Saturday 20th September

We had breakfast at the school – bread, grapes, olives and sweet milk-less tea.  We said farewell to the principle, and then caught the bus to Istanbul – an awful 6½ hour journey!  For the first half of the ride we had the company of a group of laughing and singing song girls!

At Istanbul we mainly tried the American Y.M.C.A, and the New Hotel for accommodation, before booking into the San Oteli!

In the evening we treated ourselves to well-earnt haircuts and shaves!

Friday 19th September

We managed to get lifts right up to the Turkish frontier at Kastanies, changing out money into Turkish enroute.  We obtained a very favourable rate: 34 to the £1, compared with the official 18 to the £1!!

From Kastanies we walked 8 kilometres to Edirne, followed part of the way by a pack of small children yelling for money!

After quite a good dinner we met the principle of the local technical school, who invited us to stay the night at his school.  This we did, and slept in the teacher’s dormitory

Thursday 18th September

We walked to Komotini and met a couple of other hitch-hikers – a fellow from Bournemouth and a girl from Australia.  After a short lorry ride with them, we parted company.  We were then, strangely enough, given a free ride in a bus to Alexandroupolis.  We camped in the evening half way between Alexandroupolis and Didymoteicho, together with ten thousand mosquitos!

Wednesday 17th September

We left Thessalonika by bus for Kavalla.  The journey took about 4 hours, through some quite beautiful countryside.  At Kavalla we were offered a lift in a land-rover type vehicle by a group of farmers to Xanthi.  Unbeknown to us at the time, we believe that the two individuals in the back of the vehicle went through our rucksacks and removed my pullover and Maurice’s knife!!  We then managed to get a lift to a point about 8 kilometres west of Komotini, where we camped.  A friendly shepherd came and watched us prepare camp!

Tuesday 16th September

The White Tower, Thessolonika

We saw the White Tower in the morning, paid a visit of enquiring to the railway station – fares to Turkey too expensive! And also a visit to the post office – no mail!  After a picnic lunch we went for a half-hour boat trip on the bay in a small motor driven vessel, captained by a crafty individual who conducted a raffle on board, and then won the prize himself – naturally the passengers were furious. And I thought they would throw him overboard!

Thessolonika, Greece

Thessalonika is the second largest city in Greece and very beautiful.  On the horizon of the bay can be seen the snow covered Olympus – home of the Gods!  We still kept to the pretence of being Swedes – although frequently we were mistaken for Germans!  The Germans apparently quite popular!

Monday 15th September

We commenced the day by visiting the bank to cash a traveller’s cheque, and then had breakfast, had Maurice’s rucksack repaired, and then obtained some accommodation from the Bureau in the town.  We were taken to the home where we were to stay – which turned out to be very good indeed.

The British are extremely unpopular – and everywhere we were asked “Are you Deutsch?” or “Are you English?” we always replied: “Svensk – Stockholm!” and then explain that our German was not good!  In every shop and restaurant we had to either order in French or German, and speak to each other in whispers!



Unfortunately our Swedish act lead us into trouble, as one Greek we met, said that he had a friend in Stockholm, and that he liked the Swedes very much.  He insisted on showing us the town, and consequently he took us to see the city walls, from which one can see a panorama of the city, the Saint Demetrius Church together with its crypt.  We nearly had forty-fits at the latter, as we spotted the car belonging to a couple of American girls we had met previously – and we were dead scared in case we met them and they gave the game away!  Consequently I insisted that I had to go to the toilet – this gave us a little breathing space.  Even so, when we went through the crypt I felt sure we would bump into them!  Fortunately we did not!  It was so extremely embarrassing when our friends asked us to teach them some Swedish!  We ended up having drinks in an out-of-town café, and exchanged addresses (ours were fiction of course) with each other.  We were with him for about 3 hours, and I think I must have aged ten years!

Church, Thessolonika

Sunday 14th September

We managed to get a succession of small lifts, but also had to do an awful lot of walking – as the road was under repair all the way to Negotino –and, unknown to us, closed to civilian traffic – all our lifts being in workers lorries etc.  We stopped on the way, to see thee ruins of the ancient town of Stobi.

Stobi

At Negotino we managed to get a lift in a chauffeur driven car belonging to Greek lady married to an Englishman, and bearing a British passport.  She advised us to say that we were Swiss whilst in Greece, as the English were extremely unpopular.  She said that if she said she was British – “they would kill her”!!  She also told us that she had been a prisoner of the Communists in the Greek civil war.  Many of the Communists responsible for many murders now live in southern Yugoslavia.

The road to the frontier continued to be quite awful, with two bridges down (one for over a year), so that the car had to ford both rivers.  We had the customary hold up at the frontier before reaching Thessolonika.  The clocks went forward one hour!  We managed to get into the University Club hostel – there were no beds, however, so we had to sleep on the floor.  The place was terribly filthy!