Road from Thessaloniki to Istanbul

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness"- Aristotle

I spend almost a week in Thessaloniki with Martha and her roommates. How nice it was to chill in the parks with slack slide and have cold coffee. Thessaloniki is big student city in Greece, and I haven't seen so many young people for a while. I learned that the students get free breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week from the university canteen. Some time ago, less wealthy people used to get their meals from the canteen as well. After government sold the business to private operator, the food in the canteen is targeted only for the students. Students get their books for the courses for free as well. On top of this the university is free of charges. Before this trip, I thought that students in Finland are getting lot of benefits, but I think Thessaloniki beats us.

During my trip, I met people in Greece who were unemployed, waiting for their jobs or working. Somehow, no matter in which position the person was, the generosity towards strangers and the enjoyment of life was still big part of everyday life. I didn't hear people complaining or victimizing themselves, even if life during the economical crisis for sure was hard. In Thessaloniki the cafeterias were full of people laughing and explaining that money is not everything and life should not be taken too serious.

I got for sure my part of the hospitality of Greeks, but in larger scale so does the refugees from Syria and other parts of the areas with conflicts. There is always the opposition, but the people I met were deeply touched by the situation of refugees. Over 300 000 refugees have entered into Greece since January 2015, half of them being Syrians. Many people in Finland claims, that we are so few people in Finland, so we cannot take many refugees. I heard that one of the island in Greece with 20 000 inhabitants have 35 000 refugees.

After my brake in Thessaloniki, I had lot of energy and cycled 120km during my first day. Thank you for Google maps (now I am using Maps me, but sometimes to see small roads I give a change for Google maps ), I got some adventure in the tiny roads going through small villages and forest in the mountains. Met lot of old people, had coffee with them and thought that I could also move to the mountains of Greece when I am old. After the mountain part, I got to my first flat land for a while. To be honest, I enjoyed the speed, good road and easy kilometers that I made.

During my ride from Thessaloniki to Aleksandropolis, I met a French couple Marie and Olivier, who were spending their sabbath year cycle touring. We shared the same route, and spend beautiful days together. It is funny, how I was kind of longing for company when I entered to Greece, and once again I got what I wished for. With Marie and Olivier, we met some other cyclists coming from Asia. How inspiring these meetings were, crazy people on the wheels!

Beforehand, I had heard and read that the road to Aleksandropolis is somewhat boring, but we got a good hint for an alternative road. We went on the ancient dirt road and I loved it. The road was like straight from the history books with dry land, olive trees, massive rock formations, shepherd, blue sea,and of course, archeological sites in every turn. Some part of the road we had to push our bikes, because of the road was somewhat full of big stones.

Cycling next to the sea makes it easy to find a shower, since eventually there will be a beach with a tap to wash the sweat and salty sea water away. I also heard beforehand that it will be challenging to find water on the road in Greece, but I had no problems with this. Sometimes the villages are not along the route, and one have to cycle few kilometers to reach the village where they normally have a drinkingwater tap or well.

From Aleksandropolis I continued my trip alone again. I love crossing borders with my bicycle, since normally things does not change radically. Turkish border was another story. The person giving me a stamp for my passport insisted me to stay overnight at his place. I politely refused and continued cycling for another kilometer until the cars started to pullover and stop me by asking where I am from and where I am going to. Honestly every third car stopped and they just wanted to know who I am, if I need help, food, place to sleep or tea. For this reason the last 30 km took way much more time than i thought, and i arrived to Kesan when it was dark. I felt that the road was in a lot worse condition than in Greece side, and I was little worried how my bicycle would handle the roads ahead. Also the smell of the air changed the further I got into the country. Even if I liked Greece, I was looking forward to adventures in Turkey.

For my second day, I put a turban on my hair and the cars didn't stop that much anymore. In the evening,one track driver wanted to give me a lift to Istanbul, and tried to put my bike into his lorry (he was really trying to lift it, but the bike was way too heavy for him, haha ). Once again, I refused and after he wanted to make me a dinner. I decided to stay for a dinner, because Muhammed had a good sense of humor and since we were close to a petrol station, where I planned to stay overnight. The dinner ended up being massive, since 4 other drivers wanted to cook for me as well. People keep surprising me all the time. After massive dinner and 5 cups of tea, I went to ask for a place to sleep at the petrol station and I was placed safely into the office.

The entrance to Istanbul was not as bad as I expected. I was even considering to take a bus to avoid it. It was a challenge for sure, since I don't have a driving license for the cars and have managed to avoid these big roads with scary junctions until the entrance to Istanbul. The phone holder I had adjusted for my bike had broken down, so there I was navigating my way holding phone on my hand. Once again, Turkish people treated me like a princess and I felt that I got lot of room to cycle and hassle my way around.

Now, I am trying to figure out where to go next and if it's smart to continue with my old cycle. Most likely the conditions of the roads will not get any better and I would not like to be stuck in Central Asia when it's winter with broken bike. So, I will rest for some weeks, get some necessary paperwork done in Finland. Will let you know later, where I end up in a few week.

Song for today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKL4X0PZz7M

One of my days in north of Greece

Some weird growl like noise wakes me up in the morning when it's still dark. First my fear of the bears tries to take over. I had seen some bear footprints around the area where I pitched my tent, and I had heard there is lot of bears roaming around in the national park that is located in between Ioannina and Kozani. 

When I move little bit in my sleeping bag for my relief, the growling animal starts barking. Huh, It's "just"  a Shepard dog. The huge shepherd dogs have been giving me little of headache, since they like attacking the bicycle.They are huge and normally they attack in pairs, the day before I got five dogs attacking me on uphill. I normally just get off from my cycle, start talking dog and continue. Once again, I am lucky and the dog outside of my tent is ok. In the evening close to my camp there was a lamb-heard crazing and the shepherd dog kept his few meters of distance. 

Back to the morning, so I change my clothes fast, put all my clothes on me, because it is cold. I am on the mountains and the altitude is around 1500m. The last night was the first night I had to close the sleeping bag and I woke up to put on some more clothes on. I pack my sleeping bag, mattress and jump outside to a beautiful sunrise on the mountains. How energizing  it is to see the sunset and sunrise every day. Feeling chilly and happy, I make coffee and have muesli for breakfast while my tent is drying on the branch of a tree. When I am eating the shepherd from day before brings the lambs from the forest back into the field. He comes to say hello to me and I make more coffee to drink the second cup with him. He tells me that the lambs are more safe in the forest during the night time. 

After the coffee it's time to say goodbyes and shepherds dog follows me barging until I make my way to spring near by. I fill up my water bottles with fresh cold water, wash my face and jump on the bicycle. The morning is cold, clear and beautiful, I cannot stop smiling. I had heard that the road to kosani is not too difficult. I am relieved with the information, since the day before there was basically 55km of uphill to climb to 1500m. I am having love affair with the mountains. I would think that after crossing many mountain regions, I would get tired of them, but no. The more I cycle up and down the more I wait for the view on the next corner. Yes, I do get tired but I get lot of happiness and energy from the views that it keeps me moving. And the mountain passes have not been that big yet. 

The old road from Ioannina to Thessaloniki is very quite. There is almost no cars. I think in average one car passes me by in every 2 or 3 hour. Sometimes there is cows, horses or lambs on the road pretty far away from any farms. Otherwise, it was only me, eagles, bear steps and shepherd dogs. When an old van passes me by, I thought for a second that it was my new friends from Ioannina. I got to be extremely lucky to get three beautiful inspiring people into my life, when I needed it the most. How many adventures and stories there was to share! There is some wonderfully kind people in the world. Goodbyes are not always easy, but the memories last long and keeps making me smile and continue pedaling towards unknown. 

I had been riding up and down for some time, when I hear galloping horse from distance. I am doing 3km uphill and I have made almost to the top and I am as pink as usual. Few times I have scared horses with my bike! So when I hear the galloping horse getting closer, I stop my bicycle. I had seen beautiful small black stallion before and the same pretty thing is galloping towards me. There is a boyman (how to call men in my age?), who tells me that I can keep pedaling, the horse is ok. I keep pedaling the last 400m of the uphill and the boy says that he had seen me in distance and wanted to bring me juice, warm bread and nuts. We have a chat for one hour, eat together the food, and I continue pedaling. The road keeps giving me amazing views. When I fly the downhills down, I feel gratitude how perfect my life is, just right here right now.

The nature changes a lot in the mountains from plain grassy mountains to forested Scandinavian like areas. In some parts it really smelled and looked like home!! If I closed my eyes, I got confused where I was. I found lot of good spots to stop for snacks and lunch. For snacks I had some nuts from the manboy and bread from yesterday for lunch.

I got myself close to Kosani when my back-wheel starts to feel jumpy again. I unpack my bike, straighten the wheel and find out that there is a huge crack on the rim. How long it has been there? The rare wheel had made little sound for few days, but I had not seen or felt the crack before even though only yesterday I was straightening my rare tire. In kosani, the cycle shop that is open does not have a good enough tire for me. I decide to cycle towards Thessaloniki until the rare tyre will not move anymore.

In Kosani, I buy vegetables for dinner and cycle out from the town to look for a place for camping. I found my spot close to a small river. Had a swim, cooked food a bit further away from my camp, because I was not sure if there was stills bears around. Put the food hanging from the tree, looked up to the sky and saw the first stars coming up.
Song for today:

http://youtu.be/T6HjT4SQKJI