After saying goodbye to our team member Sarah and Waleed from the museum in Doha, we drove to Saudi Arabia and then to Abu Dhabi airport to pick up Eleni who arrived from Greece to join us. Eleni first met the Friendship Arabia team in Thassos during our Bahrain to Greece expedition and was fascinated with the idea of the tour. She asked if she could join one of our trips and was all the more interested in this tour since she had visited Oman last year and fallen in love with it.
The drive from Doha to Abu Dhabi airport was long -- 610 kms in fact -- and when we met Eleni it was quite late at night. Still, we decided to drive to Al Buraymi in Oman, since we had a meeting with Governor Ebrahim Al Busaidi the following morning. Al Busaidi who is chairman of the photography club in Oman, knows team members Haider and Shafeeq from a photography trip they had done earlier.
On Thursday morning Khadija, who works in the hotel Rosa Damascina, made us breakfast and hotel owner Ahmad Sadat, who was also our guide during our last visit to Syria en route to Greece, came and had a coffee with us and wished us all the best for the long drive back.
It is very hard to leave Syria. Every time we visit this country, especially the capital, I am reminded of the quote by Ibn Jubair: "If there was a heaven on earth, it would definitely be Damascus." It is considered one of the oldest constantly inhabited cities in the world.
Syria is also described as the most outstanding country in the world because it underlies the history of humankind in time and place. A journey through Syria becomes a journey of discovery filled with constant wonder due to the various arts, culture, civilizations and sense of beauty, and especially due to the overwhelming generosity of Syrian hospitality.
After spending the night at Nigde for much needed rest, we visited Nigde Fort which used to serve as a jail in the republican era. The fort was completely restored in 2007.
Since it is on a hill, it has become a popular spot for locals and tourists to sit and dine and look over the city.
Yesterday we left Greece en route to Bahrain. We spent our last day walking around the little town of Chora, the capital of Samothrace.
We had a light lunch before heading to the port where we took a ferry to Alexandroupolis. It was a relatively short drive to the border. Crossing the Greek-Turkish border went very smoothly.
It was sad leaving Greece, we had such a great time there. The Greek people and government were very hospitable. We enjoyed the places we visited and we will miss our old friends and the ones we were very fortunate to meet this time around.
After we left Philippi, we drove to Alexandroupoli, to take the ferry to Samothrace – it is just over a two-hour journey. After our arrival, we drove to our hotel, Samothrace Village on the main road, next to the sea.
Samothrace is located in the northeast Aegean, opposite Alexandroupoli, 29 nautical miles distant. It belong to the Perfecture of Evros and covers an area of 178 sg. km, with population of 5,000. It is still relatively untouched by mass tourism. It was first inhabited in the Neolithic era, in around 1000 BC Thracian colonisers came here, intermarrying with the indigenous population.
Afte we woke up the next morning, we drove to the Samothrace Museum for a tour and also visited the sanctuary, which attained its zenith in Hellenistic times. Then we drove to Therma for lunch and refreshment, after which we went to a small waterfall and met some locals who advised us to go to see the big waterfalls.
Ali and I woke early this morning to catch the ferry leaving Thassos to the mainland, and headed to Philippi where we were to get a tour of the Dikili Tash excavation site.
We got there and Dr. Demetra and Dr. Zoe showed us around and gave us a brief history about the excavation that started during the 1920s and the significance of the site.
We were also lucky to meet the Mayor of Philippi, Mr. Lazaros who wanted to check the progress of the excavation and got the chance to talk to him about future cooperation and he was more than happy to help in any way he can.
It's been a few easier days here in Thassos, and we took this time to wind down a little and plan the return route. Ali was busy looking at different options and as for me, I got hired to do a virtual tour for the hotel we stayed at earlier (Blue Dream Palace).
Yesterday, we visited Saliara (baby bib) Beach which was recommended to us by many locals. Its water has a distinct green appearance since the sand here is marble rather than the regular sand found at other beaches.
This is our second day in Thassos since we started our trip back to Bahrain. Earlier this morning Taha and I had breakfast at a restaurant called Cheers, owned by an English couple who visited the island a while back and got caught in its charm and decided to stay and call it home.
While the island is known for its spectacular beaches, it's also a popular spot for hiking. After breakfast, all of us went off-roading, trying to reach the highest peak of the island. We were very close but unfortunately the end of the road was completely out of reach and we couldn't continue.
The LR3 did an admirable job cutting through the forest and unpaved roads, not a complete surprise but an excitement nonetheless. We took plenty of photos like we always do.
With our trip to Greece drawing to an end, Eleni, a friend of ours, suggested we visit Xanthi to see some old houses, and a small village called Krios, to see the tobacco plantations and some mosques, since the majority of the people in this village are Muslim.
We got the midday ferry to Keromoti and from there we drove to Xanthi. We were met on our arrival by Feni, Eleni's sister, and we went to a coffee shop and since it was hot (35C), we had some soft drinks. We then walked to the old city of Xanthi and saw some of the houses, which were built by some tobacco merchants.
We left Thessaloniki at 9am and drove to Kavala to meet Antigoni, an award-winning Greek jewellery designer, who showed us some of her latest work. We came to know her when she was exhibiting at Jewellery Arabia in Bahrain last year.
Later we drove to the port of Kavala to take the ferry to Prinos, another port in Thassos. We reached around 1.15pm and drove to Mironi Hotel, our base for the next three days. We met Yiannis Batsios and his wife Eleni, who I know from my 2008 trip and who have become good friends. Yiannis is very interested in promoting Thassos and he gave us all the information that we need and told us about all the places worth seeing on the island.
Tylos to Thassos 2010
