Destination 》Europe 》Southern Europe 》Greece
Year Visited: 2018 – September
I visited Greece with my younger Son during our backpacking journey through the Balkans. After a week in North Macedonia, we continued our journey towards south to Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, moving from Central and Eastern Europe to Southern Europe.
This was the most memorable border crossing in our lives. After spending a night in Bitola, Raul and I took a taxi from Bitola to Medžitlija, the North Macedonia‘s Border, walked across the Medžitlija-Níki border and once in Greece, we hitch-hiked from Niki to Florina, a bigger town in Greece, from where we took a train to Thessaloniki. This was our first time to hitchhike across international borders. Raul must be thinking that Dad finally got his mid-life crisis, ha ha, the person who would not go any where without his BMW or MB is hitch-hiking across international borders. By this time, we were expert in hitch-hiking, Raul was not filling awkward or embarrass or hiding behind me any more, must be because of our wonderful hitch-hiking experience in Kosovo.
Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, also known as Hellas, is a country in Southern Europe, on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula. Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. With the Aegean Sea to the east, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin. Greek sovereign land includes 6,000 islands and islets scattered in the Aegean and Ionian Seas, of which only 227 islands are inhabited.
Greece boasts a very long history, with the Greek language being present in the country for at least 5000 years. Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and the Olympic Games.
Below are the places we visited during our a week-long travel around Greece. Click on any City to view my travel photos and stories.
After a week of exploring historical cities and islands of Greece, we continued our backpacking through the Balkans journey towards North to Saranda, Albania.
Window on the World 