) gets used that much. I gave up the telephoning and figured I find a way of contacting him later on when I got to Alexandropolis. At about 6:00 I rolled into a little town, I later found out that it was called Didymotico, but the alphabet was well beyond me at that point and the name didn't seem important. As I came into the center of town I had to doubletake. There, with black windows and neon tubey signs, was an Internet Cafe. Hackers, as the place is called was the way I could make contact with Ludo. I parked up and strolled in, sat down at a machine and called up an old ZDNet mail account that I hadn't used since the summer. It was still working so away I went. A quick mail to Ludo, check the stats for the sites, a beer and I'm back on the road. Feeling particularly clever and pleased with myself I headed out of town, already trying to work out what I was going to do when I reached Alex. 10km out of town the car died. Oh shit... Cold, dark, no money, no torch. I figured my best bet was to start walking back to that town I'd stopped in. Not in the most cheerful frame of mind I left the van and started walking. I got a lift fairly quickly, from an off duty policeman who I'm sure picked me up to check me out. He asked me if I had my passport and I discovered that in my dejection I had left it (and some other things) in the van, which, of course, I hadn't bothered locking. Never mind, too late to turn back now. Back to Hackers and I started talking. Some guy, who I think was called Alex, assured me that he knew an excellent mechanic who would fix the van in 10 minutes no matter what was wrong with it. I arranged to meet them the next morning at 8:00am and slunk off to a cheap hotel, having emailed Ludo again (no reply yet). Woke up at 7:45 and ran to the rendezvous. Freezing my tits off for 45 minutes but nobody showed. So, back to square one I figured that I better find a mechanic myself. Oh big shit... I started walking out of town in the direction of the van and came across a petrol station, the guy there started phoning around for me in search of a mechanic but drew a blank (it was still only 9:00am). He bundled me into a taxi and off I went to the forecourt of workshop on the outskirts of a little village 3 km down the road. The taxi driver left me where I was and I started looking for a mechanic. The place was locked up and the house next door was equally deserted so, after about half an hour of shivering, I started walking again. I got a lift back to the van, and reconsidered my situation, I'd had enough of that little town by that time so I figured I could head in the other direction. No lift this time but after about 30 minutes I came across another petrol station and stumbled my way (getting away with a surprisingly high amount of Turkish) through the process of trying to rustle up a mechanic. An hour later we had a result. I grabbed the tow rope from the van, we turned it around and 2 scary looking guys in a black diesel golf started pulling the van back towards Bulgaria. One step forward... Back in the town again for about midday. The car is in the garage and I'm off to get some lunch. I can't resist dropping into the Internet Cafe and mailing my latest news. Still no answer so I figure Ludo isn't checking the mail. I phone my parents in England and they phone Ludo and suggest that he has a look. Turns out that the pets had been fighting under the desk and messed up some cables. I get to talking again, this time to a bloke called George, he runs a gym in town and seems very friendly and keen to help. He asks what I do and I show him some of the sites, what am I doing in Greece ? Where am I going? I'm still a little cagey after the border stuff but he's a nice guy so I talk to him. He knows the garage guys and drives me down there to have a chat with them. Still no solution to the van, we think it's electrical but they haven't sorted it yet. We get to talking about the big problem, what am I going to do with the van. George suggests that we talk to the police. Not something that comes naturally to me after the last few years but he's a sensible guy and after a little hesitation I agree. George goes off to work and I arrange to phone him at 7:00, if the car is fixed, and we'll go to the police station. Things are looking up... I pick the car up about 3:00, no major problems, 40 quid including the tow and I've got wheels again. This is good. I'm tempted just to hit the road but I figure that I'll hang out for George anyway. He's been really nice and I'd like to say goodbye at least. Something quite pleasant is happening. I've been wandering around this little town for less than 24 hours but I know people. Half a dozen faces that I recognise greet me as I walk down the pedestrianised high street. I check out some side streets and get a bit of a feel for the place. The dominant feature is a castle, set on a promontory above the town with a useful sized river skirting the edges of the rock. An Orthodox Church and a mosque dominate the centre of town and the very few old houses that remain remind me of Ottoman buildings I have seen. The castle looks Byzantine and I start to think about Thrace, the machinations of Robert de Guiscard come to mind and I wonder a little about what this place has seen. Did the Emperor's Varangian Guards, Anglo-Saxon mercenaries who wielded terrifying double bladed battle-axes and accompanied the semi-divine into battle, pass this way? Whatever, by the end of the afternoon I'm quite happy to talk to the police, maybe the car chose where it wanted to be, best not to argue with such things. Insert.... Message from Ludo
>Welcome online ZORBA, >Mission : >Eat pork, get drunk on retsina,dance sirtaki in a good taverna, break as >much plates as possible, meet one of the Ulysse maimaid, find the big nose >of Rastapopoulos. >I prepare our busy upcoming week. >"Take care of you and don't make things Icould be shamy of." copyright Lude. >Iwill stay online to follow the upcomming adventures of MC Mandrake in the >country where even the philosophers are gays.mmmmmmmmm... >Cheers mate, >Lude I send some more mail from Hackers but they won't let me pay for anything now which I'm finding a little awkward. 7:00 rolls by and I call George, he picks me up and off we go. The Greek Police Dismesseth us.. I'm not optimistic, George is chatting away with the police and I'm not sure this was a good idea. At last, a result. We can't leave the car (when did the we arrive?) with the police because they don't want to be responsible for it. They suggest the Hotel Plotini, across the river on the outskirts of town. It has an underground car park and maybe, if we talk to the owner, we can leave it there. Half an hour later and it's sorted. George and I settle the van down in the warm, dry, secure hotel Plotini carpark and he goes off to work. We agree to meet up later to attempt to fulfill Ludo's instructions. This is great, I only have to get back to Turkey now (why do I have to go back?) and everything is taken care of. ...Stay tuned for the next instalment. Jo Ryall | ||