Today I am going to Albania for the first time since 2019, when I completed a rather enjoyable tour of Albanian wineries. Like in Switzerland, here there’s no free roaming and they don’t use euros. Unlike Switzerland, though, where that left me feeling a bit at sea, in Albania I know what I’m doing.
Continue readingInterrail day fifteen – Samothrace to Thessaloniki
13 May
I do not like early starts at the best of times, but imagine my horror on finding that all the remaining coffee sachets in the hotel room’s wee bowl were actually sugar! I had to start my day with tea!
Continue readingInterrail day fourteen – Samothrace (Therma)
11 May
After yesterday I really didn’t feel like a long walk today, so I decided to take the bus (yes, there is one as it turns out) to a village on the north side of the island called Therma (hot springs).
Continue readingInterrail day thirteen – Samothrace (Sanctuary of the Great Gods)
10 May
I am wrecked! It is now 5.30pm, the time of day for chilling before the evening starts, so a good time to lie around in my hotel room and tell you about my strenuous day.
Continue readingInterrail day twelve – Alexandroupoli to Samothrace
9 May
Samothrace (Samothraki) is the final one of my three key locations, and the furthest point of my journey, so I suppose you could call it my destination. To come all the way to the eastern edge of Greece overland (and sea) has been quite an experience, but not as hard as I thought it might be.
Continue readingInterrail day eleven – Igoumenitsa to (hopefully) Alexandroupoli
8 May
The “hopefully” is because the information on the internet about buses to Alexandroupoli is a bit vague (“every four hours”) and I won’t be able to get more details until I reach Thessaloniki (or Thessalonica, or Selanik, according to your preference).
Continue readingInterrail day ten – (Sannicandro di) Bari (and sort of to Igoumenitsa)
7 May
I say “sort of” because while I’ll be setting off this evening, I won’t get to Greece until tomorrow. So I’m spending today in the village of Sannicandro, just outside Bari, because that is where Ida and Genti live.
Continue readingInterrail day nine – Florence to Bari
7 May
Can you believe I’ve been doing this for nine days now? And I’m not even halfway 😂
Continue readingInterrail day eight – Ferrara to Firenze
5 May
That’s Florence, to you. I was going to set off bright and early to see as much of it as possible, but it took so long to upload last night’s post that I changed my mind and went for a later train. That meant that instead of having anxiety dreams about missing trains, I just dreamed highlights from A Room with a View, which was much more pleasant.
Continue readingInterrail day seven – Ferrara
4 May
Another staying-put day, as Ferrara is one of my key destinations. It contains the Biblioteca Ariostea, a very old library named after Ludovico Ariosto, who wrote Orlando Furioso and is Ferrara’s most famous son. Less famously, the library features in my novel, Daughters of Fire.
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