I Drove to the Edge of Europe Alone

If you're new here, I'm Jessica and I travel solo and full-time around Europe in my campervan Frodo with my adventure pup Heidi. Over the last six months I went from passing my driving test, to building my dream home on wheels, to crossing the European continent, until I arrived here alone in the south of Greece. Join me for this next chapter in my adventures where I reconnect with nature and grow roots in the wild. I have made it to the very south of Greece after six weeks traveling here and I'm not at the southernmost point of Greece but the second most southern point because I looked at it on the map and this area just looked a little bit more interesting and scenic. So I've been parked here on this cliff and it's also my last week in Greece because I have a big trip planned so I have to go back north and then drive the van all the way back to the UK. My key takeaway is that next time I'm traveling this far in the van, I'm staying for at least three months because I didn't manage to see nearly even close to all the things I wanted to see. I'm definitely going to be coming back and stay for longer next time. I've been really enjoying being down south. It's been so warm, essentially like a UK summer and it's just been so good for my soul but I do have to say that central and northern Greece have my heart. The landscapes are just so gorgeous, the green mountains and the forests and rivers so I'll definitely be spending more time there next time but in the spring instead of the winter so I don't get snowed in. It's getting really windy here on this cliff so I'm going to leave in a few minutes so I don't roll to my doom eventually and I'll explore this area a little bit more and then drive a little bit further up north again but yeah definitely taking it easy this week before the crazy travel week next week. Doing this journey from Scotland to Greece alone and only months after passing my driving test was definitely a bit scary at times and I always get a lot of questions around how I found the confidence to do that and honestly for me it was kind of a no-brainer because in order to live the lifestyle I want I had to be okay with driving but it also helped that I find driving quite easy and enjoyable. That said I did have one accident shortly after passing my test. I was dropping off a friend at a petrol station and very confidently reversed into a spot and my sensors didn't go off and I crashed into a metal pole. It was so loud. Luckily I didn't break anything but people were watching and I was absolutely mortified. After that I decided to get a proper reversing camera to get some of my confidence back and the one I have is from Autovox who are kindly sponsoring this part of the video. I chose this one because it's completely wireless and solar powered. My van didn't come with a camera and I didn't want to pull apart any cladding so it was the perfect option for me. The install took about two minutes, the camera attaches under the number plate, the monitor plugs into the 12 volt port and that's it. It has a 16.9 wide view, 1080p HD image with night vision and a really stable signal even for larger vehicles. It's waterproof, has a recording function and the battery can last up to 90 days on one charge. If you want to check it out I'll leave the link to the product in the video description and a big thank you again to Autovox for sponsoring today's episode and helping me not reverse into things anymore. Here on the Marni peninsula it is said that Hades himself placed one of the gates to the underworld and it is perhaps no surprise that darker creatures would slip out sometimes and haunt the human population. In local villages people spoke of the vrykolakas, a type of vampire believed to be the restless dead, those who died violently or who were improperly buried. They were said to walk at night knocking on doors and if you answered at the first knock you were doomed but if you waited for the second knock you would be spared. I am driving back into the mountains today to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere because I saw on the map that there's a statue of the nature god Pan there and I really want to see it through my own eyes. I'm also just really craving to be back in the woods and the mountains. I feel like I've had my dose of beach time, I've soaked up a lot of sun and now it's time to return to my natural habitat so I'll see if I can find a place by a river or something to park up. Pan is the god of wild places and he is believed to have been born here in Arcadia in northern Peloponnesos, ruling over the wild mountains, shepherds and their flocks. The word panic is derived from his name and it is said that if you felt a sudden irrational fear in the mountains like a rush of dread with no visible cause you had encountered Pan. I definitely felt his presence after climbing down a completely deserted and very muddy ditch to find his statue and as soon as I arrived a severe hailstorm hit the area and I quickly retreated back to the safety of my traveling home. Over the course of my journey this winter a number of people asked me why I don't just drive as far south as possible and stay there until it gets warmer again but the truth is that the mountains are where I feel most at home and being a little bit less warm is something I happily deal with in exchange for the joy I get from parking by a crystal clear river and watching the mist linger between the peaks in the morning as the sun slowly burns it away. I love how every day looks different in the mountains and I even love that the weather can be harsh and unpredictable sometimes because it reminds me of how small humans and our problems are next to the vastness of these landscapes. Okay so I didn't film any of that ordeal yesterday because it was already afternoon and I didn't want to faff around filming and lose what little daylight I had but I got so stuck in the mud. It's happened once before and I was able to claw my way out by building a ramp with sticks and wedging little rocks under my tires but yeah I just couldn't get out. I did manage to wiggle my way out of the muddy spot that I accidentally parked on and then I got stuck even more and the van was really leaning to one side and at that point I decided I wasn't going to try and get out of there myself so I walked five minutes up the tiny dirt track that I had driven down to park by the river and I waved down the first kind of pickup truck that came my way and I was like do you know anyone who can help me or can you help me my car is stuck there and it was like a greek family of five and they were like say no more and they immediately drove down there and it was a it was a whole family affair the dad was supervising his teenage son was reversing to pull me out and his teenage daughter was translating because they barely spoke any english and they got me out of there in less than 10 minutes and I was just so overwhelmed by their kindness and the fact that the first car that I waved down kind of the first car of the right size that I waved down just immediately without hesitation helped me that was just such a lovely experience a bit stressful at first but it was a really lovely experience I am now parked on drier terrain and slowly making my way up north to leave Greece really sad about leaving I've really fallen in love with this beautiful country but I have tickets to travel to a country halfway across the world so can't really do anything about that but I'm very excited nonetheless and I'm gonna I'll definitely return to Greece in the next year or so because there's so many places I haven't seen yet and so many more areas to explore so hopefully it won't be too long until my return all throughout the colder months this season I've been really looking forward to being able to use the outdoor kitchen again because for me this area of the van represents the days getting warmer again and the daylight hours being long enough to cook dinner outside so finally being able to do so now after nearly five months felt really special and I honestly couldn't have found a better place to spend my final days in Greece as always thank you so much for watching guys and an extra thank you to my patrons and channel members who make these videos possible I hope you enjoyed my adventures in Greece and I'll see you again for something a little bit different next time until then take good care of yourselves bye