Day 206 – EU – Greece [Giannitsa to Thessaloniki]

15/09/20

44.5km

  From Giannitsa (Greece) to Thessaloniki (Greece)

Europe

Quiet and solo run towards Thessaloniki, where a tour of the city awaited me before taking a rest

I left Giannitsa knowing today I would not get company on the run. I may get more people to join in my runs between Thessaloniki and the Bulgarian border. There’s only one road connecting Giannitsa to Thessaloniki, therefore it was a bit busy as I left. I stuck to my right side of the road – and naturally got a few flat tyres along the way. The “trivoli” flowers with the spiky ends are in season and this is what I have experienced throughout the summer in Greece!

I got distracted by the news of a little video we shot yesterday, with two journalists from a Greek TV channel. The interview went live today and a lot of my non-greek friends were quite amused to see me speak in Greek. My greek is rusty, as I haven’t used it since I left in 2012, but still good enough for a conversation and a bit of humour. I have posted it to the front page of the website in the Videos section – I expect a tiny fragment of the audience of this blog will be able to make sense of this little video!

As I approached Thessaloniki, a motorbike passed me twice to give me thumbs up, then stopped by to offer me a bottle of Powerade and wish me the best of luck. News travels fast in Greece and I guess this person whose name I don’t know must have seen a picture of me and the stroller on one of the social media. It was a nice encounter!

I stopped by in Thessaloniki, home of Alexander the Great of course. A marvelous city. I tried to pass by all the landmarks as I took a stroll through the city: the seafront, the White Tower, the statue of “Alexandros O Megas”, that of Filipos King of Macedonia. Greece is so rich in history (and stories) there would be too much to say. Yesterday afternoon, Stelios introduced me to the science of the “Delta” in Greece, specifically the cities that have been built at distances of geometrical precision, like “”Delfi – Delos – Dodoni”” in a perfect triangle (all starting with the letter D, or Delta in Greek – which also is an isocele triangle). There is so much to learn from Greece, from ancient Greece (mathematics, philosophy, physics, the arts…). And everything is fascinating! I realise I have missed Greece these past few years…

Anyway – I am now heading on an exceptional “two days break” to collect my winter clothing as well as my new bank cards and drop the summer clothes, which won’t be of any use very soon… More about it tomorrow.

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: