CYCLING ACROSS EUROPE – EPISODE 1: GREECE (Athens to Patras)

In our very first episode of our European cycling adventure, we leave the busy metropolis of Athens and head north up the coast. Being our first ever bike trip and the first time we’ve bike packed we were pretty nervous. Not a lot of filming got done, and the filming that did was not that amazing. We promise it does get better the more confident we get on the bike.
We are very sorry in advance for our poor pronunciation of Greek towns, especially Corinth, that we manage to say multiple times wrong.

Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes as we make our way towards the west coast of Ireland.

Total distance cycled so far: 232km
Countries visited: 1
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we’re Lauren and Scott and we are cycling 10,000 km across Europe starting in Greece the plan is to cycle to the West Coast of Ireland passing through 15 countries we cycle through some of the most magical Landscapes Europe has to offer so join us on our first ever Bike Tour as we learn to navigate the European cycling Network encounter all weather conditions and overindulge in our favorite baked goods mine’s so crunchy in this episode we start our adventure learning to adapt to our new lives on the bike welcome to Lost Lauren and while struggling to navigate the Greek roads is that right you reckon let’s get [Applause] it March the 28th 2023 we landed in Athens Greece the starting destination for our cycle tour whilst preparing for the trip to begin for 3 days we of course fit in the trip to the iconic Acropolis seeing this ancient Citadel with its crowning Jewel of the pantheon perched on top of the hill was pretty special it’s pretty cool isn’t it the pantheon was a gift to the great God Athena and is regarded as a monument for democracy even though this marble Temple was under construction it was still amazing to see and the views over Athens from on top of the hill were epic the weather is absolutely stunning here in Greece around 20° C and sunny pretty perfect for a cycle tour i’ say it’s day one of our cycling trip and we’re about to head out from Athens today we’re going to head to parama Port where we’ll catch a little small ferry to the island of salamina which will then take us back to the mainland where we’ll ride to corneth which will be about 100 km from here we’ll see how we go I’m struggling a bit but we’re excited yay let’s go day one being our first cycle tour we found it quite difficult to navigate through the chaotic Athens traffic sadly we didn’t film anything but we’ll catch up in the next town that we arrive into which is Sal it took us 2 and 1/ half hours to get out of Athens because our Maps has taking us up the biggest hills 20% in time one of them said 20 and that was not even the SK so in the end push of the bikes we decided to get to the main road and just get as quick to the port and then when we got to the port straight on and the boat left in 5 minutes and now we’re here I just had a salad lunch with a wrap and we’re looking at the beautiful views across to the mainland of graece is that Grace yes so I just looked at the map and that is not M name that is the rest of the Island the island in you right now it is not is it is look see we’re looking over there silly bil may be right isn’t it beautiful we can see forever how’s everything going things are going well I feel like our energy levels aren’t that high who knows if that’s because jet lag or we haven’t eaten enough who knows was up at 5 4:00 this morning so there you go um but very beautiful we’ve been having a little trouble with the routes we’ve been doing a few like loopy Loops um but all part of the adventure isn’t it I’ve taken out two fairies for the day very inspirational on my behalf since I don’t like boats especially cuz they were very wavy we been riding into a headwind all day yeah but this is good fun we’re a bit worried about where we’re going to camp tonight landscape is very Rocky yeah we’ve got about 30 km we try and reach corneth by the end of today and we’ll try and scout out some possible Camp spots fingers crossed for [Music] us gotcha bikes are looking good Lauren’s Canyon Grizzle in pink my Canyon Grizzle in matcha which one you liking better that pink matcha what do you think pink all the way pink [Applause] all how you going tomorrow pooped sh how far did I I’m pretty sure we went 17 oh really a little dirt road off some sort of not Main Road and then we have a main road over the railway line and then we have a highway over this little Hill that is fenced off and this is what we come up with here spot for the night what do you think be pretty good would it we haven’t come across anyone coming down here yet I’ve chucked a few rocks just over this little Hill um to make sure no cars drive by so first night camping first night first day on the bikes shattered good morning it’s day two we our first wild Camp spot just finished packing up the tent uh thought was going to be a good spot but we’re right next to a highway there and a highway up there yesterday we did about 70 km um but we rod for about 7 to 8 hours and we were exhausted and very dehydrated when we got to camp but no issues find our first wild Camp which is good and today we’re going to ride to kth corneth corneth this morning she’s 20 km away and along the coast to patc and then we got some bad weather coming in the next couple of days so we’re trying to find some accomodation to hunker down but as you can see this is the view this is our view fantastic we try to get some more filming done today we didn’t do much yesterday because we were a bit stressed out on what we were doing and and just everything was happening at once but we’ll see how we go today lots of musely with water to start my morning I’m a really big fan this one’s got a lot of dried food in it and some nuts so nice and sweet going to get me through the 20 km cuz I want some baked goods from the next town so delicious I do have some thoughts number one thought where’s sunscream yesterday I got down in the the dumps in the afternoon I was just exhausted I think it’s just from Sun exhaustion I got a little bit sunir on the side of my face and on my leg here’s your note always wear sunscreen it was very warm today’s going 22 and sunny so that’s my number one thought my second thought is about the dogs they’ve been pretty scary and we’re not even that far out of Athens they like come at you and they’re really loud and you just kind of want to ride off but if you just stop and get off your bik there you would normally stop so today I’m going to try that get off my bik straight away but also that’s scarier cuz now they’re going to attack my leg I don’t know anyway’s your outfit that’s my breakfast thoughts well today I’m rolling with some longer socks until it gets too warm I really scraped up my knee yesterday um my shin sorry and there was blood running down my shin for a little while just from smacking it on petal L our petals are topnotch they’re like mountain biking Petals of some sort um got really good grip but they’re really sharp for that good grip so going to roll with the long socks just for a little while until it gets too hot the end here our can’t pack up all the bags bit of PB handb bag and there’s the bikes locked together next to a tree and about 400 kilos of rubbish let’s get [Applause] it which way we going uh down I think are you sure it’s really steep I’m pretty sure yeah that’s really steep want to walk sorry I don’t want to come back up here if it’s wrong yeah it takes takes us next to the highway okay we should mention here that we’re following a Euro Valor route a Euro Valor is a network of longdistance cycling routes crisscrossing throughout Europe in various stages of completion we’re currently following ell number8 known as the Mediterranean route this route we found to be very much on the not completed stage we do eventually see a ell sign but 99% of the time we navigate by using open street maps like we got trail shoes on with a bit of grip cuz going down this part here is tough she’s deep all right probably good now if you can get on we’re off so this is the a94 which apparently used to be the old highway in between patc and Athens I believe we’re at the park between corneth and mcera which is where we got off the fair yesterday but they’ve just built this new Highway 8 which opened approximately 3 to 4 years ago so now basically this e94 road is just it’s non-existent so our Euro 8 runs pretty much the whole way through to patas on this road so we should see minimal traffic but we’ll be riding next to the highway the whole time they’re going 130 which is pretty body fast and you definitely think we’re going the RightWay yep we’re next next to the Highlight oh he’s still on 150 look at that look at these people to be fair the GRE drivers has actually been um pretty considerate of us we’re keeping as far right as possible especially on the freeway when we’re on before coming down the mountain plenty of room um so that’s good to see and now that we’re on this side road I’m much more relaxed today less tense good first day out of the way second day now so we should gain confidence every day we ride welcome to Los Lauren and Scott Chronicle number one for the day um started going up this BMX looking track doesn’t seem right next to the Old Highway which is next to the new freeway our map is telling us I think we’re like around here then it wants us to go down there but if we follow this dirt track on that my right here that goes along the highway so we think this part here which is the Euro 8 goes down there is that right you reckon that’s me says keep going h no mine definitely doesn’t say that okay well it looks a bit dangerous we want go backwards it’s a bit slippery lucky we got um gravel bikes I was thinking that when we turned on to it The Road Not that we’re very capable of riding gravel bikes but also when you go gravel bike riding you don’t usually have 15 kilos of stuff on the back yeah that’s true oh this some good spots around here yeah this is not right wellow that doesn’t seem right this is not right where the freaking hell it doesn’t look like we’re on that grally part up there for long let’s just see what’s at the top of the hill but if you look at my map it actually says like come off and then peel left and then it should join like a half a road there’s no path there so it probably is talking got that one up there but that goes along the highway this is going nowhere near the highway it’s going off it oh actually there’s a gravel tap that goes left over there maybe that welcome to luren Scott hiking SL biking hiking bushing our favorite hobby of hiking just Incorporated in it now with biking got to get off and walk a bit of bumpy yeah there’s another track that goes left Scott I think I figured it out this is a road though yeah I figured it out it is that the concrete yeah it should peel around cuz the highway is ages away and on the map it says that so not down there it’s a road I wouldn’t think so actually there’s a street sign here I might be able to read it 6 minutes later standing on the gravel we might be going somewhere get your help up yeah yeah Hur yeah it’s the Buddy road cuz the under pass comes out there yeah and then this should peel left and looks like it does car we’re also on the middle of the road all right let’s go again yeah they should go left yeah go a nice wide shoulder going into Big Chain all right I think we’re off and running now captain no idea using osm Maps too my tracker dude he um he a lagging behind so he sends him on the right track and then I’ll look back at the screen and then he says I’m off it so that’s when I probably should bring up Google Maps or or something like that double check where I am but hopefully we’re on the right right now it seems right we’re just on our way to corneth now and I think we go through another a town prior to corneth so we’ll find out we’ve just got to a highway I don’t think it’s the main highway but it is a busy road there seems to be a little bit of shoulder we don’t know how long we have to go through here for so we’ll find out I suppose we’ll just leg it as fast as we can as you see on the map here this Main Highway is this red line here looks like above us we’ll see how we goag there’s a big hill coming up here wasn’t it big hill so drawing a good gear why is the Green Arrow going the other way no idea but we’re doing it now the Greeks have been really good giving us a nice wide birth as they go past so see what happens here I love that you said that we’ll just leg it but it’s actually like up a hill legging it up a hill it looks like we’re on this road for a while though yeah it does look like we’re not peeling off at all we’re not getting off until we see B on the main highway is joining to us that’s man on our left no see there was a sign that said current Center time enough over here where do we want to be probably on the MD stop here why are you stoping cuz we can’t go anywhere I was going to get over to the far right there that’s up me reckons we turn left there I think it wants us to go to the tracky though oh we’re not even going to that’s why I said it goes via um we’ll stop here this to 151 cuz it wants us to keep going straight I think yeah that makes more sense to go straight yeah it wants us to go to Little T good yeah what about this road yeah that’s the one that I thought we were going on yeah yeah it is yeah Little Jess there for a second been a lot heer than I thought it was going to be far was I thinking pretty all you told me today was flat yeah I did I was wrong all right I’m just going to cut in here and say sorry about our camera angle we promise it does get a lot better the more confident we get on the bikes and the further we get into our tour we do struggle quite a bit with navigation throughout Greece and this is down to the app we are using which is open street maps we definitely still recommend it but it can at times be very hard to decipher where in the world you are just te right still thought it would be less busy road wellow we made it to corth windy old corneth quite the adventure wasn’t it was an adventure buddy windy ass look at that though that’s beautiful the water is blue even though the sun’s not out which is nice I plan now find a cafe that has free wi-fi a toilet and baked goods so we can sit down seems simple it’s probably going to be really difficult sit down and have a fade nice unicorn looking statue nice Pegasus a little G that’s Pegasus reckons unsure all right B good time let’s go all right let’s get it we’ve made it to the coast road we were only attacked by a few dogs and when I say attacked more like barked nicely and wagged their tails and I was very scared but didn’t eat my leg so there you go had a little stop off at corneth stopped off in corneth very beautiful town there was actually a lot going on wasn’t there lots of pedestrians took a while for us to get out of there because it was Carnage couple baked goods oh my God the baked good so yummy I had like a I didn’t know what I was ordering but it was like a potato burck I think something like that and it ended up being like potato and I think maybe spinach in it and then I got got what I thought was a meat bar turns out it was like carrot cake in a b Shake so it was like pieces of carrot and Nutmeg and there was like a walnut or something in it I didn’t think it was that nice SC thought it was nice tastes like carot cake right yeah it was really good kept this full and now we’re looking at the Gulf of corneth oh this is the gulf this is the gulf yeah it’s stunning isn’t it extremely blue excuse me that’s the other side of the golf where we could have rode to take a route but we’ went over those snowy mountains and now we’re actually on the coast all the way to Pat so out of corner they took us on a weird route didn’t it it did we went on many side roads which is why there were so many dogs um Scott got us lost maybe three or four times it kind of took us more Inland just to come back to the coast yes went very Inland we actually ran into some cycle tourists in town well it’s got just wed in them I didn’t even see them and then we could see that when we were Inland we were kind of looking down and we could see that on the main road and then I was like oh my God we’re in the wrong spot but no Scott just took us exactly like that yeah so me just ended up in the same spot but I suppose we didn’t have to drive in the highway cuz that was a busy highway very busy um people are so nice though everyone’s waving and they do like this little T toot to be like here I am it’s very nice yeah we’ll continue on along the coast to Pat to a toilet cuz AR needs to go to the loot oh God I want to say more it’s our current situation of a road this car’s flying like I said the great drivers they’ve been actually all right this look like it’s real Bill toop doesn’t it Lauren look at that look at the sweets on that yeah wow that looks Australian renovating the new apartment complex or something like that just just prior couple of locals here good day these narrow local roads weaving around cars and backtracking on gravel paths are all part of this new experience that we are head over heels for avoiding the territorial Farm dogs pushing power on busy highways are all absolutely worth it for these spots a beautiful Coastal Road right by this gorgeous blue water cute little restaurant here pumping beach bar this place would be absolutely pinging in summer months you can see on the beaches they don’t have any of their Sun chairs out on their Rocky beaches they’re all taken away but you can see where they would go in summertime then as it’s the 1st of April there’s no one around what’s his feel like chesty strap talking to the camera quite difficult trying to navigate through TR traffic shouldn’t be doing this but it’s good to put a face to the audio of chest stra pointing straight at Lauren the whole time or straight at nothing anyway absolutely loving our time here in grece at the moment it’s only day two but it’s great it’s bit blowy [Music] y we’ve just finished lunch up in uh vertia we went to a place called hook me up got two burgers some chips 8 a piece so not too bad uh Lauren found her toilet here she is behind me flying along she’s happy about that she actually went twice anyway you don’t even know that but how was how was lunch La lunch was delicious and um had a good old rest now we’re off down the coast we’ve only on 40 40 km today it’s 2:00 past 2:00 better get moving I think um it’s only 14646 we’re still got 30 plus kers to go though so we’ll check in when we find the spot to camp possibly all right let’s do it all right let’s do it we’ve just made it to Patra 80 km today with some tube problem this morning where a tire went flat and came off the bead um so had to put an in tube in with some sealant but finally got going and uh it’s pretty much been Highway the whole way here but we finally made it accommodation is about 400 m away I’m going to stay here for about 2 nights because there meant to be 30 mil in Patra tomorrow the storm never really eventuated in Patra but it was nice to have a rest day off the bikes a charge up of the batteries and resupply of groceries never go goes astray we are nursing some soreness in the hands and achilles so it was good to rest and readjust our bikes to get back at it tomorrow now what’s your plans tomorrow tomorrow we’re riding over this super amazing Bridge can’t wait to film it thege um it looks like a very amazing feat of architecture um and we’re heading north up to Amia via mesoni ooh that sounds fun along the coast and then we should be in Amia in about a day and a half we’re thinking um another 3 days here in Greece before crossing the border over into Albania we’re at this Airbnb in Patra and we’ve had a few bad luck moments uh firstly the water wasn’t running then the hot water wasn’t running and then our Wi-Fi was down for about 6 hours and I think the host must have felt bad she’s really nice they don’t speak much English but she just came to our door and gave us this beautiful looking she said it was like pie with spinach and fet on the inside it’s seriously the nicest thing I’ve ever eaten she said she just made it it’s like warm upen very good