4-lane 3-lane 2-lane Greek Highway

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Driving in Europe has never been an issue for us so far, but has always resulted in unique stories, and the frequency of such stories is only increasing. In Greece, we had not one, not two, not three, but four such incidents.

We experienced the first one on our way to Patras from Olympia, driving along the coastal E-55. At first glance, things were no different than any other US Highway – we were zipping along a pretty wide 2 lane highway with a white divider. The highway was relatively empty, and we didn’t pay much attention to the oncoming traffic, which every once in a while seemed to graze uncomfortably close to our car.

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And then we started noticing a pattern. Cars were driving on the highway shoulder, in both directions. The real lanes were being used as a passing lane with some “passers” overflowing onto the other side. In some wider areas of the freeway, there were 2 drivers, and 2 passers simultaneously. a 2-lane highway is really a 4-lane freeway.

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We started putting this to the test, and in a few minutes, got very comfortable on these 2-lane 4-lane highways. By the end of our trip, we were speeding, overtaking, grazing past the slo-mos, scaring and pushing them off to the side like an experienced local.

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