I am leaving Athens now, going across Nikaia and Keratsini, predominantly residential and working-class neighborhoods laying on the Western part of the city, then reaching Perama, an industrial suburb already by the Sardonic Gulf, say, a major hub for ship repairs, dry-docking, and shipbuilding, housing significant shipyard infrastructures, just in front of the Salamina island, accordingly, the hometown of the Ajax, a mythological hero that died by suicide after losing a contest for Achilles' armor to Odysseus, I got to know. And so, in the meanwhile, after leaving the coastal area, there I go, already advancing along the Schistou Skaramagka avenue, a powdery avenue just on the side of the Schisto Cemetery, and further, still walking, going around the Elefsina Gulf until reaching Ergatikes Katikies where is a main crossroad with roads going west in the direction of the Peloponnese peninsula, roads going east in the direction of the city center, and roads heading north, in the direction of Lâmia and Ioannina. Thus, after being for while showing up my thumb on this crossroad, I would eventually get a ride with some smiley middle-aged man driving an old pickup that along the way would tell about all the things the Europeans stole from the Greeks in the fields of Philosophy, Logic, Arts, and even Science and Mathematics, “with names like Pythagoras, and Hippocrates, that made foundational contributions to what is now physics, geometry, and medicine…” he says. And “yes…” I reply “but... actually, I always wondered if the word hypocritical is somehow related with that Hippocrates guy… and why is that related…”; “Well, in fact, the word hypocritical is not related with Hippocrates…” he says, “Hypocrite, the word that indicates a person who pretends to have virtues or principles, actually derives from the Ancient Greek word hupokrites, which means "an actor" or "stage player", while the name Hippocrates is a compound of híppos that means ‘horse’, plus krátos that means ‘power’, and it literally means ‘horse power’ or ‘master of horses’” he says. And then, still talking about some of the pitfalls of the Greek language, we would continue following along the E962 national road until reaching Tebas, where we would turn left, then advancing on the side of the Gulf of Corinth, eventually reaching Missolonghi, the capital of the Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit, and the seat of the municipality of Iera Polis Mesolongiou, “a city that is known as the site of a dramatic siege during the Greek War of Independence, which resulted in the death of poet Lord Byron…” my driver says. And then, continuing to advance along the Gulf of Patras, we would eventually pass Aitoliko, Kefalovrisos, the Ozeros and Amvrakia lakes, and then reaching Aktion or Aktio, a peninsula on the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, “and the site of an ancient town of the same name… most known for the Battle of Actium, in which Octavian gained his celebrated victory over Antony and Cleopatra…”, our driver says. And then continuing following along the Ionian coast, passing small towns like Nicópolis, Kanali, Kato Riza, Valanidorrachi, Parga, Arillas, Perdika and Plataria, already by the Gulf of Igoumenitsa, where eventually my driver would drop me. And so, after visiting Igoumenitsa, I would this time get a ride with a retired police man actually wearing a Marseillaise straw hat on his head, a man that eventually would take me into Albanian lands. And so, while we would advance along the Labëria province, my driver would actually talk about the Albanian mafia, saying that, “the Albanian criminal organizations are the most prevalent foreign groups in Greece and are reported to dominate specific illicit markets, such as the retail distribution of heroin, the importation of illegal small arms, and a significant portion of human and drug trafficking…” and so, as I listen to this, I wonder why he comes to do tourism on this lands. Anyway, I do not make him questions, and so, in silence, we would pass cities like Sarandë, Himara, Vlorë, Fier, Lushnjë and Kavajë, eventually reaching Durrês, where the bastard would drop me. And, already leaving Durrês, immediately I would get a ride with some very old Mercedes Benz being driven by a fat round faced man that actually would take me along the coast while talking about his staying in German and Switzerland, “Well, in German...”, he says now “I worked in many different kind of factories, like, car factories, sausage factory etc… and then in Switzerland, well, in Switzerland I would not get a proper work... say, I would work as a mobster there… do you know what is that, by any instance?”; “Yes I do know, but, tell me more about that…” I would say. And then, continually talking about his mafia activity in Switzerland, we would eventually reach Shkodër, historically known as Scodra or Scutari, actually the fourth-most-populous city of Albania, I get to know, a city that sprawls across the Plain of Mbishkodra between the southern part of Lake Skadar and the foothills of the Albanian Alps. And so, following on foot, I would walk around fifty kilometers on the side of the so said lake, on the way contemplating a lush green landscape composed of lily-pad-strewn wetlands, white willows, various quercus, holm oaks, plus what they call juniperus oxycedrus and Paliurus spina-christi. And so, having reached the northernmost point of the lake, I would pass through Virpazar, a village actually founded by the Ottomans, visit the Besac and Lesendro Fortresses, and then make my way toward the Adriatic sea, again. And so, once reached the shore, here I go, now being taken by some tourist agent named Lazar, a man that actually start by telling me about the ottoman presence in the Montenegrin territory, then stating that “around thirty thousand Turkish citizens own or hold shares in over three thousand companies in Montenegro, particularly in fields like construction, tourism, real estate, and banking…” he says, and then, continually speaking about the present relationship between this country and Turkey, we would eventually reach Kotor, a city actually surrounded by large fortifications that I go to visit, and so, according, about this fortifications I would get to know that, the top of the St. John mountain just on the back of the city, is actually called San Giovanni in Montenegrin, and it was already fortified during Illyrian times, say, in the sixth century the Byzantine emperor Justinian I reconstructed the fortress and then, eventually… in the fifteenth century the then independent Republic of Cattaro succumbed to Venetian rule… and so, as part of Albanian Veneta, the fortifications received their current structure… plus adding that, during this time there were two Ottoman sieges, both failed... and then, in the eighteenth century, eventually, the fortifications would pass to the Habsburg monarchy with the Treaty of Campo Formio, and already in the beginning of the nineteenth century, according to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, Kotor would be assigned as a French Empire's client state by the Treaty of Pressburg, but occupied by Russian troops during some years and later incorporated into the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. But, the fortifications, then named Cattaro, were actually attacked by a British naval force, and after a ten-day siege, the French garrison had no alternative and surrendered… then later, with the Congress of Vienna, Kotor was returned to the Austrian Empire, but, after their defeat in World War I, the Austrians would eventually leave, and the fortress was no longer manned, that’s what I got to know just before leaving the city. Then continuing my journey, going around the city’s bay, a bay also called Boka kotorska, or Bocche di Cattaro, but locally known simply as Boka. And so, after crossing from Lepetani to Kamenari (by ferry), I would come back to the Adriatic coast, eventually entering into Croatian lands, this is, soon reaching Dubrovnik, a city that served as the primary filming location for King's Landing, the capital city in HBO's Game of Thrones, a thing that has turned Dubrovnik into a saturated tourist destination. Therefore, already leaving it, there I go, again by the Adriatic coast, eventually passing Lozica, Mokošica, Zaton, and Orašac, a town n front of the Elaphites archipelago, and then, after passing Majkovi, Slano and Doli, eventually going through the twenty kilometers of Bosnian coast, soon reaching the Croatian coast again. And so, continuing along the Adriatic aka Dalmatian coast line, actually being taken by some mustached guy driving an old Yugo Florida (a brand that apparently stopped being produced about twenty years ago), we would follow actually talking about cars that were produced in the ex-Yugoslavia times, and while talking about this we would actually pass Komarma, Blace, Ploče, Gradac and Baška Voda, just in front of the of Brač and Hvar islands, and then, while talking about Tito’s time, relating it with the current times of Croatian inside the Euro-zone, we would pass Split, Šibenik, etc… then already advancing in front of the Zadar Archipelago, actually a collection of over three hundred islands, islets, and reefs, “being the bigger ones…” my guide says, “Dugi Otok, Ugljan, Pašman, Iž, and Premuda… a premier destination for scuba diving and sailing… it features unique underwater cave systems that they call ‘the Cathedral’, and the shipwreck of the Austro-Hungarian ship Szent István, that was the last of four Tegetthoff-class dreadnought, battle ships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy…” he says. And so, then, while explicating what kind of ship is actually a dreadnought, we would pass Starigrad, Prizna, Senj, Novi Vinodolski, Kastav, and then there we go, already entering the Pula peninsula, where my host would drop me… and so, after some wandering, I would eventually cross into Slovenian lands actually aboard a small tractor being driven by an old man speaking a mix of Italian and the Slovenian language, a dialect that I can't really understand, and so, as we advance, he keeps smiling and pointing to places on the side of the road, and then, as he stops in one of this places, I would get a new ride now with a brand new BMW actually being driven by some German guy that, accordingly, would take me across all the region of the Alp mountains of Slovenia and Austria… and well, while going along huge slopes and ravines, in between the mountains, we would actually listen to some experimental music by classical-contemporary German composers like: Helmut Lachenmann; Wolfgang Rihm; Enno Poppe; Jörg Widmann; Matthias Pintscher; Isabel Mundry; Carola Bauckholt; Manfred Trojahn; Alexander Schubert; York Höller; Karlheinz Stockhausen etc… And then, when already approaching the Austria-Czech Republic border, I would eventually relate the music we have been listening with the krautrock movement from the seventies, and as it goes, he would say “yes, actually Stockhausen was one of the mentors of Holger Czukay, the bass player/sound engineer from the krautrock band Can. And so, in the meanwhile, while actually going across all Czeck republic, we would actually listen a bunch of krautrock bands like Neu!, Faust, Gong, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül and then... when already reaching the vicinity of Berlin, we would eventually pass by the Müggelsee, the largest of the Berlin lakes, actually situated on the Treptow-Köpenick district, and then, after passing Neukölln and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, where one part of the infamous Berlin wall is still up, we actually go across the spree talking about Damo Suzuki, the former vocalist of the seminal krautrock band Can.
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