Martina, Atlas, Tiago and Neroli are spending their Christmas holiday in sunny Greece.
Martina tells you today why they're travelling all the way south, what you need to know about entry requirements, and how the four of them manage the 2,000 km journey.
Greece 2018 | 2019
Why embark on such an adventure with the dogs?
Simple! Because my dad decided to follow the sun in September 2016 and has since found a new home in Greece.
Best time to visit
We visited him about 1.5 years ago in summer, but that was rather difficult with the dogs because of the extreme heat that reigns here in summer.
Greece is a country where people are universally friendly when you're travelling with dogs, but in summer I would genuinely advise against it.
⇒ Spring and autumn are beautiful for a visit. And winter has its own charm too ♥
Getting there – your options
Dogs up to 8 kg are allowed to travel in the passenger cabin on a plane. My dad's dog "Baby Emma" (she'll always be called that by me, since I picked her out for my dad in Hungary) even travelled to Kalamata in a flight crate in the cargo hold and stepped out in Greece perfectly happy and healthy.
There are, however, several options for reaching this beautiful country. Since we have the opportunity to stay with the relatives of a dear colleague in Serbia, we choose to make the trip by car.
To make this adventurous drive worthwhile, I chose to take a winter holiday, and in total we're on the road for 23 days. So let us take you along on our journey :)
Since we have almost exactly 2,000 km to cover, we set off on Tuesday, 18 December, heading to Hungary, where we spend the night at my mum's.
We leave at 5:00 in the morning. We drive through Hungary, where the outside temperature is -8° Celsius that day. I'm very glad I set off so early. The Galgo boys aren't fans of early rising at the best of times – certainly not in this cold – so they simply sleep all the way through to Belgrade.
Transiting through non-EU countries and entering Greece
Travelling through non-EU countries with dogs requires some preparation. The dogs need a valid EU pet passport with a current rabies vaccination. Unfortunately that alone isn't enough: a rabies titre test must be carried out beforehand, and a visit to the official veterinarian is required. They issue a health certificate, which should be no more than 10 days old.
Entry/transit requirements for Serbia/Macedonia (non-EU countries)
- an EU pet passport and microchip identification (for dogs born after 3 July 2011; a clearly legible tattoo is also accepted for those born earlier)
- a valid rabies vaccination (at least 21 days old)
- an official veterinary health certificate (no more than 10 days old)
- a rabies antibody test from an approved EU laboratory with a positive result
Entry requirements for Greece (EU country)
- an EU pet passport and microchip identification (for dogs born after 3 July 2011; a clearly legible tattoo is also accepted for those born earlier)
- a valid rabies vaccination (at least 21 days old)
- a maximum of 5 dogs per person
The motorway in Serbia is easy to drive and there are rest stops every 20 km, just like we're used to at home. If we hadn't had so much fog along the way, it would have been a fairly relaxed first leg of the journey.
At around 4:00 pm we arrived at my colleague's relatives – in a small village near Vranje, close to the Macedonian border.
Stray dogs along the way
Something else I have to mention: there are a lot of stray dogs – both at the rest stops and in the small villages. So we skip the long walks and get to sleep as quickly as possible, ready to set off early again the next morning.
The following day we have around 1,000 km to cover. So it's off again at 5:00 am! Through small Macedonia, which now has a continuous motorway, and by 7:30 am we've already reached the Greek border. Unfortunately our clocks jump forward to 8:30 am (not a daylight saving change), but we're another big step closer to our destination.
Destination within reach
Beautiful, vast Greece! In Larissa, in front of the impressive Olympus, we take a good hour's break, admire the mountain, soak up the sunshine and simply revel in the fact that we're here.
Then there are surely another 600 km ahead of us. We pass Athens, sometimes catching a glimpse of the coast, sometimes mountains. After several hundred kilometres and a few coffee and toilet stops, we arrive in Agios Andreas at around 7:00 pm.
Our joy at finally seeing Papa is of course enormous!
After dinner together, though, we simply fall straight into bed.
Next week Martina will tell you all about what she gets up to with
Papa, Atlas, Tiago, Neroli, Baby Emma & Selene
and what life in Greece is really like.
