Pensionados and The Greek Duck (English)

Hi peopolous!
Just want to start with a bang; the other bang comes later in this newsflash: Greece is just a great country! Not just for the improved weather, the friendly people (although nothing compares to Pakistani hospitality) and to have an alternative to the everlasting kebab's (granted, we ate our best kebab ever in Gaziantep at Imam Cagdas). Greece is hospitable on its own natural way.

POWER TO THE PENSIONADOS!:
Since we've been touring away from Turkey our days we full of 1)amazing routes (especially south of Troy and Galipoli) and.. ..yes: 2)Pensionados!
It seems that the older - retired - generation is back to invade Turkey and Greece. Armed with stacked-full campers and a healthy ambition to enjoy the sites-to-see (maybe for the last time) they simply just occupy every campsite you come-across to. In effect, the meetings we had with our (Dutch) pensionados offered a great transition for us back to the civilized world.

Here we are, in our early thirties with fresh and awoken ambitions meeting a generation who has been through it all. And we must say: it's just very laid-back to spend some time with our pensionados. They often gained a lot of insights and by the years are endowed with quite a down-to-earth mentality about life and time left to spend.. ..and of course laden with a lot of opinion about our home-country, the Netherlands.

From Turkey to Greece, the great rides remained. In Greece: Mt Olympos at the top! Pensionados have increased in number, but with the quantity perhaps the quality subsides as well. Maybe it's just us, but the pensionados daring to go further out their country simply have more adventuruous spirit. Must confess that this is perhaps tainted by our random meetings, so perhaps it's just a thought not more than that.

DUCK A LA MAGINOT METEORA:
What was evidently needed after being cruising so many kilometres on a day is a little bit of rest. The need and sensibility for taking some rest introduced itself with a bang. When in Meteora, center of Greece I tried to get Lisanne some breakfast in the morning. Lisanne was exhausted so I took my bike for a ride to the near town for the Fruhstuck-treatment. Fruhstuck is German for 'breakfast' and mind you: it's more convenient to speak some German in Greece than English: due to the Greek immigrants returning home from Germany and starting up business all-over the place, 'breakfast' is not easy to find; just look for the signs 'Fruhstuck' and you'll get there.

Anyways, just simply touring through the small village, my dear Beemerke (BMW) was facing transmission problems again. Yes, the Beemerke can get a little rusty here and there. This time I was clutching my way uphill in the village when suddenly a red duck (Citroen 2CV) crossed my roadway with great hurry. It was duckseason; the red birdy flew with a speed of about 40km right into my boxerengine. Now it was time for the Beemerke and passenger to fly.. ..strange that then after a minute you are faced with a BMW on its side, a red 2CV Duck with a 'STOP'-sign on its bonnet (no kidding!) dented with a nice V-shape, some Greeks and a young pizza-delivery guy. The Red Duck belonged to a (very fast I must say) pizza-delivery service. Luckily my Beemerke only suffered some small damage; nothing we can't fix with Ducktape. Any large damage will be uncovered with our journey to Ignomenitsa tomorrow.. ..anyone who reads this and subsequently will light a candle for this journey to Ignomenitsa will get a beer in return - when arrived safely in Holland naturally!

When I explained that I was driving from Pakistan the Greek spectators were amused that this Duck-accident had to happen in Greece. But when I explained that I was getting breakfast for my girl who was still sleeping at the campsite, the Greeks had to laugh out loud: "Breakfast Sir? At half past one in the afternoon??". You have to love the Greeks about their everlasting sense of humor, and I have one Greek friend in Athens to prove this too (hey Antonis!). The second luck was that the pizzadelivery guy (who was appearantly driving on a through-way - not me!..) did not think it was necessary to make it an insurance-call..

Now, apart from gear-transmissions who basically are of the 'immer-fest'-kind of the BMW, we can now experience how tough the bike holds to our final Odysee home. First: Forza Italia - meet the Swissies und den noch zze Germans. We'll see u soon peopolous!!