Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Dean Poulopoulos of Overland N’Explore on Overlanding Greece

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Dean Poulopoulos of Overland N’Explore on Overlanding Greece · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
0:08
Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and on today's episode, I'm joined by Dean Polopolis,
0:12
Speaker 1: the owner and founder of Overland and Explore and Overland
0:16
Speaker 1: Outfitter Near Appens. In this episode, Dean and I touch
0:20
Speaker 1: on practical realities of overlanding Greece, including budget, route, where
0:26
Speaker 1: to camp, and how great the coffee is. We'll also
0:29
Speaker 1: touch on Dean's history and background, how we got into overlanding,
0:33
Speaker 1: and all things grease. I hope you enjoyed that episode,
0:36
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in.
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1:08
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm your host,
1:11
Speaker 1: Ashley Jordano, and today I'm joined by Dean Polopoulos from
1:16
Speaker 1: Overland and Explore and he is here with me today
1:19
Speaker 1: in Greece at your shop near Athens. Thank you so
1:23
Speaker 1: much for coming on the podcast.
1:25
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me at your podcast. It's really
1:28
Speaker 3: nice to be here because it's funny. We've been listening
1:31
Speaker 3: to your podcast for like years and it's a really
1:34
Speaker 3: nice opportunity to be here with you and have this chat.
1:38
Speaker 1: What are some of your favorite episodes you've listened to.
1:41
Speaker 3: That's a hard one. It's like asking somebody what's your
1:43
Speaker 3: favorite song. There's an answer to it. Yeah, yeah, So.
1:48
Speaker 4: Thank you for being here.
1:50
Speaker 3: And it's a long way like where you came from,
1:55
Speaker 3: and it's great that you drove all the way down
1:57
Speaker 3: south to Greece. Yes, so my name is Constanting, localost
2:02
Speaker 3: friends and family just called me Dean for obvious reasons.
2:06
Speaker 4: Yeah.
2:07
Speaker 3: And we started Overland Explore back in twenty nineteen as
2:14
Speaker 3: a social media paid just for friends and other people
2:19
Speaker 3: of the overlanding community to share our experiences in our
2:22
Speaker 3: travel and chat with people about different overlanding topics and stuff.
2:27
Speaker 3: But everything started back in twenty fifteen when we got
2:30
Speaker 3: our first vehicle, which was a nineteen ninety six Disco one.
2:38
Speaker 3: And the reason why we got that is really simple.
2:42
Speaker 3: It was super cheap and back in twenty fifteen, it
2:45
Speaker 3: was really cheap less than a roof top ten. We
2:48
Speaker 3: got this one and we started doing a few local
2:51
Speaker 3: camping trips with it, and we didn't even have a
2:54
Speaker 3: ground tent at the moment we were sleeping inside. Then
2:57
Speaker 3: we tried to switch to a an actual ground ten
3:01
Speaker 3: because we had lots of stuff inside.
3:03
Speaker 4: Than an awning room.
3:04
Speaker 1: Like.
3:04
Speaker 3: We went through lots of different setups and then we
3:08
Speaker 3: finally got our first roof to tent nice yep. It
3:13
Speaker 3: was a soft cell one and we spent four or
3:16
Speaker 3: five years with its stent and we mostly traveled like
3:21
Speaker 3: around Greece with Artisco because our main goal of travel
3:26
Speaker 3: was to go as remote as possible and explore new
3:29
Speaker 3: places that we I was spending hours in Google Maps
3:34
Speaker 3: trying to find really remote locations that they didn't have
3:37
Speaker 3: any photos of and go and explore them there.
3:41
Speaker 1: And this was with your girlfriend.
3:43
Speaker 3: Always, Yeah, yeah, it was into it because she loves nature,
3:46
Speaker 3: so that really worked out because I'm not sure if
3:50
Speaker 3: I believe I would end up doing overlanding, but it
3:53
Speaker 3: made my life way easier going together. And so the
3:59
Speaker 3: main thing is that I've always loved exploring the outdoors.
4:03
Speaker 3: I think this goes back to my childhood because I
4:08
Speaker 3: had a crazy obsession with wildlife when I was young,
4:11
Speaker 3: and I wanted to be anacho explorer. So yeah, that
4:15
Speaker 3: was like my first dream back when I was six
4:18
Speaker 3: years old, and combined that with a few trips we
4:23
Speaker 3: did to a few national forests with my father and
4:25
Speaker 3: he was teaching me how to read paper maps. So
4:29
Speaker 3: then my second obsition with maps grew somewhere around there.
4:32
Speaker 1: And this was increase.
4:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it was.
4:35
Speaker 3: Actually we were going for every weekend on skin Yass
4:39
Speaker 3: National Forest, which is like five minutes from here.
4:42
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
4:43
Speaker 4: So yeah, I was young.
4:45
Speaker 3: So I was smaller, so that National Park looked huge
4:48
Speaker 3: to me back then. And then it was when I
4:53
Speaker 3: started getting into maps and loving the whole thing. Four
4:56
Speaker 3: by fours were always around at the time because my
4:59
Speaker 3: mother had one, our friends had one. My mother was
5:03
Speaker 3: a horse was involved with horse training and horse riding
5:07
Speaker 3: and stuff, so we did have like lots of four
5:09
Speaker 3: by fours lying around.
5:11
Speaker 4: My first class.
5:12
Speaker 3: Was the second gen for Bronco and Lazier K five
5:18
Speaker 3: for some reason that they're not popular at all in Greece.
5:20
Speaker 3: I don't know how I managed to get them. A
5:22
Speaker 3: friend of ours had one, so it was like the
5:24
Speaker 3: first four by four that I stepped into. Fast forward
5:28
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen got a disco. But unfortunately, our works schedule
5:34
Speaker 3: was not allowing us to travel, and we were mainly
5:37
Speaker 3: backpacking and doing trips with rental four by fours and Wales, Scotland, Spain,
5:44
Speaker 3: the Canary Islands and stuff, but we were not able
5:46
Speaker 3: to live on a bigger expedition with our vehicle for
5:49
Speaker 3: a big trip.
5:50
Speaker 1: And what were you doing at work at that time?
5:53
Speaker 4: Yeah?
5:53
Speaker 3: I was working for a company on the strategy and
5:57
Speaker 3: growth department around the maritime sector, which was something that
6:01
Speaker 3: I was not enjoying. Yeah, for lots of reasons. And
6:05
Speaker 3: the thing is that I was gotting myself spending lots
6:08
Speaker 3: of hours even at work, looking into overlanding stories, listening
6:13
Speaker 3: to overlind podcasts, and then I'm like, you're spending a
6:17
Speaker 3: lot of time into this, so you should try to
6:20
Speaker 3: turn this into your actual job. And twenty twenty four
6:26
Speaker 3: was the year that I decided that was it and
6:29
Speaker 3: I have to do something with overlanding. And so at
6:34
Speaker 3: the time, we had just bought our new vehicle, new
6:38
Speaker 3: with four hundred thousand kilometers in it, Disco two, and
6:43
Speaker 3: we were looking for a tent. We had a used
6:46
Speaker 3: a loocap at the time, but it was really old
6:49
Speaker 3: and we wanted to go into something like brand new
6:52
Speaker 3: and we were looking into Felon shelter at the time,
6:56
Speaker 3: but it was not important in Europe. And I was like,
6:59
Speaker 3: that's it, that's the one. That's how we start getting
7:02
Speaker 3: into overlanding as a job. So I reached out to
7:05
Speaker 3: bet and Joel from New Zealand and I'm like, we
7:08
Speaker 3: want to get a tent for our disco, but it
7:10
Speaker 3: would be great if we could also be your European distributors.
7:13
Speaker 4: And they were like super happy with that.
7:16
Speaker 3: We had like few chats and they're great because I
7:19
Speaker 3: love companies that have an actual face in front of
7:22
Speaker 3: them and you don't speak like with the marketing manager,
7:24
Speaker 3: and you speak like with the actual person that has
7:27
Speaker 3: designed the tent. And that's how we started. We started
7:32
Speaker 3: building this old place here. This used to be a
7:35
Speaker 3: horse table actually, and we spend one year with friends
7:40
Speaker 3: and some professionals of course, turning this into our base
7:44
Speaker 3: and we got our first shipment of tents in November
7:49
Speaker 3: from New Zealand and started working in the overland market.
7:52
Speaker 4: Which is great. I love it. It doesn't feel like work.
7:54
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm seeing everybody doesn't feel like work
7:59
Speaker 3: at all.
8:00
Speaker 1: Is the perfect place to be and the space. So
8:03
Speaker 1: for the listeners that aren't watching on YouTube, the space
8:06
Speaker 1: is really cool. Like you were saying, it used to
8:08
Speaker 1: be a barn and now you've outfitted it with There
8:11
Speaker 1: are two tents inside the Felton Shelter tents and the
8:16
Speaker 1: branding of your shop and business and pictures of your
8:21
Speaker 1: travels and what else? Am I seeing a California license
8:24
Speaker 1: plate and some other fun details in here? So it's
8:28
Speaker 1: a really great space.
8:29
Speaker 4: Yeah.
8:29
Speaker 3: We try to bring like brands that we have used ourselves,
8:32
Speaker 3: because our main goal is to provide stuff that we
8:36
Speaker 3: have experienced with. So that's why we have apart from
8:40
Speaker 3: Feldon Shelter, read Arch Electronics and front Runner and AB
8:43
Speaker 3: because it's things that we have actually used and we
8:46
Speaker 3: can recommend because Our main goal is to, as I
8:51
Speaker 3: said before, keep a face in front of the of
8:53
Speaker 3: the company and like to be able to chat with
8:57
Speaker 3: our customers throughout our own experiences regarding a product or something.
9:02
Speaker 3: As I told you when we first started overland Explorer,
9:04
Speaker 3: rather the social media paids, floating travels and trying to
9:08
Speaker 3: inspire other people and get inspired by other people.
9:11
Speaker 4: So we still want to do that.
9:13
Speaker 3: It practically turned into a company, but we still want
9:16
Speaker 3: to keep that character to the page, and so we're
9:20
Speaker 3: trying to bring over the overlanding community increase and in
9:24
Speaker 3: Europe around this place, so we do have a small
9:27
Speaker 3: campfire outside with a few benches, and we do host
9:32
Speaker 3: some Sunday campfire events that we call them, which like
9:35
Speaker 3: practically like a meetup for overlanders and campers to gather here,
9:40
Speaker 3: have a chat, have a coffee and discuss about new projects,
9:43
Speaker 3: new travels, their own experiences, make friends around the community,
9:48
Speaker 3: because it's great the overlanding community is growing in Europe
9:52
Speaker 3: and it's a great thing to meet people that have
9:55
Speaker 3: the same interest that you do, and.
10:00
Speaker 4: It's great to have.
10:00
Speaker 3: We know we have a Sunday within the month that
10:04
Speaker 3: we're going to gather and we're going to exchange stories
10:07
Speaker 3: and it's great.
10:08
Speaker 1: I love that. I love bringing community together like that.
10:11
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you too about the European
10:15
Speaker 1: overland market, because there's some differences between the North American
10:19
Speaker 1: market and Europe. And I'm so fascinated by the differences
10:23
Speaker 1: because I'm not sure that people would think, oh, when
10:25
Speaker 1: I'm in Europe, I can get Max tracks in Greece,
10:28
Speaker 1: or I can get a Felden sheltered tent in Greece.
10:31
Speaker 1: Maybe they think that they can, but there are some
10:33
Speaker 1: products here that are familiar to us for sure from
10:35
Speaker 1: coming from North America.
10:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:38
Speaker 3: I think the reason why these two markets are they're
10:41
Speaker 3: not completely different, but they do have some different points
10:44
Speaker 3: is that overlending. I'm not going to put a term
10:49
Speaker 3: into overlanding because like lots of people have their own
10:51
Speaker 3: term about it. But there are some major differences in
10:57
Speaker 3: traveling in the US than traveling in Europe. Yes, for example,
11:03
Speaker 3: because of the weather in northern Europe, lots of people
11:07
Speaker 3: go for vans or vehicles that they can live inside
11:12
Speaker 3: of them, and not that many roof de tents and
11:15
Speaker 3: such stuff the southern Europe. It's I guess the opposite
11:19
Speaker 3: like we do get a lot lots of roofs of
11:22
Speaker 3: tents around, not that many vans compared to northern Europe.
11:26
Speaker 3: So it's like different dynamics from the US market. And
11:31
Speaker 3: I think that the main difference between the US and
11:34
Speaker 3: European market is that we don't have lots of producers
11:38
Speaker 3: here of Atlantic year. Like we do have some big
11:41
Speaker 3: ones and lots of others that are smaller, but most
11:44
Speaker 3: of the stuff are important either from the US or
11:46
Speaker 3: Australia South Africa. Yeah, while in the US it's crazy
11:50
Speaker 3: there's so many companies that can do lots of custom
11:53
Speaker 3: works on your vehicle, and you do have like lots
11:56
Speaker 3: of options, plus the fact that Europe is I would
12:00
Speaker 3: say the options for vehicles in Europe it's much narrower
12:05
Speaker 3: land of one in the US. If you look into Toyota,
12:09
Speaker 3: you can either get the land Cruiser or Highlax, while
12:14
Speaker 3: in the US you can get the land Cruiser, the
12:17
Speaker 3: Goma Tandra there for runner.
12:19
Speaker 1: Yeah.
12:20
Speaker 4: So that's why.
12:22
Speaker 3: I believe there are more companies making accessories there because
12:25
Speaker 3: you do have more options to work on.
12:27
Speaker 4: But I think it's growing in Europe as.
12:29
Speaker 3: Well, and our goal here is to bring some brands
12:32
Speaker 3: that are popular outside of Europe as well, just like
12:36
Speaker 3: Fallon Shelter, they were already popular in New Zealand and
12:38
Speaker 3: Australia and Japan. And yeah, it's a good thing to
12:43
Speaker 3: have options so you can get most of the US
12:48
Speaker 3: made products in Europe as think as well.
12:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm wondering about your main client base, like are
12:57
Speaker 1: you seeing overlanding have an up to in Greece or
13:01
Speaker 1: are your customers mostly throughout all of Europe.
13:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's mainly customers throughout Europe. It's too
13:10
Speaker 3: early because like we had, like our first stipment landed
13:13
Speaker 3: here in November, so we do have lots of Greek customers.
13:16
Speaker 3: And now since the beginning of twenty twenty five, we
13:19
Speaker 3: started working with Italy, Belgium, Sweden as well, So yeah,
13:25
Speaker 3: we do get customers all around Europe. I think that
13:27
Speaker 3: the landover community also helped about this because we started
13:31
Speaker 3: out with land rovers. I think that most of our
13:33
Speaker 3: European customers reached out to us because of that.
13:37
Speaker 4: So it's fun. But in Greece as well.
13:40
Speaker 3: I think that the whole overlanding thing started mostly after COVID.
13:44
Speaker 3: There were lots of people before COVID as well, but
13:47
Speaker 3: the boom was like during the quarantines. And now the
13:52
Speaker 3: thing is that I see lots of people looking for
13:55
Speaker 3: quality gear and I was not expected that to be
14:00
Speaker 3: like to have such a big reachs increase because you
14:03
Speaker 3: can get like for sure, cheaper tense and Felton shelters.
14:07
Speaker 3: But I see lots of people looking for quality and
14:10
Speaker 3: the thing that I like is that people looking for
14:14
Speaker 3: someone to chat with and talk about their plans and stuff.
14:17
Speaker 3: That's what I love. I can have a customer here
14:19
Speaker 3: and we can keep on chatting for two hours and
14:22
Speaker 3: then we practically like I don't know, I have lots
14:26
Speaker 3: of customers calling like their friends after that.
14:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that was my goal.
14:29
Speaker 3: I don't want to I want to see somebody as
14:32
Speaker 3: someone who has a project, and you cannot serve a
14:36
Speaker 3: project with one hour.
14:38
Speaker 4: You should sit down and chat with the guy.
14:40
Speaker 3: And because everybody has different needs and different type of traveling,
14:45
Speaker 3: so you cannot serve one customer the same way you
14:50
Speaker 3: would serve another one.
14:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
14:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I also love that kind of dynamics and
14:55
Speaker 3: the overlanding industry. Every customer is a new project, yeah too,
14:59
Speaker 3: because he has different type of trip that he wants
15:02
Speaker 3: to do. They camp in a completely different way that
15:04
Speaker 3: we are. Like, we have lots of people asking for
15:07
Speaker 3: diesel hitters, we've never used one, right, Yeah, so it's fun, Yeah,
15:12
Speaker 3: very cool.
15:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. Tell me why did you choose
15:16
Speaker 1: your latest Disco all right? And why is it a
15:20
Speaker 1: great vehicle for overlanding in Greece?
15:23
Speaker 4: All right? I think in Europe in general. I'll tell
15:26
Speaker 4: you why.
15:26
Speaker 3: So let's go back in twenty fifteen, because the Disco
15:30
Speaker 3: two came from Disco one. So the first vehicle that
15:35
Speaker 3: we wanted to kid out for overlanding was our Disco one.
15:37
Speaker 3: It was a nineteen ninety six model and we got
15:40
Speaker 3: it because it was cheap, so that was the main
15:42
Speaker 3: reason behind. So at the time I had no idea
15:45
Speaker 3: about I havn't heard of the infamous reliability of land rowers,
15:49
Speaker 3: and I was just like, that looks nice and yeah,
15:51
Speaker 3: it's cheap, so let's go for it. And I'm really
15:54
Speaker 3: happy that we did get a Disco one because we've
15:56
Speaker 3: learned a lot on that vehicle because it was really
15:58
Speaker 3: badly maintained and it made us do a lot of
16:02
Speaker 3: work on it, and that was a good thing. And
16:05
Speaker 3: then we kept that vehicle for eight years because I
16:09
Speaker 3: get that attached on things, so that the Disco was
16:13
Speaker 3: one of the things that was really attached to it
16:15
Speaker 3: because it was we had lots of memories with it,
16:17
Speaker 3: and I didn't want to let it go. And I
16:19
Speaker 3: was looking into land cruisers because there were lots of
16:24
Speaker 3: moments with a Disco one that I'm like, when we
16:28
Speaker 3: get back from the stream, I'm gonna get it to Yoda,
16:30
Speaker 3: and I was frustrated stuff, But then we drove back
16:35
Speaker 3: and I was like, we had some like really good
16:38
Speaker 3: time in that vehicle, so maybe I'm not going to
16:41
Speaker 3: sell it this year. So we're thinking about what vehicle
16:45
Speaker 3: we should go next for lots of time, and then
16:51
Speaker 3: Disco two's are not really popular in Greece, especially the
16:55
Speaker 3: ones that are diesel that did defive engine because diesels
16:58
Speaker 3: were banned I think up to two thousand and seven increased,
17:01
Speaker 3: so you couldn't get them that easily.
17:04
Speaker 4: So I say this.
17:07
Speaker 3: There was a guy who was selling the Disco two,
17:09
Speaker 3: and by the time that I saw the Disco two
17:11
Speaker 3: being listed there like I kind of call this guy
17:14
Speaker 3: and it was a t D five. It was important
17:16
Speaker 3: from Italy and I called him. I'm like, I'm gonna
17:19
Speaker 3: come and get your car, and.
17:21
Speaker 4: I got it.
17:22
Speaker 3: I had both discos at the same time. I sold
17:25
Speaker 3: the D one and then started working on the D
17:27
Speaker 3: two because, like, my main point was to have a
17:29
Speaker 3: diesel vehicle, and the reason why I went from a
17:32
Speaker 3: D one to a D two because it really similar.
17:35
Speaker 3: The D two is a bit bigger than the Disco one,
17:38
Speaker 3: so we needed just a bit more space. We couldn't
17:40
Speaker 3: fit our freeds in the Disco one, which was funny.
17:42
Speaker 3: We had to fall down our seats not to get it.
17:45
Speaker 3: But it fits on the D two and it was
17:47
Speaker 3: a platform that we knew. I think that was the
17:51
Speaker 3: main idea behind going for a Disco two. It was
17:54
Speaker 3: so similar with a D one, and we were like, okay,
17:58
Speaker 3: so it's this mostly the same mechanical components. It's the
18:04
Speaker 3: same platform, so we can have lots of like our
18:07
Speaker 3: toal system can somehow be modified and fit there.
18:11
Speaker 4: We knew what work and what didn't on the D one, so.
18:14
Speaker 3: We were going prepared for the D two in a
18:17
Speaker 3: way because that We also changed our set up in
18:20
Speaker 3: the D two for I don't know three or four
18:21
Speaker 3: times to make it work, and I think that was
18:25
Speaker 3: the main reason. We were familiar with the platform, and
18:28
Speaker 3: we said that we're not going to focus into building
18:31
Speaker 3: something completely new and we're going to focus on traveling more. So, yeah,
18:36
Speaker 3: that was the plan.
18:37
Speaker 1: So the foundation of experience that you had.
18:40
Speaker 4: From the first say yes you used into the.
18:42
Speaker 1: Second, Yeah, that's great, and then do what are some
18:47
Speaker 1: of the main modifications that you've made to this bill.
18:51
Speaker 3: So I didn't want to do lots of modifications.
18:53
Speaker 4: It's right.
18:54
Speaker 3: I think that if you keep it as stock as
18:57
Speaker 3: possible up to a point that you make it more capable,
19:00
Speaker 3: but not do some crazy work on it, and then
19:03
Speaker 3: you are somewhere not in your own country and something
19:06
Speaker 3: breaks down and then you cannot find like the guy
19:08
Speaker 3: who fabricated it to make it work. So we just
19:14
Speaker 3: got some certituoes terrains and they wouldn't fit, so I
19:19
Speaker 3: had to change the suspension. That's why we went with
19:21
Speaker 3: some old money Immu nitrocharter suspension. Just one point five
19:25
Speaker 3: inches left to get the tires to fit, and that
19:30
Speaker 3: was it with the major modifications on the vehicle. It
19:33
Speaker 3: also has a remap and it's in remap, which is
19:36
Speaker 3: quite popular on Tidy five's and then we just said
19:40
Speaker 3: that we don't want to delete the second row hits
19:44
Speaker 3: because this is also my daily driver, so I wanted
19:47
Speaker 3: to happen there. So it just went with a really
19:50
Speaker 3: simple chores system that we build ourselves a fridge and
19:56
Speaker 3: we used the same roof rack that we had on
19:58
Speaker 3: the D one.
19:59
Speaker 4: We yeah, this worked perfectly.
20:02
Speaker 3: Even the bumper was on a D one, slightly modified
20:05
Speaker 3: it to feed the D two, but it was so
20:08
Speaker 3: good transitioning from the one car to the other. Everything
20:10
Speaker 3: was super smooth. The thing that made a huge difference
20:13
Speaker 3: on D two where the gallowing windows yes nice that
20:18
Speaker 3: I never I was like, you don't need them until
20:22
Speaker 3: I installed them, and I'm like, that's one of my
20:25
Speaker 3: favorite modes in the vehicle because when you're on a
20:28
Speaker 3: station wagon and not going to pick up, it's like
20:31
Speaker 3: playing tet tris with how things are going to go
20:34
Speaker 3: on a trip. And these two gullo wings made a
20:37
Speaker 3: huge difference because there is a huge dead space lying
20:39
Speaker 3: behind those windows, and we just built like a self
20:44
Speaker 3: behind it and we got all of our torches, pegs,
20:49
Speaker 3: some towels, things that you use around camp and it's
20:52
Speaker 3: really easy accessible and you don't have to dig inside
20:55
Speaker 3: the vehicle in order to get them. So yeah, I
20:57
Speaker 3: think that the gallo wings and the table on the
20:59
Speaker 3: rear door our favorite modifications because you don't have to
21:02
Speaker 3: take your table out and set it up, you just
21:04
Speaker 3: fold it down from your rear door. You can have
21:06
Speaker 3: a real quick meal and then keep going.
21:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
21:09
Speaker 3: I think of the modifications who are like kept into
21:13
Speaker 3: us giving to a minimum, just things that we needed
21:16
Speaker 3: to be there and think because on that D one
21:18
Speaker 3: we were getting so much stuff that we didn't need.
21:21
Speaker 1: Seems to be a recurring theme everybody that I talked to,
21:26
Speaker 1: and I get it because we were there too at
21:28
Speaker 1: the beginning. Yeah, it's just the natural progression of things, right.
21:32
Speaker 1: It was just overpacking and then the more time you
21:35
Speaker 1: spend on the road, the more you realize what you
21:36
Speaker 1: actually need and you start to whittle it down exactly. Yeah.
21:41
Speaker 5: And a special thanks to Adrenaline Industries for their support
21:45
Speaker 5: of this week's podcast. Adrenaline is making some of the
21:48
Speaker 5: most exceptional expedition campers on the market, and they are
21:52
Speaker 5: made right here in the USA. Jud and his team
21:56
Speaker 5: of skilled craftsmen are building overland trucks based on heavy
22:00
Speaker 5: duty American truck platforms, integrating comfortable composite living modules with
22:06
Speaker 5: high clearance forward drive. These trucks feature forty three inch tires,
22:11
Speaker 5: robust bumpers winches, and a conversion to single rear wheels.
22:16
Speaker 5: For their expedition trucks, they're building on extreme duty industrial
22:20
Speaker 5: four whel drives like the BAE with four or six
22:24
Speaker 5: wheel drive, reserve payload capacity, and third world serviceability. All
22:30
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22:34
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22:39
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22:47
Speaker 3: For example, we had two more extra Jerry cans on
22:50
Speaker 3: a swing away arm on the rear bumper, and we
22:54
Speaker 3: didn't really need those because if you travel around Europe
22:57
Speaker 3: you can get your tank fulfilled almost everywhere. And we
23:00
Speaker 3: did have the forty liter tank on the footweel of
23:02
Speaker 3: the rear of the passengers, and we were like, these
23:06
Speaker 3: two jerrycans are super heavy and all armed swing away
23:11
Speaker 3: arm was super heavy, so we remove this one out
23:15
Speaker 3: and then the other thing that it is quite heavy
23:18
Speaker 3: and you don't really pay a lot of attention to
23:20
Speaker 3: it is clothing.
23:22
Speaker 4: I know.
23:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, nobody needs to know how many we're carrying.
23:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, I nobody does. But it's funny because they take
23:33
Speaker 3: lots of space. So now we used to take two
23:36
Speaker 3: huge travel bags with us, so it was they were
23:40
Speaker 3: taking the whole rear seats of the disco. And now
23:45
Speaker 3: we said, okay, we have to do something about clothing.
23:47
Speaker 3: And as you travel, I think that you say you
23:50
Speaker 3: have lots of different tissearts in case you need one,
23:52
Speaker 3: and then you said, yeah, we don't need those, yes,
23:54
Speaker 3: and now we just packed them into front runner boxes
23:57
Speaker 3: and it's fine, and it's great because there's stackable and
24:00
Speaker 3: then they're out of the way.
24:01
Speaker 1: I think too, sometimes you're traveling multi season, so you
24:05
Speaker 1: need rain jacket, puffy jacket, layers, pants, then you need
24:09
Speaker 1: something for everything. And actually the weight does add up
24:12
Speaker 1: really quickly, but some.
24:13
Speaker 3: Of the you just need and they're heavy, especially if
24:16
Speaker 3: you're going on a winter trip. You can have some
24:18
Speaker 3: heavy clothes with you.
24:20
Speaker 1: Totally.
24:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think these are the main modifications. Going back
24:24
Speaker 3: to your question on the discode, we do have a
24:26
Speaker 3: wind because we travel along with microplane. And the funny
24:31
Speaker 3: thing is that we haven't used it when we are
24:34
Speaker 3: out on our own because we don't go chasing for
24:37
Speaker 3: some for tough trucks.
24:39
Speaker 4: Sure, we want to avoid.
24:40
Speaker 3: Those recovery boards. We use them all the time leveling
24:43
Speaker 3: the vehicle.
24:44
Speaker 1: And use them, use them the other day in the
24:49
Speaker 1: snow and mud.
24:50
Speaker 3: So yeah, so yeah, as you said, we're trying to
24:56
Speaker 3: carry as less stuff as possible and food you I
25:03
Speaker 3: don't think that you have to overpack four months. You
25:06
Speaker 3: can grab stuff as you go, but still depends on
25:09
Speaker 3: where you're heading.
25:09
Speaker 1: I think Greece has been really easy for us to.
25:12
Speaker 4: Find a lot of really really easy which.
25:14
Speaker 1: I would like to talk about as well.
25:17
Speaker 4: Great food.
25:18
Speaker 1: We'll get there all right, but yeah, it's been really
25:20
Speaker 1: easy to find really great food everywhere here. That hasn't
25:23
Speaker 1: been an issue at all. I would like to ask
25:26
Speaker 1: you about some of the practical things that people need
25:30
Speaker 1: to know about if they're going to come to Greece
25:33
Speaker 1: on a trip or overland, but whether they're driving in
25:36
Speaker 1: or maybe they're flying in and renting. Do you know
25:39
Speaker 1: have any outfits that rent overland vehicles in Greece At.
25:42
Speaker 4: The moment, there was one.
25:45
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if it's still active. There's lots of
25:48
Speaker 3: companies renting vans actually with pop up roofs and stuff nice.
25:52
Speaker 1: And vans are so practical for Europe. I think the
25:54
Speaker 1: more we travel around in Europe, the more we realize
25:57
Speaker 1: that a van is incredibly practical.
26:00
Speaker 4: Yeah, hmm, it is so.
26:02
Speaker 3: I think you can even get like a pop top
26:04
Speaker 3: fun from herds or avies or a company that rents vehicles.
26:09
Speaker 3: That's also one of our projects for the future, to
26:12
Speaker 3: work with a company. There are a few renting out
26:14
Speaker 3: gladiators and highlaxes, and we want to offer people to
26:19
Speaker 3: get a tent there that people who are flying in Greece. Yes,
26:24
Speaker 3: So back to your question about Greece, I think that
26:26
Speaker 3: Greece is a really easy place to overland because everything
26:33
Speaker 3: is accessible, Like you can get water from most places,
26:37
Speaker 3: and you can actually refill your camper or four x
26:40
Speaker 3: four whatever you have almost everywhere with go.
26:44
Speaker 1: Ahead, and where were the spots? Because I've been seeing
26:47
Speaker 1: different things right like on the side of the road
26:50
Speaker 1: their water taps or you could like where do you
26:53
Speaker 1: usually fill up with water?
26:55
Speaker 4: All right?
26:56
Speaker 3: So what I usually do is either go to petrol
27:00
Speaker 3: stations to refill my water tanks, or if you just
27:05
Speaker 3: go to a tavern and ask them for water, they
27:08
Speaker 3: are probably gonna says, okay, just grab that hose and
27:10
Speaker 3: refill your tank. And in most places in Greece, apart
27:14
Speaker 3: from a few islands, I'd say the water is also
27:17
Speaker 3: drinkable almost throughout Greece. Whi's really easy to get your
27:22
Speaker 3: tanks refilled and that way.
27:25
Speaker 4: And then again, of course camper stops.
27:28
Speaker 3: That are all around the country and you can stop
27:31
Speaker 3: there refill if you have some gray water to dispose of.
27:35
Speaker 3: And then the thing is that Greece is in the
27:39
Speaker 3: crossroads of Asia and Europe. So I think that lots
27:44
Speaker 3: of people go through Greece heading to Asia, but not
27:47
Speaker 3: a lot of people do actually spend time in Greece,
27:50
Speaker 3: or if they do, they just stick into places that
27:53
Speaker 3: I overlander or a park for night recommend. And I
27:56
Speaker 3: get it, because you're in a different country and you
27:59
Speaker 3: just rely to stuff that you know.
28:01
Speaker 1: And there are so many spots. There's almost too many, yeah,
28:05
Speaker 1: getting burnt out.
28:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, I'd say there are too many spots. So
28:10
Speaker 3: going back to my opposition with maps, Yeah, it's if
28:14
Speaker 3: you just go on Google Maps and scroll around the country.
28:17
Speaker 3: There are so many remote beaches and mountain spots and
28:21
Speaker 3: everything that you can head there and they are like
28:24
Speaker 3: official there roads that go there.
28:25
Speaker 4: You don't have to go throating.
28:27
Speaker 1: This is such a good point to bring up too,
28:29
Speaker 1: because I think Europe, like North America or like Europe
28:33
Speaker 1: generally at Greece, you know, has become really popular with
28:37
Speaker 1: Overlanders and Vanlafers, and some of the spots on park
28:40
Speaker 1: for night that we've been seeing that are absolutely stunning, right,
28:45
Speaker 1: are no longer viable for overnighting.
28:48
Speaker 4: And we've seen that.
28:49
Speaker 1: We saw that a lot on the Peloponnese recently and
28:52
Speaker 1: they've just been shot down as there are too many
28:53
Speaker 1: people camping there or not respecting them. I love your idea,
28:57
Speaker 1: even if you're a visitor in a country, to go
29:00
Speaker 1: look at Google Maps and see what you can find
29:02
Speaker 1: and maybe spread the load out a little bit, because yeah,
29:05
Speaker 1: there were some points that we looked at and we
29:08
Speaker 1: were excited about, but they don't allow camping anymore overnight. Yeah,
29:14
Speaker 1: trying to spread things out a little bit, go to
29:16
Speaker 1: some other places that aren't as busy or well known,
29:18
Speaker 1: and always good.
29:19
Speaker 3: I think it's part of the adventure of your trip. Like,
29:23
Speaker 3: the good thing is that Chris is super safe. We
29:28
Speaker 3: never had an issue that we felt uncomfortable with for
29:32
Speaker 3: the past ten years that we've been doing that. We
29:35
Speaker 3: don't have any dangerous animals around.
29:38
Speaker 1: So maybe some foxes that maybe.
29:41
Speaker 4: Some dangerous foxes.
29:42
Speaker 3: And even if you go up in the mountains, yes,
29:44
Speaker 3: we do have wolves and bears, but they're not gonna
29:47
Speaker 3: come into your camp. And except if you leave your
29:50
Speaker 3: steak outside for overnight, yeah, you were full and you
29:53
Speaker 3: didn't know what to do it. Yeah, but it's relatively safe,
29:56
Speaker 3: let's say, no super safe.
29:58
Speaker 1: That's been our experience as well.
30:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, it might be nice to get out of your
30:02
Speaker 3: eye overlander comfort zone and try to explore a bit.
30:07
Speaker 4: I'm saying things.
30:08
Speaker 3: I'm saying this because we do use I overlanded a lot,
30:12
Speaker 3: but two for intermediate stops. When we are on a trip,
30:16
Speaker 3: like our main trip. Our main goal usually is that
30:18
Speaker 3: we have found this epic looking spot on Google Maps,
30:22
Speaker 3: and we want to go and see how it actually
30:23
Speaker 3: looks like in real life. And that's like why we travel.
30:30
Speaker 3: That's we want to explore new stuff, and that's why
30:34
Speaker 3: we avoid popular places that are recommended by other people
30:39
Speaker 3: and a part Okay, somebody might give you a super
30:42
Speaker 3: nice insight that this place is fantastic and you should go,
30:45
Speaker 3: then okay, we'll definitely go. But I think it's part
30:48
Speaker 3: of the fun and part of the exploration to go
30:50
Speaker 3: and find out someselves, some spots for you for yourself,
30:54
Speaker 3: and it's really easy to do so in Grease. So
30:59
Speaker 3: the other thing that it's really nice about this place
31:03
Speaker 3: is that despite being a really small country, like compared
31:07
Speaker 3: to France, US or Canada or something like that, we
31:12
Speaker 3: do have lots of different landscapes, so it's really interesting.
31:16
Speaker 3: Greece is one of the most mountainous countries in Europe,
31:19
Speaker 3: so I know that lots of people know Greece for
31:23
Speaker 3: islands and beaches. Yeah, we do have lots of those
31:26
Speaker 3: as well, but we do have lots of mountains which
31:29
Speaker 3: are super nice to explore, and really high altitudes and
31:34
Speaker 3: we do get lots of snow, as you found out yourself. Yeah,
31:39
Speaker 3: and it's really nice because you can be like on
31:41
Speaker 3: an icy landscape with minus ten degrees and then you
31:44
Speaker 3: can drive for forty minutes and be right next to
31:46
Speaker 3: the bits, which is crazy, and it's really nice. And
31:50
Speaker 3: you do have lots of different places to explore, like
31:54
Speaker 3: Northern Greece is mainly best for exploring the mountains and
31:58
Speaker 3: huge national parks, lots of forest area. But at the
32:02
Speaker 3: same time you have helkittic Ki, which is some of
32:05
Speaker 3: the I'm gonna say some of the best peaches increased.
32:09
Speaker 3: But the thing with helkitt Ki is that it is
32:10
Speaker 3: super popular, and if I would recommend somebody to go there,
32:15
Speaker 3: I think it would be from October up until May,
32:20
Speaker 3: because otherwise it is it gets like really crowded. Then
32:23
Speaker 3: you have Peloponnese, which is like a huge island, mountain island.
32:29
Speaker 3: I would say yes because it's really mountainous and all
32:33
Speaker 3: around it it has this huge coastline, especially in the west,
32:39
Speaker 3: it has a huge sandy coastline, which I would say
32:43
Speaker 3: people should avoid driving on sand because we do have
32:47
Speaker 3: lots of turtle nests around there, but I do have
32:49
Speaker 3: like their roads on top of that inside the tunes
32:52
Speaker 3: and stuff that you can probably go.
32:54
Speaker 4: And then down south we do have like lots of nice.
32:58
Speaker 3: Peaches like foruka alafornios, the ones that I also talked
33:02
Speaker 3: to you guys about, which are super nice, super clear, waters. Again,
33:06
Speaker 3: these places can get really crowdy during summer, so apart
33:13
Speaker 3: people who come in Grease for tourism, like to see
33:18
Speaker 3: some really popular sports and stuff. For overlanders, I think
33:23
Speaker 3: the best time to be increased would be mid September
33:29
Speaker 3: up until late October, and then late April up until
33:35
Speaker 3: early June. I think these are the best the sweet
33:40
Speaker 3: spots in visiting Greece.
33:41
Speaker 1: Good to know it's February a little bit too early,
33:46
Speaker 1: Yeah maybe, yeah, that's why it was.
33:49
Speaker 4: You saw lots of snow up in the mountains.
33:51
Speaker 1: Yeah so, and lots of storms.
33:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, still beautiful.
33:55
Speaker 1: But I was like romanticizing being in Greece and like
34:00
Speaker 1: shin and sunbathe and do work on the beat anyways,
34:04
Speaker 1: but that's not how life is. So it's all good.
34:07
Speaker 1: But I like that those windows are good to know
34:10
Speaker 1: and to avoid like big crowds during the summer, but
34:14
Speaker 1: then also avoiding the tumultuous weather in the down season.
34:19
Speaker 4: And then you've got the islands.
35:38
Speaker 3: Islands, So the islands, I think it's a category on
35:42
Speaker 3: its own because we do have lots of thousands of
35:44
Speaker 3: islands around and hundreds of them are inhabited. I'm not
35:48
Speaker 3: going to say any numbers now, so yeah, but you
35:51
Speaker 3: can google it.
35:54
Speaker 4: They're so diverse.
35:55
Speaker 3: If you go down to Crete, you've got palm tree
35:58
Speaker 3: forests and huge onions and really nice bitches super remote places.
36:03
Speaker 3: I think cret is a really amazing place to go
36:05
Speaker 3: and explore. And then lots of violands scattered around the
36:10
Speaker 3: age and which are mainly dry, but lots of them
36:14
Speaker 3: also have some green area in the middle. Even waterfalls.
36:19
Speaker 3: Like the island of Andros is really cool to explore.
36:22
Speaker 3: And there in Andrews, I think there is a really
36:25
Speaker 3: nice dirt road which you can follow and circum navigate
36:29
Speaker 3: the island, which super cool. Up in the north Leinos
36:33
Speaker 3: is also a really cool place to go because they
36:36
Speaker 3: do have a desert. They're one of the few in Europe, yeah,
36:39
Speaker 3: which super nice. You're not allowed to drive there as well,
36:42
Speaker 3: but yeah, you can go and see the place and.
36:47
Speaker 4: Lots of interesting stuff. Yeah.
36:49
Speaker 3: I think the islands is somebody could do like a
36:52
Speaker 3: whole thing on the islands themselves, because you can do
36:56
Speaker 3: very hopping from island to island okay, and it's great.
36:59
Speaker 3: And then are the islands of the Ionions Sea, which
37:05
Speaker 3: it's the completely opposite from the ones in the g
37:07
Speaker 3: and so you got lots of greenery and nice beaches
37:11
Speaker 3: with white sand and yeah, lots of options.
37:16
Speaker 1: That sounds so nice. Yeah, do you know what the
37:19
Speaker 1: price point is of taking all these fairies?
37:21
Speaker 4: Right with your view?
37:22
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm going to give you the one that we had,
37:25
Speaker 3: and I think it's one of the most expensive ones
37:27
Speaker 3: for crete, so for and this is a quote for
37:31
Speaker 3: a one ten defender with a rooster ten, so it's
37:34
Speaker 3: it was about four hundred euros.
37:36
Speaker 4: So it was not cheap round trip. Yeah, exactly.
37:39
Speaker 3: But these do chains from year to years, it's crazy.
37:43
Speaker 3: And they had it was it used to be way
37:45
Speaker 3: deeper in the past, and for some reason this year
37:49
Speaker 3: everything skyrocketed. But there are much fewer, much seaper options
37:54
Speaker 3: like the island of Andros, which is really close to Athens,
37:58
Speaker 3: and I think it's an hour with a ferry to
38:01
Speaker 3: go there, and if I'm not mistaken, it's fifty euros
38:07
Speaker 3: the ticket of you and your vehicle to go there
38:10
Speaker 3: and then fifty years come back.
38:11
Speaker 4: Gotcha something like that.
38:13
Speaker 1: Okay, And I guess there's always the option to leave
38:18
Speaker 1: your vehicle somewhere safe and then take a ferry and
38:22
Speaker 1: just go somewhere your vehicle and just do that for
38:25
Speaker 1: a few days or for a week or something and
38:27
Speaker 1: like back. Yeah, yeah, I do get attached to my vehicle.
38:30
Speaker 4: So yeah, all of us. I think it's part of
38:32
Speaker 4: your landing. Yeah. I mean I was trying to sell
38:34
Speaker 4: my vehicle for eight years.
38:37
Speaker 1: It happens.
38:38
Speaker 4: Yeah.
38:38
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about driving in Greece. So
38:42
Speaker 1: you have toll roads, non toll roads, really good system
38:47
Speaker 1: of road infrastructure I would say, like highways and freeways
38:50
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. We found them to be really
38:52
Speaker 1: good if you're on a paid road and then driving etiquette,
38:58
Speaker 1: like Greek driver, what kind of driving should you expect
39:02
Speaker 1: if you were increased right?
39:04
Speaker 3: Okay, I think, as you said, the major motorways that
39:08
Speaker 3: usually pay tolls in order to travel through maintain that,
39:11
Speaker 3: say most of them, and most of them also have lighting.
39:14
Speaker 3: Apart from heading up north, I think there's a huge
39:17
Speaker 3: section there which don't have.
39:19
Speaker 1: Light, and they're wide, like a lot wider than you have.
39:24
Speaker 4: Been used to coming three to four lanes. Most of
39:26
Speaker 4: them are three lanes.
39:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this is the fastest and the easiest
39:31
Speaker 3: way to travel or increase if you're willing to pay.
39:34
Speaker 1: The toll, because sometimes you're like, oh, I don't want
39:37
Speaker 1: to pay the toll, but do this non toll road.
39:39
Speaker 1: But then it's an extra few hours and then you're
39:42
Speaker 1: paying that money and fuel. Anyway, it's a balance depending
39:46
Speaker 1: on what your goals are.
39:47
Speaker 3: But then again, if you don't take the major motorway
39:49
Speaker 3: and you go through the smaller roads, you might end
39:51
Speaker 3: up into places that you wouldn't yes, which is also nice. Yes,
39:55
Speaker 3: but the thing with these roads is that they are
39:58
Speaker 3: small most of the times, and.
40:00
Speaker 4: They are a couple of hours.
40:02
Speaker 3: Like if you taking the motorway or you say no,
40:06
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna pay the toll and I'm gonna go
40:07
Speaker 3: through the like the old route, it might be two
40:10
Speaker 3: hours more added to your trip.
40:12
Speaker 4: So it's a lot.
40:14
Speaker 3: And I wouldn't say that Greek drivers are dangerous, but
40:19
Speaker 3: they are not like the ones in northern Europe. I
40:22
Speaker 3: think I could compare us mostly to Italians, that's say,
40:26
Speaker 3: southern Italians or the way people. Yeah, I think southern
40:30
Speaker 3: Italy is really comparable to how Greeks drive.
40:34
Speaker 1: What are some of the characteristics that right, so look
40:37
Speaker 1: out for.
40:38
Speaker 3: They never used turning signals, so yeah, I don't know.
40:42
Speaker 3: Maybe it's a thing that was not built into a
40:44
Speaker 3: Greek scar and people can stop like in the middle
40:47
Speaker 3: of the road because they want to talk with somebody
40:49
Speaker 3: who's on the other side of the road. Yes, yeah,
40:51
Speaker 3: I had this today driving here.
40:53
Speaker 1: Same.
40:54
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I think that these are like the most common.
40:58
Speaker 3: Oh and fortunately nobody respects the speit limits.
41:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, so people go fast.
41:05
Speaker 1: So we've had people flashing their lights of us recently.
41:09
Speaker 4: I always do it.
41:10
Speaker 3: I always have that thing because like I have a
41:12
Speaker 3: steiker on my rear window which says we are no
41:15
Speaker 3: rass please like carefully pass by.
41:18
Speaker 1: Ah. So when they're oncoming, Okay they've been Yeah they've
41:22
Speaker 1: been flashing lights. But I don't know what that means.
41:24
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that means that there's probably a police check
41:27
Speaker 3: down there.
41:27
Speaker 1: Okay, so the universal sign of a office.
41:30
Speaker 3: I think that's nice. Or if they just liked your
41:34
Speaker 3: vehicle and the like hey cool.
41:35
Speaker 1: Cock nice, Oh cool, Okay, that's great. Yeah, let's talk
41:40
Speaker 1: about one thing that I've noticed here. Obviously, like food
41:44
Speaker 1: I love, but in Greece, I think in the West,
41:48
Speaker 1: we all think suvlaki, we all think tasiki, and we
41:51
Speaker 1: all think all right, hero, and we all think. But
41:55
Speaker 1: one thing that really has surprised me is the dedication
41:59
Speaker 1: to the fee culture here. It is oh right amazing.
42:03
Speaker 1: Every single day. Yeah, you own coffee. I had a
42:06
Speaker 1: coffee before this, and we see people on the street
42:10
Speaker 1: with coffee and at work with coffee. And I did
42:14
Speaker 1: not know about the Freddo cappuccino, which we can talk about,
42:17
Speaker 1: but it's like everybody always has some sort of coffee
42:19
Speaker 1: in their hand. And there are coffee shops everywhere. They
42:22
Speaker 1: are every everywhere, and really good coffee I would say
42:26
Speaker 1: comparable to Yeah.
42:29
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if a rumor, but I remember some
42:32
Speaker 3: people saying that the that the government was subsidizing.
42:37
Speaker 1: I'm really nice, Like there are really fancy ones here
42:42
Speaker 1: that I have so many in every single town and
42:44
Speaker 1: we've had no issue finding good coffee everywhere. I love it.
42:48
Speaker 4: But there is a huge coffee culture.
42:50
Speaker 3: I think increase consider the world to be divided into
42:53
Speaker 3: two tea and coffee. Yeah, I think Greece is way
43:00
Speaker 3: in the coffee side of the things.
43:02
Speaker 4: And you as you can. As you said, there.
43:04
Speaker 3: Are lots of coffe shops everywhere, and we do like
43:07
Speaker 3: our coffee, and especially during summer months. I know some
43:12
Speaker 3: people who also do it during winter. But we do
43:15
Speaker 3: have this freado cappucino and freda espresso, which is practically
43:19
Speaker 3: iced coffee.
43:20
Speaker 4: I'll say, uh yeah, yes and not but yeah, like.
43:27
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly how it's made because I think
43:30
Speaker 1: the sum's made with instant coffee or freeze dried, and
43:35
Speaker 1: then some's made with some is made with espresso.
43:38
Speaker 4: They are usually made with espresso.
43:39
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Yeah, I must have read something bad on
43:42
Speaker 1: the internet and then the.
43:44
Speaker 4: Fro on top. Yeap, exactly.
43:47
Speaker 3: There is some instant coffee that you can What I
43:50
Speaker 3: usually do is I do some instant coffee. I seek
43:53
Speaker 3: it and then put some some ice into it. Yes,
43:57
Speaker 3: and that's the first coffee of the day, so I'm
43:59
Speaker 3: not not take it when I'm on at a coffee shop.
44:02
Speaker 3: It's just an easy thing to do. I usually do
44:03
Speaker 3: it around camp because it's really easy to do it.
44:06
Speaker 3: You just have a seg with you and just shake it,
44:08
Speaker 3: put some ice into it, and then you've got some
44:10
Speaker 3: real nice refreshing coffee.
44:12
Speaker 1: I'd say, yes, yeah, I'm obsessed with the foam or
44:17
Speaker 1: milk foam is It's like it's nice. So they're not thick,
44:22
Speaker 1: but a lot of it.
44:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's heavy.
44:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they there are lots of different coffee shops
44:29
Speaker 3: that they're doing it on a different way. So there
44:32
Speaker 3: are others who like put the milk in the foam
44:35
Speaker 3: before and the coffee on top. Yeah, that's also nice.
44:39
Speaker 3: So there are like lots of different variations. I would
44:42
Speaker 3: say it was how people do their coffee. I know
44:44
Speaker 3: some there's a it has been for quite a few
44:48
Speaker 3: years now that they do put some kind of cream
44:51
Speaker 3: in freada cappuccino instead of milk.
44:53
Speaker 4: But yeah, lots of coffee ideas around.
44:56
Speaker 1: So is the Freddo espresso. It's just espresso with ice,
44:59
Speaker 1: no milk and okay, yeah, so popular.
45:02
Speaker 4: Especial with us.
45:02
Speaker 1: You see them everywhere.
45:04
Speaker 4: It's amazing.
45:05
Speaker 1: Can you share with us a few good phrases that
45:09
Speaker 1: we should know in Greek if we're going to come
45:11
Speaker 1: to Greece or good day, thank you, like a few
45:15
Speaker 1: basic ones.
45:17
Speaker 3: Okay, First of all, I don't think that you're going
45:19
Speaker 3: to have an issue coming into Greece and knowing zero
45:22
Speaker 3: Greek words because most of the people here speak English.
45:26
Speaker 3: But it would be super nice if you would say,
45:29
Speaker 3: like kalimera to somebody who means it practically translates us
45:33
Speaker 3: good day.
45:34
Speaker 1: Can you say that for the entire day or does
45:36
Speaker 1: it stop at like noon?
45:37
Speaker 4: No, it stops at noon, and then.
45:40
Speaker 3: I knew it, yeah, and then it's it turns into
45:45
Speaker 3: cali spera after.
45:47
Speaker 1: Noon calimera and cali spera.
45:50
Speaker 3: Exactly yeah, which means good evening. And then if it
45:55
Speaker 3: means thank.
45:56
Speaker 4: You, I think you're said, can you say that again,
46:00
Speaker 4: aristal fist thank you exactly yeah.
46:04
Speaker 1: And then the other one I've heard is yass that's hello.
46:06
Speaker 4: All right. Yeah.
46:07
Speaker 3: Yess is like a hello, yes exactly yeah, or a
46:11
Speaker 3: deo is goodbye, yep, awesome, thank you.
46:14
Speaker 1: That's going to be really helpful for people because sometimes
46:17
Speaker 1: you're like, what's the difference between yeses and kalimera, or
46:21
Speaker 1: it's nice to have a local person.
46:22
Speaker 3: You can go with the yasas or yes, yes is
46:25
Speaker 3: more polite for like the whole day.
46:28
Speaker 4: Okay, So if you don't want to learn kalimera, go
46:31
Speaker 4: with yess and it's.
46:32
Speaker 1: Fine, yes, yes, yeah, I love it.
46:35
Speaker 4: And yamas is tears yeah, oh.
46:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, us that's great. What are some things that piss
46:42
Speaker 1: off the locals that travelers do here. What are some
46:46
Speaker 1: things to try to avoid to irritate people that we
46:50
Speaker 1: probably don't know that we're doing, right.
46:56
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think of something that maybe I didn't
46:59
Speaker 3: irritate it, but they're usually not.
47:06
Speaker 4: Don't get irritated easily.
47:08
Speaker 1: Right, let's see. I guess it's like the usual because
47:10
Speaker 1: I've seen this on the park for night Apple Lot.
47:13
Speaker 4: Just oh, you're respectful.
47:14
Speaker 1: Of your surroundings. Don't throw trash. We've actually been picking
47:19
Speaker 1: up trash pretty much everywhere we go and take it
47:22
Speaker 1: out with you, like, even if it's somebody else's right,
47:25
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're walking on a beach, pick
47:27
Speaker 1: up the trash. Don't leave your own trash, dispose of
47:30
Speaker 1: your black water and graywater properly. Don't camp on somebody's property.
47:35
Speaker 1: I think that gets a little bit weird.
47:37
Speaker 3: There's not a lot most of the areas here are public,
47:40
Speaker 3: so it's really easy to go and stop somewhere. I
47:45
Speaker 3: think that Yeah, as you said, the main thing that
47:47
Speaker 3: might irritate somebody would be to throw trash or maybe
47:52
Speaker 3: drive somewhere where you're not supposed to.
47:54
Speaker 4: I don't know.
47:55
Speaker 3: You just want to test your vehicle and go through
47:59
Speaker 3: a heel. It's in a natural forest and you're not
48:01
Speaker 3: allowed to drive there or go through a lake, which
48:04
Speaker 3: is like a protected area.
48:06
Speaker 1: Takes Yeah, just common sense.
48:08
Speaker 4: I think if you common sense can get you around
48:12
Speaker 4: the world.
48:12
Speaker 1: I think that's well said, very well said. Being from Greece.
48:17
Speaker 1: What do you want the world to know about Greece?
48:23
Speaker 4: Okay, I think they already know who lucky I'm gonna cry.
48:28
Speaker 4: And I think.
48:29
Speaker 3: That sticking into the overlanding theme, it would be nice
48:35
Speaker 3: to know that Greece is a place that can offer
48:38
Speaker 3: lots of different landscapes, and the people here are super friendly,
48:43
Speaker 3: and that it's an easy place to start overland I
48:47
Speaker 3: think if somebody wants to get into overlanding, Greece is
48:50
Speaker 3: like a really nice example because most of the place
48:54
Speaker 3: is mapped and you're not going to get into a
48:57
Speaker 3: really remote area that you're going to have a breakdown and.
49:00
Speaker 4: We'll be in real danger.
49:02
Speaker 3: So I think it's really a safe place to start
49:05
Speaker 3: experimenting with overlanding around here, and even for people who've
49:09
Speaker 3: been traveling for years, it's a really nice area because
49:13
Speaker 3: it combines lots of ancient history around, so everywhere you
49:16
Speaker 3: go you can see I don't know, some kind of
49:19
Speaker 3: a temple or something. Whi's really nice. You can even
49:23
Speaker 3: organize a trip around Greece, an overlanding trip around Greece,
49:27
Speaker 3: visiting like ancient sites. Yes, and it can take you
49:30
Speaker 3: all over the place.
49:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I will say in low season, a lot
49:34
Speaker 1: of the sites are fifty percent off. Yeah, so we've
49:37
Speaker 1: been going and paying a few euros each to go
49:39
Speaker 1: and see some of these sites that are more than
49:41
Speaker 1: double that in high season, which has been a real pleasure.
49:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, it is. I think, yeah that.
49:48
Speaker 3: I wanted to point out that Greece is a really
49:51
Speaker 3: nice overlanding destination. Yeah, because you do have lots of
49:55
Speaker 3: stuff to do around and if you want to go
49:58
Speaker 3: explore the beaches, go down to the Peloponnese, travel around
50:02
Speaker 3: the it's not an island, but yeah, travel around this
50:06
Speaker 3: place and you can have like lots of different beaches
50:09
Speaker 3: from sandy ones to rocky ones, and then you can
50:13
Speaker 3: come right next to a cave and it's you have
50:15
Speaker 3: some great view and then you just drive for an
50:19
Speaker 3: hour and you're up in the mountains.
50:21
Speaker 4: I think that's really cool.
50:23
Speaker 3: And the islands Yeah, I think they are really overlooked
50:28
Speaker 3: for lower landing. Yeah, you can spend some time around
50:32
Speaker 3: here and not just have it as a transaction point
50:37
Speaker 3: into going to Africa to sorry Asia.
50:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, I understand what you mean for sure, And I
50:43
Speaker 1: was gonna say too, Like being on the Peloponnese recently,
50:48
Speaker 1: I felt like that place you could spend a lot
50:52
Speaker 1: of time because they are all these little roads offshooting
50:55
Speaker 1: everywhere and countless beaches and almost taking on section of
51:00
Speaker 1: the Peloponnese and spending quite a bit of time there
51:03
Speaker 1: would even be great. I felt like it was even
51:06
Speaker 1: a rush for us.
51:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a big overland report increased. Yeah, you do
51:14
Speaker 4: get everything you do.
51:15
Speaker 3: You get mountains, coasts, You can do a lot of
51:17
Speaker 3: stuff there, and you can spend a lot of time there.
51:20
Speaker 3: For us, it's definitely our favorite place to go because
51:23
Speaker 3: we are Notathing's.
51:24
Speaker 4: It's super close to us.
51:25
Speaker 3: We drive like maximum five hours and we can be
51:29
Speaker 3: at the southest point of the place. Yeah, there's lots
51:32
Speaker 3: of options to go to do there and you can
51:35
Speaker 3: spend some time absolutely.
51:37
Speaker 4: Yeah.
51:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I wish we had more time we would
51:40
Speaker 1: spend and better weather. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, that's great, Thank
51:46
Speaker 1: you for that. I would like to know what is
51:50
Speaker 1: a favorite trip that you've done. I really, your most
51:53
Speaker 1: favorite trip of all time, if there is one.
51:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think one just popped up in my mind instantly,
52:02
Speaker 3: and I will say it was our first trip with
52:05
Speaker 3: a rooftop tent, so maybe it was. It was not
52:09
Speaker 3: like the best trip because we went to It was
52:12
Speaker 3: the Peloponnese.
52:13
Speaker 4: It was west to.
52:15
Speaker 3: A really nice bitch called Yenzcari, which a really nice
52:19
Speaker 3: sandy cove, and we were super excited because we had
52:22
Speaker 3: a roof to tent and we wanted to go there
52:24
Speaker 3: and test it out. And the reason why this trip
52:28
Speaker 3: just is right there at top of the least. I
52:32
Speaker 3: have another one just popping up. Yeah, yeah, okay, because
52:37
Speaker 3: it wasn't the back and it was saying to me
52:39
Speaker 3: that I'm also here, stick with the first one. So
52:41
Speaker 3: the first one was my favorite because as we were
52:44
Speaker 3: driving down there, I could feel something weird in my
52:46
Speaker 3: steering and I'm like, something is not going on, something
52:50
Speaker 3: bad is going on here. And ten minutes before we
52:53
Speaker 3: reached our destination, I turned the wheel and the wheel
52:58
Speaker 3: bearing decided to snap. I've never seen a wheel bearing
53:01
Speaker 3: being so red, we had the leak, then the whole
53:07
Speaker 3: thing just hit it up, and it was our first
53:10
Speaker 3: breakdown on a trip, and I had this mixed feeling
53:16
Speaker 3: of being frustrated because we really wanted to go there
53:20
Speaker 3: and camp, and then I spent three days in a
53:23
Speaker 3: hotel waiting for the part to be delivered and then
53:27
Speaker 3: to get it installed and go back on the road again.
53:31
Speaker 4: But it is one of my most memorable trips because.
53:36
Speaker 3: Things happened when you travel, and it was our first
53:39
Speaker 3: experience with breaking down on the road, and it was
53:43
Speaker 3: cool because it was a really nice learning curve for
53:47
Speaker 3: us because we were like, things can go wrong, but
53:51
Speaker 3: it's still okay because we spent two days in a
53:53
Speaker 3: city that we wouldn't explore otherwise and it was fine.
53:57
Speaker 3: It had some great food. Yeah, I think that's one
54:01
Speaker 3: of my most memorable trips, I would say, But one
54:06
Speaker 3: of my favorite trips were in the Avia Island with
54:11
Speaker 3: Central towards the northern part of the island. So we
54:15
Speaker 3: found these little bits on Google Maps and we said,
54:18
Speaker 3: this one looks really cool and we wanted to go there,
54:21
Speaker 3: and we went there twenty eighth of July, so full
54:26
Speaker 3: high season, and I was expecting maybe we can, we
54:29
Speaker 3: will find a few people around.
54:32
Speaker 4: And we go there.
54:33
Speaker 3: We do like a thirty minutes third road and I'm
54:37
Speaker 3: like thinking, okay, probably we're going to be there alone.
54:40
Speaker 3: And then we crossed like a small river and I'm like,
54:43
Speaker 3: chances are good of being there alone. And when we
54:46
Speaker 3: reached that beach, it was perfect. One of the clearest
54:51
Speaker 3: water I've seen so far. It was super cool, and
54:55
Speaker 3: you had the force going down to the beach so
54:58
Speaker 3: it was perfect, and the small river also going down
55:02
Speaker 3: to the sea. And the only ones being there was
55:05
Speaker 3: a couple with highlas.
55:07
Speaker 4: From Germany and a roof to tent. Perfect scenario. Yeah,
55:12
Speaker 4: and I think that's we spent some really good time there.
55:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say too, Like to be fair, we
55:18
Speaker 1: were here like when earlier last year in high season
55:26
Speaker 1: and we found a beach as well, and we were
55:29
Speaker 1: there alone one night and it was in high season.
55:32
Speaker 1: So I think the more difficulty approach, more likely you
55:35
Speaker 1: are to be there alone, which is such a good
55:38
Speaker 1: thing to know if you're here. Yeah, if you're here
55:41
Speaker 1: in Greece in high season, because some people don't have
55:44
Speaker 1: a choice. The more difficulty approaching you have four by four,
55:47
Speaker 1: you're probably set.
55:48
Speaker 3: And I'm not talking about places that you need thirty
55:51
Speaker 3: fives and lockers in order to get there.
55:52
Speaker 1: Totally.
55:53
Speaker 3: It's just a long, daired road and people are going
55:55
Speaker 3: to avoid this because We've been on a trip on
55:58
Speaker 3: the southern part of yeah, two months ago and we
56:03
Speaker 3: just doubled upon a beach which it had like a
56:06
Speaker 3: forty to fifty minutes start road to get there, and
56:09
Speaker 3: again we were alone, and it was super cool. It
56:12
Speaker 3: was really beautiful and we loved it. So I think
56:15
Speaker 3: that you don't have to go to a really difficult
56:19
Speaker 3: off road tracking or to get there. That's the best
56:21
Speaker 3: thing with Grease. You just have their road so that
56:23
Speaker 3: people just don't go because it's rocky, corrugated and maybe
56:26
Speaker 3: people want to avoid it. And yeah, I think that's
56:30
Speaker 3: a basic pool of fam if you are here for
56:32
Speaker 3: some reason during high season, just going to Google maps
56:35
Speaker 3: and try to find somewhere that they don't have photos
56:38
Speaker 3: posted or it looks really.
56:40
Speaker 4: Remote and it's gonna work. Most probably it's gonna work.
56:43
Speaker 1: Yep, and you will love it. Yeah, So yeah, for sure, Yes,
56:49
Speaker 1: I'm glad we did get a little piece of grease.
56:52
Speaker 1: Last time. Yeah, we were here in the summer. It
56:54
Speaker 1: was pretty magical simming in the waters thirty five degrees.
56:58
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, it was so bad that now you had
57:02
Speaker 3: this kind of weather.
57:03
Speaker 4: But it's very red.
57:04
Speaker 1: It's okay. We had a great adventure right.
57:07
Speaker 4: Up in the mountains.
57:08
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it was fun this one. But a lot
57:11
Speaker 1: of people don't know that Greece has ski hills and
57:13
Speaker 1: you guys get snow high. That's yeah, it's beautiful. M
57:20
Speaker 1: What is your favorite book?
57:24
Speaker 4: All right, we have it here.
57:25
Speaker 3: Oh, so the Overland's Handbook by Chris Scott, And it
57:29
Speaker 3: was the book that I kept on reading whenever I
57:32
Speaker 3: go on long flights with airplanes. Oh awesome, yeah, because
57:36
Speaker 3: it's like basics of overlanding, from choosing a vehicle to
57:41
Speaker 3: wait distribution, to packing up to how to plan your
57:46
Speaker 3: trip international trip through Africa, South America, wherever you But
57:50
Speaker 3: it's a really nice book. And it was a funny
57:55
Speaker 3: story of how I got it because it was not
57:57
Speaker 3: sold in Europe at the time. And we had a
58:01
Speaker 3: friend over in Georgia and the US and I had
58:03
Speaker 3: like a colder and she was coming for Christmas back
58:05
Speaker 3: in Greece and I'm like I need something for you,
58:08
Speaker 3: and what I need that book. So yeah, that's how
58:12
Speaker 3: we got it. But it's really nice because it has
58:15
Speaker 3: like lots of stuff in there if you are beginning
58:19
Speaker 3: into a beginner into overlanding, and when I look into
58:21
Speaker 3: some basic principles, it's good to know it even has
58:24
Speaker 3: some electrical basic electrical knowledge and it.
58:28
Speaker 4: So it's great super resource. Yeah, yeah, it's a really
58:31
Speaker 4: nice resource to keep with you.
58:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is next for you?
58:35
Speaker 4: Right?
58:36
Speaker 3: So I was waiting for that question because I always
58:40
Speaker 3: like excited about the future.
58:43
Speaker 1: Yeah.
58:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, So.
58:47
Speaker 3: Company wise, we are getting a second workshop ready to
58:52
Speaker 3: be able to create a few of our own products
58:55
Speaker 3: like storage solution store systems, a couple of mold panels
58:59
Speaker 3: that go into different vehicles, because as I've told you before,
59:03
Speaker 3: I think that we need more local producers in Europe
59:06
Speaker 3: as well. So that's the plan now. We are just
59:09
Speaker 3: figuring out the wright Ma scenery to do it. And
59:12
Speaker 3: we also want to create like an overlanding spot here
59:17
Speaker 3: for people to when they are in Athens, they can
59:19
Speaker 3: come here get apart. We want to have a small
59:22
Speaker 3: service station for vehicles that might want to do like
59:25
Speaker 3: an oil change or replace a part and now what
59:29
Speaker 3: we're looking into is also having a small facility with
59:33
Speaker 3: sour and where you can wash your clothes and stuff,
59:36
Speaker 3: so like a spot for overlanders, and I think that's
59:40
Speaker 3: like the main things. And of course we're building the
59:43
Speaker 3: Faldon family in Europe, so that's our main goal for
59:46
Speaker 3: the next few years. And we are going to be
59:49
Speaker 3: at all right up into our show in June, so
59:52
Speaker 3: that's like our main event of the year because I
59:55
Speaker 3: think it's a great opportunity to get to know people
59:57
Speaker 3: around the overlanding community of Europe and intern actionally because
1:00:00
Speaker 3: it's a really big show.
1:00:03
Speaker 4: So that's with all the company stuff.
1:00:06
Speaker 3: And now regarding traveling going to that show in Germany,
1:00:10
Speaker 3: we want to combine it with traveling around the Dolomites
1:00:13
Speaker 3: and the Alps, which is great. And then again we
1:00:16
Speaker 3: have lots of ideas. We're still looking into where we're
1:00:19
Speaker 3: going to head next September. We're either going to go
1:00:22
Speaker 3: east or towards Spain. So this is yeah. I like
1:00:26
Speaker 3: the fact that nothing is fixed and it's all out
1:00:30
Speaker 3: there and we are seeing trying to make it work,
1:00:34
Speaker 3: and of course have big trip that I also told
1:00:35
Speaker 3: you about is we want to see our vehicle over
1:00:38
Speaker 3: to the US and do a round tripper there as
1:00:41
Speaker 3: well as I don't know, I want to do it
1:00:44
Speaker 3: with a disco because of sentimental reasons of course. Yeah,
1:00:48
Speaker 3: that's the plan for probably next year.
1:00:51
Speaker 1: Yeah. Great, I better let you go so you can
1:00:53
Speaker 1: start doing some more Google Maps research for all those things. Yeah,
1:00:57
Speaker 1: but thank you Deed so much.
1:00:58
Speaker 4: For me on the Overland Thank you very much for
1:01:00
Speaker 4: having me here.
1:01:01
Speaker 1: It's been so great, and thank you so much for
1:01:05
Speaker 1: all the tips on Greece and I hope this has made.
1:01:07
Speaker 4: I hope you can help somebody out there. Yeah.
1:01:11
Speaker 1: So hopefully somebody will find it easy to travel to
1:01:15
Speaker 1: Greece and Overland and I look forward to coming back
1:01:18
Speaker 1: and heading up to some islands.
1:01:20
Speaker 4: Exactly you should.
1:01:22
Speaker 1: I will thank you so much and thank you very much.
1:01:25
Speaker 1: Thank you so much to the Overland Journal podcast listeners
1:01:28
Speaker 1: for tuning into this episode. We hope you enjoyed it
1:01:31
Speaker 1: and we will catch you next time.
1:01:35
Speaker 4: Good