In the northwest of Greece lies Epirus, a rugged land of lakes, rivers, mountains and ancient villages. Today it remains almost untouched, making it the perfect place to explore by bike
Words JAMES SPENDER Photography PATRIK LUNDIN
This is one of those facts that somehow evades the internet, which might mean it’s not a fact. But I refuse to accept that – a Greek man once told it to me on the island of Crete and he was tremendously old and had a shotgun in his car. It’s the explanation as to why Greek coffee is as it is.
Coffee, he said, has been around for an age, but it only came to Europe in the 1500s with the invading Ottoman Turks. Now, at this point in history the Ottoman Empire for the most part took Islam as its religion, while the Greeks were practising Orthodox Christianity (courtesy of the Byzantine Empire, aka, the Romans). This religious clash gave rise to a class system wherein the ruling Turks were rich, the subjugated Greeks poor, hence the only way for the average Greek to get coffee was to take their Ottoman masters’ used grounds, dry them out, re-grind them extra fine, then rebrew.
The result is the siltier-than-the-Nile Ellinikos kafe I’m tentatively sipping amid the morning commuters in a cafe in Ioannina, dressed in full kit, helmet on the table, bike propped nearby, doing a terrible job of blending in with the locals.
I am at least sat with a genuine Greek, Pavlos, who works at the hotel I’m staying at as a sort of all-purpose guide. Pavlos will take you catamaran sailing, cliff jumping, wreck diving, ultrarunning, sea kayaking and beer drinking. He’s a bit like a friend for hire, which is nice as I’m here on my own, and although I’ve visited Greece a lot I’ve never been to this part before.
This is Epirus, a region in the northwest on the border with Albania. If they’ve encountered it at all, most travellers will only have looked unwittingly at Epirus from the island of Corfu, just off its coast. This is not a well-known holiday destination, but I think that’s a good thing. Corfu sucks up the tourists, meaning that as much as any place you’ll find in Western Europe these days – and goodness knows travellers like me are the source of our own lament – Epirus is that horribly cliched word: authentic, a place that can offer adventure by two wheels.
Land of contradictions
We strike out north from Ioannina – or Yannena to its friends – the capital city of Epirus and, like many places in Greece, really, really old. The focal point of the city is its castle
