I woke up early, in my tent in Vourvouru (the grey dot), on the hills, hidden in the woods.
I knew the end stop would be Mount Olympus, but for the day I was just trying to walk across the forest and the hills, to Elias Nikiti (blue dot A), a small settlement on the West coast of Sithonia Peninsula, which was 14 km away. I split my walk into 2 sessions: in the morning 3h of walk and after lunch another 2h.
I had Google Maps open, with the route downloaded offline and I started to walk.
After one hour and a half, the sun was up, the atmosphere warmed and the nature started to wake up. Unfortunately the route I chose was full of bee nests. They started to wake up too, so the sun was not my friend in this case.
Not long after the bees circled me and tried to drink from my bottle of juice, an off-road Toyota appeared and the driver offered to take me straight to Nikiti (blue dot B), which is 30km from my starting point. This is perfect.
Not only I did more distance than I was hoping to do, but also the time is in my favor: it’s only 9 o’clock. So let’s first celebrate the victory and have a quick meal and some rest.
After this ride, I feel more confident and I choose the next stop 30km away in Nea Moudania (blue dot C). 15 minutes after I wrote my sign, another car stopped and in less than an hour I am at the city entrance.
Another victory, another break. Let’s watch Spider Man. I downloaded the movie a few days ago and I wanted to watch few scenes until continuing to Thessaloniki (Blue dot D).
After 30 minutes on highway ramp, I got my ride to a Shopping center in Thessaloniki and from here I take the bus to the city center.
It’s already 1. What should I do? Should I go to my friends in the city and stop here for the night? I can continue tomorrow. Yeah, but I am pretty bored here and I want to make the most out of my time here. So let’s try to risk a little bit, go to the other exit of the city and start hitchiking on the highway ramp towards Athens, with my stop in Katerini.
Worst decision ever. After 1h and a half I take a break, I hide my backpack and I go to inspect the area for a possible place to camp. The confidence I gained during the day with all the great people who picked me started to tremble. I choose a resting point under a bridge, sheltered from the hot sun and I rest half hour there.
I can’t quit. I must continue. Somebody will stop. And I go back to the ramp, I put my sign in hands, I raise my smile again and I start waiting.
Another hour passes and I keep telling myself somebody will stop. Just try. You are a salesman, your job is to sell, so stop worrying and start selling. I was affraid nobody will take me today and I started to be afraid nobody will take me tomorrow. I am 100km away from Katerini and I might end up stranded on the Highway the same way I was in Serbia. Maybe the people coming from Halkidiki were different, they were friendlier. That’s why I succeded to come this far. I was bored too, standing on the road side and keep smiling to strangers is boring after so much time. I have the best idea in my life: put music and dance. The time passed faster, another 60 minutes were gone and a miracle happens.
A truck drivers waves me and points to a location 200m down the road. At first I didn’t understand, but I saw him slowing down. I run. My backpack is heavy, it slows me down, but I run as fast as I can. So here I am, in a truck, towards Katerini and even more, towards Litochoro Limani (blue dot E), another 100km for today. But the distance does not matter anymore. I waited for so many hours out there and now I got picked up. Dimitros, the driver gave me 20€ when we said goodbye to each other.
What a day. I start my day in the morning, packing up my tent, planning to walk 14 km and I end up 200 and something kilometers away.
It is 7pm and the Olympus base is 7 km away. I can do that by myself though. So I start walking and I see many good places to camp for the night on my way, but I continue walking. After half hour I need a pause and I really need to charge my phone. So I stop in a petrol station and I sit inside while waiting my phone to charge. In this time I chat with an Albanian and he tells me some info about the route to the peak. He finds me a ride to the city, which is again great.
Now it’s 9, I walk the city to find a hidden place to camp and I stop in the hills, in a forest. I build my tent and I watch the rest of the Spiderman movie (the Homecoming one).
It was a tough, tirying day, my energy was wasted, thus I sleep easily and deeply.
