Worst day of the trip

(Off the Ferry, Amstels are a killer, they don't even use the same alphabet, no money, Lost, Camping Ioannion, no highways, Fear and Loathing Greece, Delphi, the side of the road)

So I got off the Ferry and was officially in Greece, I had no money, no map, and very little fuel. I went into the small ferry town Igoumensta, which saying the name of is about the most interesting part. I had a quick look around town, its basically a port, and went looking for a map, it turns out the good people at the Tom Tom corporation havn't realised that Greece exsists. There were no maps for sale in this small town, so I went to a pub and had a couple of the local brews, which I couldn't find so had some Amstels instead, they were good, and much needed after the horrors of the cruise (seriously the funniest thing you will ever see is the poor schumcks sleeping on the deck of the car ferry, when you've got your own 5 star super bus to sleep in comfort in... although I failed to empty the facilities before I got on the boat so had to share a bathroom with 300 or so camping on the deck people, wasn't great).

So after a few beers I got back in the bus and went looking for a map - but old Greece isn't very helpful when it comes to that, apparently they haven't heard of decent servo's in greece, they don't sell anything but oil etc, no snacks, no drinks, nothing useful, especially no maps, many also don't take credit- a big problem... anyways, I drove along and along looking for a place to get the map. Eventually I had gone about 100 km's to the next major town, so was happy to bail out at a campsite I found. I went for a quick tour around the town, got some dinner, and finally a map (written in Greek- but it would do) and was happy to collapse in the fort bed for a decent nights sleep.

With my new map I very quickly planned out a couple of days worth of touristing and set off in the direction of Athens, with the intention of stopping off at Delphi on the way. Unfortunatly it turns out the stupid fucking Greeks still think that what was acceptable as a highway 2000 years ago is fine in todays high paced world.

Seriously, I had to go about 350 KM's today and it took me 6.5 hours to do it- it was terrible. Single lane roads up and over 4 different mountain ranges, the first 80 km's took me 2.5 hours to cover, I was in no way happy about this fact, I don't like driving at the best of times, so when you add slow going and stressful downhills I really don't get happy.

Anyways, the long, long day went on and on, with my opinion of Greece going down and down as I went, I drove probably 200 KM before I found my first 4 lane road, the loathing was taking hold. I turned of the Athens road towards Delphi at around 3 and was extremely incensed when I realised that their was another mountain to go over before Delphi, I pulled over to the side of the road for a quick break before tackling the final climb and when I got back on the road I noticed that a new indicator light had come on, the one that looks like a little orange engine.

Immediatly the cold grip of the fear tightned around my heart, the mixture of the loathing I was feeling and the fear that had just descended meant an extreme blow up. I can't describe the mood I was in as I drove over that final mountain, but imagine driving six hours and then having a full blown attack of the Fear and Loathing in a strange country with an even stranger language - it was not great.

The rest of the drive to Delphi was horrible, but I managed to relax after I got online and found out that the indicator light was only for the Fuel Injection System and I could keep going on with it on - I relaxed a little and went and enjoyed the ancient ruins of the Oracle, it was quite enjoyable.

Anyways, hopefully tomorrow the fuel injector cleaning fluid I put in the fuel will have its effect and I get to Athens in one piece, at the moment I am on the side of the road, thinking that things can only get better then today.