… and so are we.
Crossing the border in the triangle of Turkey/Greece/Bulgaria. We hit the road hard. The Greek border official does not even look up during passport control. In the supermarket, a curt “no” to the question of bread for breakfast – Turkish helpfulness seems to be a thing of the past.
We refrain from visiting Bulgaria. There are many Bulgarian holidaymakers in this area of Greece. An hour to the Mediterranean is like travelling from Oldenburg to the North Sea.
Aiolos is the Greek god of the wind. We fail to pay homage to him and are met with frequent strong headwinds. We fight against the wind for four days.
Well, we actually give up after three days, taking the predicted rain as the reason and stay at the beautiful Natura campsite by the Mandras stream (plakias). This is right on the beach, tent-friendly, has a gas cooker and wonderful jungle showers. We also have nice covered seating areas, WLAN for the current Giro d’Italia and other amenities. Only the mini-market is still closed. So there are Turkish supplies: Pasta, tomato paste, a tin of tuna from the Dardanelles, an onion, black olives and Ezerim cheese. Very tasty as an emergency meal! There is someone here on the square who has left his wife at home because she is allergic to the sun. If only she knew…
We visibly leave Thrace and the somewhat grey east. The sky switches back to blue and the world looks different.
It is still a three-day journey to Thessaloniki.
It is still a day’s journey to Thessaloniki.
Zeus is the ruler of Olympus and the highest god in the Greek mythology. We accept his hospitality in Thessaloniki and stay in the ‘Zeus is loose’ hostel, a tip from a Dutch traveller we met the night before. Zeus was regarded as the guardian of ‘xenia’, the sacred right of hospitality, which meant that travellers had to be treated with respect. Anyone who treated their guests badly or deceived them would incur the wrath of Zeus.
We are happy to recommend this hostel.
In the metropolis of Thessaloniki, we have breakfast in the park, walk our feet flat, find 100,000 students, great cafés, quaint tavernas, countless ice cream parlours and visibly practising Orthodox Christians. The locals like to talk about their large Greek “village of Thessaloniki”, the capital of Macedonia. This is where the heart of the tradition-conscious and proud region of northern Greece beats.
The journey continues. We leave Thessaloniki via the industrial district in the direction of southern Greece. First heavy goods traffic, then rice cultivation on a grand scale. It is dusty and dirty.
But soon it turns green and we get closer and closer to our destination, Mount Olympus with Zeus on his throne.
We did not make it to the highest peak of Mytikas (2917MALMS), but we walked a good distance towards it. The 1100 metres in altitude and 1100 metres in depth left us with sore muscles the next day.
On the way back, we hitchhike and meet a mother and her newly graduated son from North Carolina. Our acquaintance lasts 17 kilometres of winding roads to Litochora, where our bikes are parked. In our absence, the nice woman from the souvenir shop has been keeping an eye on the bikes. From there we cycle back to the Sylvia campsite by the sea. Gio and his wife are our friendly neighbours. Thanks for Ouzu on the rocks! We look forward to seeing you again in winter at the Dreiländerpunkt near Aachen/Vals.
Finally, this year’s tour on the map: https://rapl-kiste.de/wp/maps/