Exploring Greece at Christmas – Ioannina

Greece is known to be a summer holiday destination. With her amazing weather, golden beach and crystal blue water. However it also has some amazing winter destinations and in 2019 my partner and I decided to take our friends a go for a winter trip in the amazing region of Epirus known for her history, mountainous landscape, lakes and of course (like the rest of Greece) good food.

We left from Athens on the 23rd of December and be back on the 28th and spending Christmas in Ioannina. Here is our little adventure starting this post with Day 1.

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We started our trip from Athens. Our friends came to pick us up in the morning, we filled up the car and we were on our way.

The drive was around 5 hours going through Patras and then north towards Arta and finally Ioannina.

We arrived towards the end of the afternoon so there was still daylight and the weather was amazing. Perfect for a little roaming along the lake, where the town is built next to, called Pamvotida. The lake also had a small island in its middle which mean that the two also has a small port to allow boats to travel to the island and back

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After our little walk, it was time for diner and we were starving. So we walk the small streets on the city centre in search of a restaurant we traditional Epirus flavours. Didn’t took us long to find a place and order half of the menu since everything sounded and was amazing!

And then because we all have a very sweet tooth we when to a very popular cafe that also makes cakes called Motley Coffeesweet. I mean look at those.

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After a nice diner and sugar overload, it was time to make our way back to our hotel to get some rest for what we had planned for the next day.

That night had a full moon and the walk along the lake on our way back was mesmerizing!

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This is all for day 1, stay tuned for the rest of the trip!