Greece - Korina Miller [261]
One such trip involves driving west through Valtos to reach Mikri Doxipara, where recent excavations of a 1st-century-AD Roman tomb have unearthed five interred funerary carts with horses and harnesses. From here, turn north to Pendalofos for lunch and then to Petrota, the last Greek village in the northwestern corner before the Bulgarian border, with vineyards and traditional stone houses. The road continues eastward along the border through Ormenio and Dikea, before heading south back to Orestiada.
Some 19km north of Orestiada near Kastanies, the Ardas River Festival ( 25520 81140; www.ardas.gr) occurs each July, drawing several thousand young people. The festival attracts top Greek singers, Turkish and Bulgarian groups, and DJs both Greek and foreign. Besides music, there’s beach volleyball, minisoccer, motocross, theatrical performances and water-park trips.
Kastanies is also Greece’s northernmost Turkish border crossing; evocative Edirne (Adrianoupolis in Greek) is just 9km beyond it.
Finally, just 4km from Orestiada, in the village of Lepti, Apiso Ranch ( 6977817820; Lepti village; 9am-9pm) offers horse riding along the Thracian plain.
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EPIROS ΗΠΕΙΡΟΣ
pop 352,400 / area 9203 sq km
Northern Greece’s most spectacular sights are surely those of Epiros, a place that will (literally) take your breath away. The lofty Pindos Mountain range, that comprises most of it, has for thousands of years been safeguarding civilisations and confounding invaders. Bisecting the Pindos is the stunning 12km-long Vikos Gorge – probably the world’s deepest – and now a national park filled with leafy forests, waterfalls and ice-cold mountain lakes, and surrounded by immaculate traditional stone-and-slate villages, the Zagorohoria.
South of these mountains, the provincial capital of Ioannina is a fun, studenty city with history and ambience, set along a placid lake decorated with an island. To the west lies the Ionian Sea, where several alluring coastal spots include long sandy beaches punctuated by archaeological sites. As with the Ionian Islands just opposite, centuries of Venetian rule have given the Epirot coast an Italian flavour, especially at the microresort of Parga. For those continuing to Italy itself, international ferries operate from Igoumenitsa, a bit further north.
Getting to Epiros can be an event in itself. The main road, whether it be from Kozani in Macedonia or from Kalambaka in Thessaly, winds up over the Pindos Mountains – except when it cuts straight through them, inside the massive tunnels created for the Egnatia Odos cross-country highway, a spectacular feat of modern engineering that cannot fail to impress.
History
When the Dorians invaded Greece (1100–1000 BC), three main Greek-speaking tribes emerged in Epiros: the Thesproti, the Chaones and the Molossi. The last won out and, showing savvy, married their princess Olympias to the powerful Macedonian king, Philip II. However, this created conflict with Rome, a rising power. The most famous Molossi ruler, King Pyrrhus (319–272 BC), defeated the Romans at Ausculum, but at a very heavy price; the event gave birth to a concept, the ‘Pyrrhic victory’, that remains with us today.
When the Roman Empire split in AD 395, Epiros became the westernmost province of the Byzantine (Eastern) Empire. Later, it was a vital stronghold of Hellenism after Latin Crusaders overthrew the Byzantine Empire in 1204; refugees from noble Byzantine families escaped to Ioannina and the mountains, establishing a key Byzantine successor state there.
Although the empire was partially restored in 1261, stubbornly independent lords continued their infighting. In the 14th century, Stefan Dušan’s expanding Serbian empire briefly took over, but in 1430 the Ottoman Turks conquered for good. When they invaded Constantinople 22 years later, the phenomenon of eminent Greek refugees fleeing to Epiros’ mountain fastnesses was repeated.