After 4 months on the road, we have discovered that if you plan your overnight park up based on cities you want to visit.. trouble ensues. Examples? Nice, France. I'm sure it's a beautiful city. Could we find anywhere to park? (even off-season) No. We gave up after find ourselves knee deep in it's INSANE road layout, random height restrictions and apparent lack of parking facilities. My mum is always saying 'You're right by *insert big well known city here*, You should go and visit, you're missing out on all these places. MOTHER: Would I love to visit *popular well-known city* if I was to fly in, stay in a nice hotel and simply use the public transport on offer to me? YES. Is it as fun when you're driving (on the wrong side of the road, with the wheel on the other side) in a city which you know will have a messed up road layout, LOTS of cars who appear to have limited driving safety concerns and your only back up is Google Maps? ABSOLUTELY NOT. This being said, often we find a comfortable balance, as many cities in Europe have out of city parking where we can avoid the bustle of the city but get public transport to the places we want to see.
Our usual method of finding park ups, involves the Park4Night app. For those of you who don't know what it is, essentially it is a system that uses a map to show you places that are available for overnight parking. It categorises them based on price (most are free), type of camping (wild camping/campsite/car park etc.), services for campers, and allows users to add, rate and leave reviews regarding park ups they've used. All of our most interesting (and most beautiful) park ups, have been found on this app - which leads me nicely into the theme of this weeks blogpost : We found an abandoned thermal spring.
Turning off a regular looking coastal road in Kavala, Greece and with little civilisation around, we pulled up to Elefteron (Ελευθερών). Our first thoughts? This place is SUPER. CREEPY. In fact, we actually spent a few minutes debating whether or not it was too creepy to stay overnight... then Alice saw friendly stray dogs, so the decision was made (as it often is where dogs are concerned). After consulting our good friend Google, from what we can gather, this place was a working thermal spa resort up until as recently as 2009. Now, it seems to be mostly characterised by dilapidated buildings; many dilapidated buildings. Despite that, it was actually quite a social hub, and we watched for a while as people would come and go. Alice allocated a large proportion of her time to the stray dogs, which true to herself, she named. (Side note: I'm thinking of bringing Alice in on a guest blog to talk purely about all the abandoned dog friends she's made. Yes, there are that many.) Pictured below are Lenin and Marx, who got their names from the anarchist/communist feel we got from the place, mainly from the graffiti, since now that I think about it, they should have had names of Greek gods or something.
I DIGRESS. On the second day, I plucked up the courage to go for a soak. The water was around 40 Degrees Celsius with rich sulfur sources - which I was happy about since it basically made my eczema disappear. Whilst I was in there, I couldn't help thinking about how incredible nature is. I thought back to my previous couple of blog posts where I had been down on the weather, and it reminded me that regardless of how inconvenient nature might be... It's still incredible, and something that we should really appreciate and protect. I couldn't help feel sad and wonder why this beautiful place had been abandoned. After doing some research, there seems to be a 'stand-off' in regards to the future of Elefteron. In 2012, the government planned to allow investors to buy the site and turn it back into a spa resort. These plans were called into question by a Citizen's Initiative who wish to protect the archaeological significance of the site. Due to, I assume, the economic climate of the country, the abandoned thermal spring seems to have been forgotten about (formally at least). Meanwhile, it appears to be enjoyed by locals, tourists and travellers a like. An unusual find, and certainly a memorable overnight stop.
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