Greece is the word

I felt very comfortable in Turkey but I didn’t spend as much time as I had wanted to there, but I’ll be back. Although I was very impressed with the culture, the roads and the country in general, I felt that I needed to press on. The weather was getting really cold as well now, i only had summer gloves as i couldn't find any really good winter gloves in Australia.

With all the hassle I had getting the bike into Turkey; I wondered what kind of hassle I was going to have getting the bike out of Turkey. I was a bit apprehensive as I approached the first customs control point. The guy looked at my passport, he then came out and checked my registration plate, went back to check his computer, then he waved me through, easy. At the second customs point there was a couple of vehicles waiting, they both had their Carnets de Passage in their hands. A Carnet is basically a passport for your vehicle, you need to have it stamped when you enter a country and then stamped when you leave the country. It ensures that you can’t sell the vehicle whilst you are passing through that particular country.

I can remember asking the customs guys if they wanted to see my Carnet when I was trying to sort my bike out when I first arrived in Turkey, the customs guy had never heard of one. Looking back I think if I had insisted that they use/check my Carnet, getting my bike would have been a bit easier, maybe it would have taken 2 ¾ days instead of 3 days to get the bike, who knows?

Anyways, the second guy checked my passport, he came out and checked………………. seen it all before kid, I thought. He put my details into the computer, checked my insurance documents, didn’t ask to see my Carnet, which was a relief, and waved me through, easy. The third guy checked my passport, and then waved me through. That was it, I was out of Turkey, no problems, no hassle, no ‘gifts’, as the Indians call them, ‘backhanders’ as everyone else calls them.

I was now in ‘No mans land’ between Turkey and Greece. As I approached the Greek side, the passport man checked my passport, no problem there. The customs guy then gave me a quick look, didn’t even stop me, and waved me through, what about that then? After all the problems I experienced in Turkey, it was a relief to be waved through with relative ease within 10 minutes.

It was pretty late in the afternoon now so I pulled in at the first hotel I saw. I pulled my bike into the garage that belonged to the hotel, had a hot shower and went to have a kebab and a pint, sorry, half a litre of beer down at the local while we watched a Greek football match on the TV. The Greek football players seemed to be diving about the pitch trying to cheat the ref into giving free kicks. A Greek chappy said to me ‘Good game init?’ or words to that effect. I said ‘No, they’re diving about on the pitch cheating the referee’, ‘No, No, it’s a good game’, ‘No, they’re just trying to cheat the referee’, ‘No, it’s a good game’, ‘Yes mate, it’s a good game’.