In August 2013, I did a summer trekking tour through the Greek Pindos mountain range with a friend of mine. Originally planned as a 400-500km throughhike over 4 weeks, the project showed itself to be too big for us - my friend dropped out after 5 days due to neck problems, I finished after nearly 2 weeks and about half the distance of the original plan, the usual hiking pain in my knee kicking in after the typical 200km without problems.

The idea of hiking without proper paths (Greek people hate hiking) and partly along rivers seemed like a good idea back home, but confronted with the reality it felt like a futile plan - walking on roads might be quite fast, but it's also very demanding for your feet if you carry a heavy backpack, walking in riverbeds is slower and just as exhausting. At least we (nearly) never had a lack of water and the Greek mountains and rivers are just awesome to look at and to bathe in.

As a final resume, I can definitely recommend to go hiking in the Zagori mountains in northern Greece with its old bridges, nice hiking paths and stunning landscapes - challenging mountains, crystal clear rivers, green forests...

Greece may seem like a dry place, but it definitely isn't: there's always a spring to be found here and there.