Mountain, sea and a huge plain at the foot of the mythical Olympus - an amazing view from above that takes your breath away.
A hot air balloon ride in Pieria was something that had never crossed my mind - let alone flying next to the cloud-obscured Mount Olympus towering over the fertile plain - until we started for the take-off site from a small village on the plain of Katerinis.
In fact, just hearing the word hot air balloon always brought to mind, almost automatically, Jules Verne's classic novel with the legendary traveler Phileas Fogg who, in his quest to win his bet to circumnavigate the world in 80 days, considered that a hot air balloon would help him win the bet.
With this humorous image in mind and with the morning dew intoxicatingly flooding the atmosphere, we arrive at the take-off area of the hot air balloon that would fly us over Pieria.
Certainly, the sight of a huge balloon lying on the ground evokes anticipation for the experience.
Colourful and bulky, the balloon slowly filled with hot air and after about ten minutes of constant toil, struggle and sweat it was almost ready for liftoff.
All that was left was for us to enter.
Pavlos was the leader of our ride, who during the entire route skillfully handled the direction of the hot air balloon, without us having to intervene at all, not even the least. With skillful movements he loosens and unties ropes, levers, valves and, suddenly, we begin to gain height and fly with the abode of Zeus before our eyes.
The take-off is quite fast - it's incredible how quickly a hot air balloon takes off - and within a few minutes we are already admiring a large part of the fertile plain of Pieria from above.
The truth is that entering a hot air balloon you forget for a while - due to excitement - the sense of danger. In the hot air balloon you have to be very careful with your every move, because here the only thing that separates you from the absolute void is the wall of a basket.
However, the perfect antidote to altitude sickness is none other than the breathtaking view.
If Olympus is magical from its foot, it looks so dreamy and enigmatic from the hot air balloon.
Deep ravines filled with dense vegetation and peaks almost disappearing in the dense fog make the perfect frame above a fertile plain full of flowering trees, corn, sunflowers and threshed wheat fields.
By opening the propane tap more and more, so that the balloon continuously fills with hot air, Pavlos kept the balloon stable in one direction, giving us a different view of the Pierian plain - not to mention the sea in the background which at half past six in the morning seemed calmer than ever.
Even the Athens-Thessaloniki national road, which runs through the plain of Pieria, is unprecedentedly empty with little to no traffic.
A few minutes later with the sun already starting to burn, our walk is slowly coming to an end. The balloon is slowly losing height and is preparing to return us to earth.
Pavlos says that the higher the temperature in the atmosphere, the harder it is for the balloon to fly because the heat waves in the air prevent the hot air from circulating in the balloon, so it cannot maintain its height for long.
Of course, just before the basket touches the ground, unconsciously, the camera lens goes to where Olympus meets the sea, finally answering the question of why the Olympian gods chose Pieria for their residence.
Yianni Koutroudi is a columnist for Travel. Translated by Paul Antonopoulos.
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