Day 210 – EU – Greece [Kilkis to Rodopoli]

19/09/20

43km

  From Kilkis (Greece) to Rodopoli (Greece)

Europe

Last full day in Greece, beautiful run with company and the magnificent Radomir border-mountain in the background

For my last run in Greece I had 3 runners of the Kilkis Running Club waiting outside of my hotel at 6:30am. Stavros, Kostas and Babis. Yesterday evening we had drinks together, with other members of the club, and a local journalist put together a little video, with segments of my running on approach to Kilkis and interviews with me and other runners. It was a fun thing to do.

The road we ran on, from Kilkis to Rodopoli, is an extremely quiet and beautiful country road. As we ran, we got closer and closer to the Radomir mountain, which marks the border between Greece and Bulgaria and stands at 2,031m. After a dozen kilometers on the plains, we headed to the forest, very dense and beautiful, especially at this time of year.

At the end of the uphill, we were met by Dionysis, another club member, who set up an improvised refuelling station out of the boot of his car at km30. The finish segment of the run was all downhill and we ended up in Rodopoli where we celebrated with a drink of Sourliotis, which my running buddies claimed is the best sparkling water on earth. I haven’t tried them all, but I concur this is a very good one! Babis’ wife joined us for drinks and after an hour or so, they all headed back in the car.

I was sad to see them leave, the last of the road companions of my Greek journey. I have had company nearly every day since I reached Athens at the end of August. Tomorrow I am crossing into Bulgaria. In the context of the Covid19 situation, this border is the only land-border of Greece which is open. Travelers by foot have no other option than to use this border to exit the country. Yet (and more about this tomorrow) the 13km of road to access the border checkpoint are… strictly forbidden to pedestrians! Oh, the irony…

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: