Igoumenitsa/Syvota

Having at last escaped Italy and the horrors therein we arrived in Greece. We knew that Greece was only days away from bursting out into riots yet somehow we had an infinitely better time there than in Italy. Our luck there had been just vile. In Greece we somehow managed to slip between all the cracks.

To my surprise Igoumenitsa is a nicer port than Brindisi. Having been to Greece before I was expecting a ratty little port town filled with decaying buildings and grime. What we got was a relatively nice building which actually looked like it had been cleaned within the last month. The floors were white and polished and the signs well lit. Imagine my surprise.

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39°29'12.86"N, 20°15'26.19"E 

Syvota

Syvota was an even nicer surprise. It was located about 20 minutes away from Igoumenitsa since the fourth member of our party was arriving in Thessaloniki earlier that morning and meeting us there. We got in at 3 in the morning (with the time zone an hour forwards) so we couldn't see much of it at night. When we got up the following morning it turned out to be one of the nicest little seaside towns I've ever seen.

The streets were all clean and the stores well kept. The hotel we were staying in wasn't a hotel but an apartment that the owners were renting out to make some extra money. It's called Baia Blu Apartments. It was very nice. There's nothing particularly special here but it is just a nice little seaside town. I can strongly recommend going if you're looking for a place to sail or swim from.

The overriding impression I have of this place is that it was well maintained and clean. That is not something you can say about many places in Greece. It was quiet when we went there but hopefully this place is a popular destination later in the summer because it really deserves to do well.

You may not be surprised to hear it (certainly not after you read the rest of the Greek blog) but this peaceful place was the site of a major battle that helped kick off the Peloponnesian Wars. In Greece you can't throw a stone without it hitting some ancient battleground or a derelict city. The battle of Subota (Σύβοτα in Ancient Greek. The β is now a v, and the υ a y) was fought here in 433 BC. Although the Peloponnesian War was between Sparta and Athens, this battle was fought between Corcyra (Corfu) and Corinth. Corfu is an island about six miles straight out of this harbor.

The Corcyrans had a massive navy second only to the Athenians themselves and were tired of being Corinth's colony with all the obligations that implied. They had a naval battle here that Thucydides called the biggest up to that time. The Corinthians won leading to further engagements between Corinth (Spartan allies) and Athens (Corcyra's ally).  Soon after this the Spartans and Athenians decided to do without the middleman and the Spartans invaded Attica and took the fight to Athens directly.

 

The roads around Syvota are predictably irregular and offer a wonderful view of the sea. We ended up getting lost in the hills by following our GPS which was unable to differentiate between small roads snaking through the mountains and main highways that we could drive more than 30 mph on. It also had the annoying tendency to yell at us in German whenever we did something of which it did not approve, such as not obeying the unreliable and often imaginary speed limit. There are no gas stations in these places either so if we'd run out of gas we'd have been miles away from civilization with nowhere to go

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39°24'28.16"N, 20°14'31.42"E