Day 437 – EU – Greece [Alexandroupoli to Provatonas]

15/06/21

44.8km

  From Alexandroupoli (Greece) to Provatonas (Greece)

Europe

Back on the road with cool temperatures and overcast skies, perfect weather

Overcast day, quiet road

I am running today and for the next two days in a region that is very tense, geopolitically speaking. At the border between Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria. As soon as I left Alexandroupoli, I was struck by the number of military trucks that passed me on the road. In fact it seems more than half of the vehicles were military. The border has been stretched by the flow of migrants crossing into Greece from Turkey. For decades, the tensions between Greece and Turkey have been driving Greece to have one of the highest military spending relative to its GDP in Europe (2.6%). I expect to see more evidence of these tensions as I reach Edirne, where migrant camps have reportedly been set along the border for years now.

Discoveries on the way

The running today went easy. The weather made all the difference, it was cool temperatures and cloud cover, ideal for running. I’m following the main road on which I’ll be running the next two days. Relatively flat, devoid of traffic (but for the military trucks) and surrounded by natural parks. I passed by “the European village of Storks” (for conservation and reproduction) near Ferres, and saw many of the birds flying around. I also passed the site of a petrified forest dated back from 40 millions years ago.

Agia Paraskevi, beautiful Byzantine style church, Provatonas

Provatonas is a tiny village kept alive by a major timber factory as well as cereals and cotton plants. As I ran towards the village, I could see from kilometers away the beautiful church of Agia Paraskevi as well as the silos of the cereal plant. My host Vangelis very warmly welcomed me, and he set the table with local wine and fruits for me when I arrived. How sweet! I usually only drink beer, but I will make an exception tonight, it would be rude not to 🙂

* Last minute change of plan tonight: I will not be running north towards Edirne in the next two days as I had intended. The border checkpoint at Kastanies is closed. I was not aware, what a bummer. The whole point of going to this specific border checkpoint close to Edirne was that it is set on a road accessible to pedestrians. I now will have to enter Turkey tomorrow at the only other checkpoint open, the Kipos-Ipsala one. There is a bit of uncertainty as to whether or not they will let me in, as I am on foot and the only road that leads to the checkpoint (on both sides) is a motorway. Anyway there is nothing simple about rallying Istanbul it seems! Keeping my fingers crossed that it will all go well tomorrow, as I have not worked out an alternative plan to the alternative plan yet…

Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: