The Journeys ... The last trips

For once, I decided to go on a road trip during summer - and as another exception, I went with a friend.

We flew to Thessaloniki from Frankfurt. After the exhausting task of getting out of Saloniki to Halkidiki, the three-thronged peninsula south-east of Saloniki, we started doing it the cheap way: camping and hitch hiking. One of the highlights of Halkidiki was Olympiada, on the peninsula's east coast. Not only was it a pleasant and calm sea-side town with nice, secluded beaches, but also there was the ancient birthplace of Aristoteles close by.

During our stay on Halkidiki, we decided to drop the plan of going to Athens and go to Istanbul instead. We were lucky to have been picked up by Ismael, a Turkish truck driver, who gave us a ride all the way to Istanbul. He was a genuine nice guy, who cared more for us than himself during these 18 hours of mutual journey. Istanbul itself is quite impressive, especially if one knows a little bit about the historic role it played. Only the those people spoiled by tourism were a little bothering.

After a short stop in Edirne (former Adrianopolis), we headed back into Greece. There we had another pleasant encounter with locals: we met Stavros (the most beautiful and intelligent Greek of them all! ;) ).He invited us to his home and introduced us to Greek Rock - which we quite enjoyed. What a guy.

From Alexandrolopolis our trip led us to Meteora, the famous monasteries west of Saloniki. The regions fame is well deserved: spectacular sights and beautiful (although quite tough) hikes. Unfortunately this feeling only lasts, while you're away from the tourist pack - which is shipped up to Meteora by bus loads. On the way back to Saloniki, we stopped on the Pilon Peninsula - at its extreme end, to be exact (in Platania). This was a good place to have a quiet and beautiful end of a nice and inspiring trip.