Scandinavia to the Med

So how did Greece come about i hear you ask?

Greece, a place i had heard about many times over the past 9 months from other van lifers who had tild stories of winters spent there. It never crossed my mind that I would end up here. Like right now I am sitting on the beach in 27 degree heat in October, how did that happen?

Well I had actually planned to go from Norway to Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France and take the ferry home for winter to get some things done with the van, spruce her up a bit and spend Christmas etc, but things changed. My gut told me that the covid pandemic was not over and if i was to go home, i might not get out for a long time. The ferry website indicated that and so having chatted to a fellow solo female vanlifer Sophie who planned to spend the winter in greece, i thought why not.

I had a great time in Denmark, with my Serbian bestie Gordana and her husband who had recently moved there. The best thing was, It was my birthday and they spoilt me rotten. Leading up to our reunion, I had spent a week exploring the beaches and forests of Denmark as well as giving Maggie a much needed makeover. She was ready for her new adventure. 

Following Denmark, I headed to Holland and stayed almost two weeks at Sophies, where we got new floors down in our vans, shared our excitment for Greece and planned our route there. When things started changing with covid regulations and Sophies van was not ready to leave yet, I decided to head north to get some last mechanics done on Maggie and then to head swiftly to Greece.
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With my diesel leak fixed and a new vrake system restored, Maggie was good to go. In 5 days i managed to drive all the way to Ancona for the ferry to Patras but with some epic stops inbetween. I got to reunite with my friend Mel who i had met in Tanzania 5 years ago and it also happened to be Canadian Thanksgiving that weekend so the timing was perfect. We hung out, drank wine and relaxed in the sauna until we had to say goodbye the next day.

I headed off towards the Austrian Alps where i froze my ass off, and continued through Italy until i reached Ancona. I had a few forms to fill out for the borders but no one checked anything and the ferry was as easy as pie.

I boarded in Ancona and took the option to camp onboard which was amazing. I had use of electricity, showers, WC and a nice safe spot with the other campers on the open deck for a whopping 21 hours. It was not as bad as Ireland to Spain that is for sure.

So 9 months later, who would have thought we would be arriving off a ferry to Greece to spend the winter in the sun. Greece was our 13th country this year, and Gimli was well accustomed to being a well travelled van dog. Over the past 9 months i have been stopped only at 3 borders (Spain to France during lockdown, but i was let go), (Sweden to Finland, which took some sweet and white lies but I was also let go), (and Austria to Italy which I was only asked where I was going and then let go), so 2020 has been kind to us so far and we have seen a lot more than we first imagined we would back in January.

Bring on winter in Greece and a 2021 full of more adventures and new friends.