From Bulgaria to Belgium

September - December 2022

After living in Bulgaria's capital Sofia its been time to return back home to Belgium
But not before visiting other balkan countries ofcourse
I am trying to hitchhike as much as possible all the way from Bulgaria to Belgium through the balkans Read more

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Dave's Adventures From Bulgaria to Belgium
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- Sep 16, 2022, 9:00am
- ☁️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 564 m
- Bulgaria Sofia-Capital Municipality of the Capital Sofia Sv. Petka Samardzhiyska 42.69783, 23.321542°41’52” N 23°19’17” E
Day 1
Started my journey in Sofia
September 16, 2022 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C
After living in Bulgaria for 1,5 years i decided to leave Bulgaria and to go back to Belgium, but before I go back to Belgium and go search for another job I wanted to travel first

I started heading out on my first hitchhiking trip, I did some short hitchhikes before but those were mainly trips of 3 to 10 kilometers when i was hiking somewhere and drivers stopped to ask if i need a ride (this happens quite regularly in eastern europe)

So I took a bus to the outskirts of Sofia, I found a cardboard in a trash container and i did wrote 'South' on it because and I started my hitchhiking trip at the highway out of Sofia direction to GreeceRead more
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Dave's Adventures From Bulgaria to Belgium
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- Sep 16, 2022, 3:00pm
- ☀️ 32 °C
- Altitude: 14 m
- Greece Central Macedonia Thessaloniki Ágios Pávlos Ancient Agorà (Roman Forum), Thessaloniki 40.637218, 22.94526840°38’14” N 22°56’43” E
Day 1
Hitchhiking into Greece
September 16, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
I was standing on the highway near the village of Vladaya
I was hoping to get a first ride until Blagoevgrad and after that I could try to catch another ride direction of Greece

Cars passed by and so did time...
I've heard hitchhiking in Bulgaria is really easy and you mostly get a ride in 15-20 minutes, so I kept waiting...

15 minutes became 30 minutes and as soon as I knew it I was standing there for an hour already

I was almost losing hope and was already considering heading back to the city and taking a train somewhere and just going by train, but well... Lets give it another 30 minutes!

After 1 hour and 25 minutes of standing next to the road with my sign, smiling to every driver that passed and trying to look as friendly as possible so anyone would give me a ride a car finally stopped...

I was so happy to see that this car finally stopped for me
It was a mom with her kid, she was going direction of Dupnitsa to drop her kid to her grandmother and afterwards she was taking a plane to Athens 😁

She used to hitchhike before and took some hitchhikers with her as well, she dropped me off at Dupnitsa which was already a bit closer to Greece, but I still had a long time to go....

After being dropped off on the highway in Dupnitsa it got scorching hot, there was no shade and the sun was burning, I was hoping I wouldn't have to wait for another hour here
But well, there was lots of traffic on this road and a lots of trucks passed as well, since I was hoping to get to Greece today I was mainly aiming to hitch a truck here because they usually cover long distances

It only took me 5 minutes for the next car to stop! I could not believe it, this was insanely fast

The driver's name was Jorden and he was heading for Halkidiki
Jorden did not speak much english and my bulgarian isn't that good neither, he asked me where I want to go
I told him i was going to 'Gercia' (Greece in bulgarian)

Since Thessaloniki is very close to Halkidiki he offered me a ride directly to Thessaloniki

Even though we used a lot of hand signals and google translate to communicate aith each other, we both really enjoyed the ride and we had a great time

Jorden, if you're reading this, cheers to you 🍻 And I hope you made it safely to Halkidiki and back to SofiaRead more
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Dave's Adventures From Bulgaria to Belgium
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- Sep 18, 2022
- ☀️ 25 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Greece Central Macedonia Dio-Olympos Skála Litochórou 40.152306, 22.54702340°9’8” N 22°32’49” E
Day 3
Litochoro
September 18, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Train from Thessaloniki to Litochoro, preparing for Mt Olympus and chilling a bit at the beach
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- Sep 19, 2022, 5:00pm
- ☀️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 2,024 m
- Greece Central Macedonia Dio-Olympos Mount Olympus 40.080341, 22.37285740°4’49” N 22°22’22” E
Day 4
Olympus refuge A
September 19, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Did the hike from Litochoro to Refuge A, it was an 18 km hike with 2100 meters of altitude

I did put my tent at the refuge
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- Sep 20, 2022, 1:00pm
- ☀️ 15 °C
- Altitude: 2,647 m
- Greece Central Macedonia Dio-Olympos Mount Olympus 40.084667, 22.35516740°5’5” N 22°21’19” E
Day 5
Summitting Skala
September 20, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C
We woke up early in the morning to watch the amazing sunrise from the refuge at the mountain

After sunrise we went on for the hike to summit Skala
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- Sep 20, 2022, 7:00pm
- ⛅ 21 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Greece Central Macedonia Dio-Olympos Skála Litochórou 40.152306, 22.54702340°9’8” N 22°32’49” E
Day 5
Back to hostel
September 20, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C
After summit Skala I did the hike back to Prionia

On the hike I've met 2 german girls and a polish guy and once we reached Prionia we shared a taxi to Litochoro

From Litochoro I had to walk back all the way to my hostel, which was about a 7 km walk

I tried to hitchhike the few cars passing by and after a few cars passed 2 guys from Germany picked me up and dropped me off right in front of the hostelRead more
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- Sep 21, 2022
- ⛅ 20 °C
- Altitude: 234 m
- Greece Thessaly Kalampaka Kalambaka 39.707018, 21.62794339°42’25” N 21°37’41” E
Day 6
Kalambaka/Meteora
September 21, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
I was planning to chill at the beach, but it was quite rainy and windy and not too warm. So I decided to stay at the hostel for the day because there wasn't much else to do

Resting a bit because I was really tired from the Mt Olympus hike and my whole body was really sore but I started to get bored a bit but didn't really knew where to go next

A guy in my hostel told me about Meteora, i have never heard of it but I checked this place on Google Images and it looked very beautiful

Well, fuck it, I am taking a train to Kalambaka tonight to visit this placeRead more
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- Sep 22, 2022
- ☀️ 20 °C
- Altitude: 409 m
- Greece Thessaly Kalampaka Kastraki 39.723755, 21.62997739°43’26” N 21°37’48” E
Day 7
Small hikes around Meteora
September 22, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
I did some small hikes around Meteora

Since my legs were still very sore from Olympus I didnt do anything too crazy

I did visit Valraam monastry, it was quite beautiful and I did enjoy the surroundings and landscapes of Kalambaka

It reminded me of Cappadocia in TurkeyRead more
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- Sep 22, 2022
- ☀️ 20 °C
- Altitude: 469 m
- Greece Thessaly Kalampaka Kalambaka 39.711453, 21.63573239°42’41” N 21°38’9” E
Day 7
Meteora sunset at Danger Rock
September 22, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
In my hostel they told me about Danger Rock (thats how the people in my hostel called the rock)

It is an rock which is overhanging over the city of Kalambaka

We decided to climb it and watch sunset from that cliff, which was really an amazing thing to do!Read more
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- Sep 23, 2022, 9:00pm
- ⛅ 17 °C
- Altitude: 76 m
- Greece Attica Athens Omonoia 37.983941, 23.72830537°59’2” N 23°43’42” E
Day 8
Athens
September 23, 2022 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C
I did not really knew what to do

I was thinking about going wild camping in the Meteora surroundings or about going to Athens

I spent the day at Danger Rock where I also ran back into an australian guy i've met in Litochoro and did some hikes with

We were enjoying the views on danger rock and enjoying the last moments of Meteora before we said goodbye to each other

After that I've made the decision to take on a train to go to Athens that same nightRead more
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