The plan was to spend the winter in Greece to escape the cold. I can already say: it was definitely better than in Germany, but also a lot rainier and colder than I had expected. Locals said this year was especially cold and wet. Still, I really enjoyed my time – and here is my journey through Greece!
The trip in numbers
Period — Dec 2024 to Apr 2025
Distance — approx. 3,500 km
Diesel — 700 l · €1,050
Nights wild camping — 94
Bags of rubbish — 12
Melli and Attila drove on, and I wanted to take the ferry to see Corfu for a day.
There are so many cats everywhere in Greece, and I always carry some food for them. I’m an absolute cat person – so for me it was a little paradise, and the cats seemed to be pretty happy street cats. People feed them, and since cats like to be independent anyway, it seems to work well for them.
I visited the Meteora monasteries, and although I’m usually sceptical about touristy places like this, this place was absolutely magical – and I think it helped a lot to be there off-season.
It was still warm, I went on a beautiful hike and visited two monasteries.
“This place was absolutely magical.”
Where Leonidas and his 300 Spartans once fought a Persian army many times their size, people now bathe in hot springs. You can park your camper right next to the warm river and jump into the water. You only have it to yourself at night, though.
I visited Elia Beach – a roughly 2 km stretch of coast where lots of campers park and where even a small community has formed. Some people stay there for months.
I’m usually not a fan of places like this, because I prefer to camp alone and I don’t particularly like some of the behaviour there.
But there are also lovely moments of community: the family parked next to me organised a little pizza party – they decorated the trees, a DJ played music and you could buy really tasty, freshly made pizza. That was great, and I got to know a few people!
I visited this famous landmark:
The ship was originally anchored in the port of Gythio when its captain was taken to hospital. After a while, it was moved to an anchorage outside Gythio.
During a storm in December 1981 it broke loose and ran aground at its current position – today it is known as the “Dimitrios” shipwreck.
The last beach I stayed at was a little south of Thessaloniki – and it was beautiful. Two days completely alone... but as almost everywhere in Greece, there was sadly a lot of rubbish here too. I collected six bags of it.
Two days alone. Six bags of rubbish.
