We travel through Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Greece, to the border of Turkey.
Team BS&B (Blood, Sweat and Beers) have an ambitious plan to get up at 7am to get an early start on the long way towards Istanbul. So at the crack of 11am, our mini convoy is on the move.
We’re just having a quick tour of the Old City in Skopje before we hit the highway.
The roads south towards Greece are really good and we can basically go flat out all the way. Team BS&B’s Fiat has an enormous 1100cc engine, but our 998cc Yaris does a good job of keeping up.
We plan to fill up the tank just before the border, but run out of petrol before that due to the highway race with Team BS&B. Also, the petrol gauge in Yaris Hilton is still playing tricks on us. But no worries. One of our three 5-liter cans is kept full for just such an occasion. Then we move on to the next petrol station, which is also the last one in Macedonia before the border.
Crossing into Greece is quick and painless and soon after we are rallying towards the Greek city of Thessaloniki. It’s a really beautiful city and we decide to spend the night there. Team BS&B want to press on towards Turkey, so we wave goodbye as they dodge back into the crazy Greek traffic.
We find a nice place to stay just at the edge of town and head in to the center to enjoy some of the lovely local cuisine.
Today was our shortest daily distance covered since we started from Norway. A puny 237 km, but it feels good to arrive early and to have a look around. The food and the atmosphere of this town is great, and we wish we had more time to explore. After a splendid meal we go to bed early.
What is it that is only getting bigger, you ask? Why, our gigantonormous photo gallery of course.