122km

One hundred twenty-two, one hundred twenty-two, One hundred twenty-two.  Our last shower was one week ago. It was raining when we woke. We wanted to get to Turkey.

One hundred twenty two kilometers to Thessalonikki. It started as a joke around noon,  still 80km away, “hey, wouldn’t it be wild if we could get to thessaloniki today?”  The wind was in our favor and we got excited when our pace began to hold at 25km/h. The joke started to look appear less and less like a joke. Then we crossed some arbitrary line where we were too close not to make it, too close to pay for accommodation anywhere else than Thessaloniki. Then our pace slowed to 20km/h then dipped under 20km/h and the sun began to set and the dogs seemed to get more vicious and the rode that was supposed to get smaller with less traffic got bigger and bigger and the shoulder got smaller and smaller, and we all the more miserable.

We crossed the city line and everything began to get a little bit better. We got to the center to find a hostel to find the city, a large city mind you, has none. Then we ate a gryo; happy again, then we saw an elderlycouple get hit by a speeding car in a crosswalk; not happy; then we found a cheap hotel; reserved, but happy again. We went for late night gyros and beer; stomach really unhappy.

At this point, we were looking forward to boarding the ferry to Island Chios and then another to Cesme, Turkey, as quickly as possible!