Last Day in the Greek Islands

 It's been quite a whirlwind this time. Amsterdam, Athens, Santorini, Naxos, Delos and Mykonos combined, and now tomorrow morning we're heading back to mainland Greece for a couple more days and then we'll be heading home. I'm always amazed at how fast the time flies when you go on vacation. Blink and you'd miss all the sights.

 On our last evening in Mykonos I thought I'd send a little discourse/tutorial on driving in the Greek islands. I've driven, and enjoyed driving in Hawaii and the mainland U.S. as well as France, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands, but I'll tell you, driving in the Greek islands is something that has to be attempted to be believed.

 The roads are either dirt or if paved, in various states of disrepair, and extremely narrow.

 The locals drive like either like seniors who don't want to go over 30 kilometres an hour or if younger, like kamikaze pilots who begrudge tourists being on their roads, so are constantly trying to play chicken with you.

 The other local driving hazard to contend with is the animals! At any point in time you can come across dogs,( they love their dogs here ) cats, donkeys, or goats, in the middle of the road, and just to provide you with a laugh, I even swerved once to avoid an Iguana.
 If you're like me you would never want to hurt an animal.

 The tourists are also either fast or slow depending on if they seem scared because they regret the decision of renting a vehicle in the first place, or in the case of the fast ones perhaps they've bolstered their courage with a few drinks and decide to drive kamikaze like the young locals.

 There are no sidewalks.  The roads seem too narrow to accommodate two lane traffic as it is, so as a pedestrian you walk along either in fear of your life or brazenly inject yourself right out into an oncoming lanes of traffic assuming, I guess, that people driving along will just avoid you.

 At all points in time, it is mayhem and chaos and not to be attempted by the faint of heart.

 So of course, I have rented cars and driven on all three islands. Joani at points in time has stated that I am a madman behind the wheel and after this adventure I'm not sure that I could argue the point. But I still maintain that having our own vehicle allows us to see and do things that you couldn't see or do on a guided bus tour. Besides, there is a little cache in being able to say that I have driven in all of these countries. So perhaps I am a vain madman!!

  I have attached some photos in warning of what you would be taking on, if you ever do attempt to be a madman like me and drive over here.

 The first photo is of Joani showing the width of the little side road leading to our apartment in Mykonos.

Yes this is a two lane road. Photo number two is of two trucks passing each other on a secondary highway.

You can see the paint stripe down the centre but even so, the bigger truck is sharing the smaller truck's lane as you can see. You should see when a big truck and a bus come across each other. SCARY!! The third shot is of a four way intersection. There is no right of way.

If you look closely, you can see bikes, Atvs, and cars all sharing the intersection and all going in separate directions. There are no such things as lanes in an intersection and if a driver behind you, feels you're not moving fast enough, he will pull out into oncoming traffic to cut you off and go ahead. If you are meek you will never get a turn done in these intersections. It's best to keep your hand near the horn and plow ahead!!

 Then of course there's the animals. I have again sent you the photo of my donkey because A) it fits the email, he was in the middle of the main street, and B) I love the shot.

 The next two are both of goats. If you take a close look you'll see that they are two different herds of goats. The mountains goats looked, and were, much wilder, and were just running willy nilly down either side of a mountain road with their herder walking along behind shouting at them.

The town goats looked well groomed, almost like pets and were actually all pleasantly following a man in a truck who waved nicely at us as he drove by.

The point being, you never know when you're at a goat crossing in the Greek islands.

 Please don't let me scare anyone off. If you can do it without having a heart attack, driving here is an incredible experience and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. ( That is, if Joani would get in a car with me again.)

 More live traffic reports from the Greek Islands

  Garry