January 24, 2015
Day 9 - Alexandroupoli to Palladio: First day of rain
Rain this morning. The first part of the day was really pretty, hills and pine forest. I thought my bike was having issues with getting wet since I could barely pedal, even on a slight downhill, so I knew it wasn't just my legs. I wiped off my chain and oiled it, but it didn't help. Exhausting. Then I hit a 6km or so downhill and realized that I had been going up a hill so big that it skewed my sense of incline and the difficult downhill was actually still uphill.
Then it was back into agricultural land. The Azerbaijani cyclist caught up to me at Sapes, and we stopped for lunch. He barely touched his soup, while I scarfed down my chicken and potatoes, and ate his bread, too.
The next 10km were great--flat and fast and no more rain. I got to Komotini early enough to continue. When it was time to stop, I found a village and was granted permission to camp by a church, under a covered outdoor kitchen. Seemed like a good deal, until I woke up at 00:15 to a drunk voice saying, "Hel-lo. Tour-ist." Over and over again until I finally replied. He still wouldn't leave, wanted to talk, walked around the tent trying to shine a light in, but backed off when I yelled at him for touching the tent. Finally, he gave up and left.
It rained off and on all night.
Today's ride: 82 km (51 miles)
Total: 437 km (271 miles)
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