Plans changed, meteo has the last word on camping trips. unfortunately.

Sofia, Crete and E4 have to be postponed. Upsetting but always better than being wet and cold and alone in the, certainly astonishing, deep wilderness.
And this desire to just take a ride to Evia for a couple of days because "it is so close" and had been lying in my thought for the past 4 years suddenly started ringing louuuudly.

Packing doesn't take that long. But long enough. Especially when it's been a while since you packed your bike for a trip. Monday is dedicated to that.

Tuesday is the Day. My babe and I start riding towards Skala Oropou to get the ferry to Eretria. Feels nice, always an amazing feeling to leave together for an adventure. The road until Oropou is quite awful, except some nice parts in the end. You know. You get out from the capital bro! Can't be sexy. Some people told me Tuesday was going to be pretty stormy but luckily the weather rewards me for defeating it and it looks like I am always about to grab it but ended up escaping all the rain. Eretria was a bit rainy though. Also I suddenly realise my credit card is expired, I forgot to take cash with me and I am probably fucked now. Hopefully will manage activating my card and withdraw some cash somewhere. Although where i am heading to doesn't feel like the machine's paradise. I realise how this phone-contactless payment is fucked up. I never leave with my wallet anymore. All this manually of taking out your wallet, your card, remembering your pin...gone. Slave of the contactless. The wallet industry will collapse. I forgot my cash. How could this happen? The HOLY CASH! Anyways. We'll see, and figure it out. I get a tiropita and start riding towards Stenì. Gonna take a while and it is already 3pm. Biiim the climb starts asap and for the next couple of hours I climb I climb. Beautiful e. But intense. Two girls in a car stop me in the climb asking me how's the road up there after the storm. I found interesting how they thought I'd have the answer to that question. I tell them, smiling, that I have no clue. Also I am dying a bit hah. Later on the way I meet a few dogs that would like to take a bite on my legs but I ignore them as I am subjugated by this two cute puppies psss I am extremely gaga these days with animals. The top is near, and on the other side, the descent. It is always pissing me a bit off that there is not some flat surface after climbs to appreciate the effort and make it worth longer. I start descending and see an alternative road leading to Agia Anna church. Mmmm. It's 5pm and the sun will get down soon. I find a tap that gives me water before heading there. Perfect spot. Not very wild but very comfy. I build my tent in the covered space, take a cold shower from head to toes and boil water to eat my ragù pasta. GnomGnom. A couple passes by with the car. Nice Gamistrona but arhh my presence is not comfortable for them. Phewwwww lol this happens all the time when I travel. A cat comes out from nowhere and shouts shouts. I give it some pasta. It follows me absolutely everywhere and wants cuddles. A fox comes visit. I see it only because the cat became very curious of some noise suddenly. I go to sleep it's 9pm. Perfect. Fuck, my tent pole broke and is holding with the pressure of the upper layer, dangerous. I secure it not to make holes in the fabric, it stands up so will do the job for tonight but tomorrow gonna be a mission to fix it. I am a bit cold during the night. Nice birds sing. Everything is good.

I wake up at 7. Pack everything, make coffee. My cat friend is gone. I liked its presence. Coffee is tasty and the downhill towards Theologos afterwards even tastier. I pass through this little village where I hoped to find a fourno. Nothing. One taverna that also plays the role of the coffee place in the center of the village with a lot of men sitting and smoking outside is the only thing that seems to be open. I stop on a corner to plan my route when an old lady walking very slowly heads towards something that looks like being a mini market. It is open! Gosh, good because I am starving hehe. I follow her. Inside, a cute man smiles back at my smile and tells me they have brioches for breakfast after I ask him if there is a fourno in the village. I buy two bananas and two chocolate waffles, XXL! The cute lady asks me where I come from and where I am heading. She's so cuuuute help! The man accepts my card payment. I am impressed and pissed with myself.

Komoot sends me off road. It does some shit many times. I pass next to a house, say hi to the lady sitting in her garden. She starts laughing saying something like "a bicycle, here, hahahahahahah". Makes me laugh. I also wonder why I am there. I end up riding 1 hour in the mud and when I meet the asfalt again, I need to spend half hour cleaning my bike that got extremely noisy and messy. After that the road is again steep but on the top there is some flatness amongst the olive trees that are SOOOOOO HEAVY WITH OLIVES!! They look like they are crying. I really like this part. The road is beautiful. I meet some fig trees, gnomgnom. A part from me, some huge red trucks meet my path. Some say hi with the hand, others honk at me and always I am like bro how can you think that this is nice. They transport soil. I arrive in Stenì. Very cute little village Smaro had told me about. I stop for a coffee. A dog starts following me. He's huge and wants to sit with me on the bench. Agapi. No time to rest, I start climbing this crazy road that I had told Smaro I wouldn't climb because the inclination was illegal. Like parts with 12%. My bike is like 25kg...Yes yes I packed heavy eh it's supposed to be a comfy bike trip. I like my comfort. I accept the pain of carrying it. Before getting out of Stenì, my mission is to fin a saw and cut the broken pole to fix my tent. And like a good karma coincidence, i am about to get out of the village when I see on the side road a man with all his tools lying everywhere on the ground. I look at him probably with some excitement in my attitude, when he suddenly sees me he's like heeeey geiaaaaaa and me too but instead of continuing I go towards him and ask him if he can help me, if he has a priòni. He looks at me a bit perplex. Indeed weird a cyclins asking for a saw. I take out the broken pole and show him the bit that needs to be cut. No time lost speaking that he is already cutting it with his electric saw that is lying on the ground among all the other tools. Quick, sharp, precise. I thank him from the bottom of my heart. He asks me if I am going towards the Stenì Dirfyos pass, I say yes, he says where are you from? The Alps eh?

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

I understand pretty soon why you must be from the mountains to start climbing that with no fear.

Eventually fear comes later lol. I think it took me 3 hours to climb it all. With many, many stops. Mushroom stops! Poooo at some point I was really desperate so I parked the bike on a dirty side road and started looking at my feet and OOOOOOH a porcin right there! Ah. Re. This is the feeling I look for. Finding a treasure. It is huge! Same variety like the ones I found hiking in Agrafa with my mother last year and with which we made the best risotto. Incredible. I pack it carefully, hoping it will make it back to Athens.

Oh I am so hungry I thought things would go faster and I would be already digesting my meal by now but i am still far. I eat the second breakfast instead.

I eventually make it to the top. Met maybe 10 cars in these 3 hours. Amazing!

The other side is astonishing. Cold. I wear some extra layers and start the descent towards Stropones. Didn't took my gloves. Never leave your gloves behind. I knew it. Now I know it better.

I arrive down freezing. The village is very humid. The weather is changing. I am starving.

At the fourno I buy a sesame stick and a pita. Then I go ask in the kafeneio taverna if they serve food already. It's 4pm. The lady says only salad and fries. I want an agriogourouno for myself right now not a salad. She tells me to see in the taverna next door, they seem like being already cooking! I get out, go ask. The lady says yes we have everything. 3 persons apparently not from there are hanging out next to the fountain near where I left my bike. We smile at each others. They look like backpacking. One of them comes to speak to me, she's also doing a big bike trip but left it in Istanbul to come meet her friends in Greece and hike here. They will go camping if I wanted to join them. I tell them I need to go eat and that eventually will find them later. We both know this is not going to happen and it is fine. I am happy with small interactions but I also really really really need to be alone. It is indeed such a feeling so comfortable to me, sweating all day alone listening to music or your own breath, no talking. Just watching. Thinking. Listening. I finally sit in this taverna next to the stove. A big rasta cat is the mascot. I order a bit random stuff. No vegetables. Tirokafteri, chicken skewer, potatoes. I am a bit overwhelmed when I see the portions that arrive. But I eat and hell this moment is absolutely fabulous I am starviiiiiiiiiiiiiing. I check a bit my options for the night. It will rain. 100%. Like, now. I need to be covered. When getting down I saw a little church on the opposite hill. I check it on the maps. It's eventually on my way for tomorrow so perfect because of course it is also extra uphill. I arrive at the dirt road that leads to it. Rain has started. Psssss and this road is like with 15% inclination malaka illegal!! I need to push the bike. When I arrive, there is only this little church, on top of a hill, surrounded by trees. No covered part. Shit. Luckily the church is open. Seems like nobody's been here in a while. It is raining. I will sleep inside. Some big spiders and other dead insects on the floor. Some alive ones must be around. I build the tent inside. It is also so humid that everything will be wet if I don't cover my stuff. I take a cold shower outside, while raining. I am so cooooold. But there is no secret to good rest for me. If I am sticky, night will be awful. Such a princess psssss boriiiiing. Eh what can I do. The night is delicious. Warm. My dinner is navigating in my stomach like a sweet symphony. Night activity outside the door. It rains all night. A lot.

Alarm at 6. It is still raining, I stay a bit longer in bed until I make the effort to get out. Pack slowly. A bit demoralised with the weather. But after the coffee I am a bit more trustful in the future. I pack everything, thank the little church for having been my shelter for the night and ride down the hill. Rain comes and goes. A very amazing ride downhill scares me a bit of the future again. I am almost a Paralia Chiliadou. The I need to cross the river. As I don't see proper signs I am scared to death that there is no bridge to cross and that I'll have to climb everything again. Holy shhhhhhhh ah no, I find a bridge. A dirt road. Another illegal elevation climb. Dirt road. Rainy day. 9% inclination. You know. The sweat you release while climbing such a hill covered in plastic so called fancy goretex with humidity all around you. Amazing. It's only 10.30 and I already feel arrived at the doors of hell. Only way to get to Paralia Metochiou. Then up to Metochi. I stop at the only taverna being a coffee place in the morning. It is raining like hell. I am pretty wet, not by rain but, you know... I push the door of this place that looks amazing and suddenly swim in cigarette and stove smoke. 3 men sitting at different tables. Different sides of the table, somehow you could put a round table there and they would all be at the right distance. At the desk, a lady smiles at me. I am so happy to be in this smoky place. I am not. But I am, It is warm. She has a nice smile and presence. I ask her a coffee and get some waffles. I eat two of them straight away. Again starving. These climbs squeeze my energies. The coffee is perfect. The next climb is scary. Metochi-Kymi. Komoot says in 1 hour I am there. Meaning in 3 I am there. I ask the lady how steep is the road. She says it's fine. The man sitting says the same. It's ok. Some parts difficult. But mainly ok. I am happy. Ready to get back on track. No need to tell you how streep in some parts. I push I puuuuush on my legs! I asked so much of them. They respond so well in general amazing what the body can do i am always impressed and so grateful for my body to allow me doing all this. I need to feed it better though. I don't feed it enough! Climb climb, at least it is asphalt! Ahhhh the asphalt. Thank you. And thank you Bad Bunny because this reggaetton is pumping me up. Music in general does eh. So no need to specify that I've been listening to music the whole trip...Also in the downhill. It makes it so romantic. I loooooove it. The soundtracks to my trips. They all have their own and I remember it so well. Like now If I put Andrea of Bad Bunny & Buscabulla, I am in Evia. There is the instrumental part at min 4.24 that makes me fly literally away. Incredible. The rhythm, the bass. I dance on my bike all the time. I dance in my head also. I stop to dance on the side when I need a break. Dancing.

This road. Dear people. Amazing. Incredible. Oh. wow. So WILD! And somehow this weather makes it extremely nice. I am in love with this area. But can't stop thinking that with a car it would be nice also. Like. Yes.

I arrive in Kymi, eat a not good souvlaki and feed some cats that come visit. The sky opens. Some sun manages passing through. Blessing. Somehow I have no time to chill. It is fine, maybe I don't want to chill, I just want to suffer. And the rain is there to make it mandatory. I need to be tomorrow in Nea Stira to get back to Athens. Everything was planned a bit day by day. Randomly. I spot a church on the way. Stilll like 40km away but komoot says the uphill is over for today so I don't fear anything. Anything. I arrive at the sea level! And the road is flat for a while. In Platàna,, a group of men stop the circulation. I don't understand what is happening until AN ENORMOUS DIGGER comes out of a very small street. HUUUUUGE. I am impressed. Film it. Continue. In Krieza i buy some stuff, get some water. The man tells me the water here is not good. I was indeed very impressed with the presence of streams everywhere in the mountains. And suddenly in the flatness, nothing, and the water from the tap is not good. I am never super scared by that but I buy some water to be sure. I arrive in the little church I spotted. It is perfect. Covered space. But it is late and wind blows very heavy. I take my cold shower. The coldest of the three. The wind makes me freeze. I eat my lentils with rice and go to bed at 8.30. I am dead.

My sleep is amazing. I wake up 9 hours later. Still windy. Packing. Coffee. Lessgoooo. My mushroom still looks ok. As always I tie it to my bags. The wind blows. The road is huge. Cars drive fast. I put music in my ears to make it sexier. It works. It always does. I always feel happier with the idea of dying unexpectedly hit by a car while listening to an amazing song, rather than listening to the engine of my murderer. Of course, uphill. I arrive in Nea Stira. Bah. Not worth staying long here. I take the first ferry. I feel like going home. In my imagination, once on the other side, it will be fast. I want to go home make risotto with my mushroom. I listen to Ojitos Lindos of Bad Bunny and Bomba Estereo. Ha, there is sun and seagulls. I almost feel in summer. 12.30 I am in Agia Marina. I plan the route...hell. I am not quite there yet. And it is uphill again. Pssssss how is it possibleeeeeeee. What else can I do but riding. I am near Rafina when I take Leof. Marathonos. Maps said there is a cycling path. I understand very early that the blue line drawn on the road must be the famous cycling path Rafina-Pallini. At this stage I want to die. I regret all the uphills of Evia. I'd rather climb them again 10 times than entering Athens like this. But I do it. Cars drive like crazy and almost touch me. I arrive in Pallini. 15h. Next metro 15h25. I wait in this very bucolic station, set in the middle of the highway. One side cars riding. Other side cars riding. I put the music as loud as I can stand. No regrets with not continuing by bike the entrance. I'd rather sit on this bench with this view for hours. Metro arrives. Get off in Ambelokipi. Get down on Leof. Alexandras. In all this I ate nothing. Bravo mou. I thought I'd be home at like 1pm max. It's 4pm. I lost my mushroom somewhere on the way. This upsets me even more. I arrive home. bring all my stuff up. Stefanie is there, so chill. It's an amazing presence, I'm so happy she's there. I look like shit most probably. I am also probably about to faint ha. She welcomes me with a huge delicious plate of gnocchi. How amazing. One hour later I feel much better. Incredible, food. I lie on my bed after a warm shower that I enjoyed like there's no tomorrow. I can't do anything that is not staying there.

Now I know what Evia looks a bit like. And I know it is only two days away by bike. And perhaps 2-3 hours by car haaaaaaa. Next time I would like the sun to warm all my body non stop. Let's go together for mushroom hunting there now! I think I got a few good spots heheheheheheh