Waking up on the Acropolis, walking around through downtown Athens, fetching a liter of milk, drinking on a bench surrounded by pigeons foraging. A bus takes me to where the highway is supposed to begin and from the moment I take that bus a real chain of friendliness is hunting me. The woman in the bus donates me a ticket. At the final stop of the bus line, after asking where the highway is to a random stranger, that very stranger brings me there with his car and buys me a bag of snacks. When I ask him wouldn’t you want to know about me and my charity project he shakes his head. I go to church every sunday too. I just do this for you now understand? You just remember a friendly Greek. Well, thank you man. Getting away then, from the toll station (the entire highway Athens-Thessaloniki has been privatized a few years ago and as a result toll stations are ubiquitous), is not hard. A Greek-German money driver pulls over for me and takes me all the way to Larisa, only 150 km from Thessaloniki. From the 4pm hot sun a huge shopping mall gives me comfort and an edding pen. As soon as I hold up a sign “Thessaloniki” (intentionally misspelled with the wrong “i” at the end) a young woman with a child on the backseat halts for me. Almost irresponsible! I think, how can you know this man is alright? Anyway, he is alright, and it takes me half an hour to become friends with the child; then we play two dogs with her barking toy and my hand playing a long snout barking softly as she pulls back her cuddly dog, smiling.
In Thessaloniki I contact my friend Tasos and get instructions how to take a bus to his flat. It works out fine of course, and we have a greet reunion with hugs. He introduces me to his Polish girlfriend and I feel really happy for them. How they care for those cute goldfish swimming around in the ceiling-bowl. We make ourselves a nice evening in the center and sleep not too late. I remind my friend that I’ll write a request on couchsurfing to surf his couch yesterday.
September 3. Thessalonikiiiiii.
