tolls, tunnels and tzatziki
Corinth, Greece
Well you couldn’t come to Greece and not buy tzatziki, could you? So we did.
We also did tunnels – six of them in a row through one stretch of hillside (and then back again a few days later), and another one under the sea. Then we went *over* the sea on a magnificent bridge. All of which attracted hefty tolls. “Ah well, it’s only money,” we heard Grandpa’s oft-repeated words echoing in our minds!
5euros, 7euros, 11euros70. All times two vans. And times another two to get NZ$$! We stop before the final calculation.
At least the diesel is cheap here.
And the roads reasonable to drive on. Mostly.
And the other motorhome drivers, friendly (in Italy they didn’t wave, which left you with a less than welcoming feel)….most of the Womos here are “fellow” Germans, and they perform the steering-wheel-clasping-raised-finger-salute, and then greet us auf deutsch when we all disembark in a mutual carpark. Come to think of it, we didn’t see many Germans in Italy, just a lot of locals. Maybe Italians are not in the waving club.
The first few days had been a little nerve-racking on the road. Not because of any bad driving behaviour, but because of what we had read; the only rule here is alleged to be “don’t obey the rules or red lights or stop signs”. Greek driving is supposed to be the worst in Europe, and so we were expecting the worst. Have we now got used to the idea that no car is about to come careening out of a side street or have we, perhaps, become immune with our Italian experiences?
The trucks here do not seem quite so eager to climb up your exhaust pipe – although you can still look into your rear view mirror and see the big IVECO logo backwards, with no sign of the cab window, unable to eyeball the truckie into keeping his distance, because they are so close. But other times the view is of the deep blue sea, and that is surely calming.
We’ve witnessed only one new crazy driving technique. I think it’s got something to do with the fact that in a lot of places the roads are one and a half lanes wide. The intention is that slow-moving vehicles (that would be us) retreat to the half lane, allowing the speediegonzaloses (that would be everyone else) to overtake in the full lane. In reality what this means – and we have now seen it three times in two days, so it was not just a one-off madman – is that two cars can overtake one of our vehicles at one time. Yes, a car overtaking us and being overtaken by yet another at the Very Same Time.
Generally speaking, this half lane is a godsend for the likes of me, who do not enjoy big vehicles hurtling down the road towards them in close proximity….you can stay well over and feel very safe. Until you meet a parked car in the half lane, or you meet a lady walking her basket of leafy greens home from market in the half lane, which also acts as a pedestrian precinct in the absence of anything more dedicated to that purpose, or you meet a randomly placed road sign in the half lane….that’s an especially fun one to need to swerve around right when a truck is halfway through overtaking you! They honk. Loudly.
The talk about Greeks not following the rules just does not seem to ring true. Not now that we’ve watched them. No-one has run a stop sign. No-one has run a red light. And they are all very polite on roundabouts. There’s a funny (to us) rule here, and one which we may have occasionally forgotten at first – until we had our Greek Road Code memories prompted by being on the receiving end of the courtesy. Anyone already on a roundabout is required to give way to anyone about to enter it. To us it feels as wrong as driving on the right initially did, but when someone actually stops for you, you feel as if they have tipped their hat and you wish to return the favour with a sweeping bow or curtsey. Adding to the feeling of courtesy, politeness and charm is the fact that sometimes, when a car approaches on a narrow road, they actually slow down or even stop. Drivers seem more cautious than their across-the-water neighbours, whose premise seemed to be “the smaller the gap, the faster you need to attack it”.
No, the Greeks are by no means the worst drivers we’ve encountered in Europe.
Tags: 2008/09, money, postcard: Greece, price, transport
rayres
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