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Thirty Before Thirty

July - October 2023
A 90-day adventure by Rhiannon Read more
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  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    Day 6

    Sofia so long

    July 16, 2023 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After a whistle stop immersion in Sofia, it’s time to hop a bus to Greece 🇬🇷

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    Day 6

    καλημερα ελλαδα

    July 16, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    Good Morning Greece 🇬🇷

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    22
    Day 6

    Thessaloniki

    July 16, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

    The view from my bed tonight 😁
    My hostel, ‘Zeus is Loose’ is Greek god themed and after a very hot and sweaty walk from the bus station this afternoon, I make a mental note to thank the gods for a cold shower and cool rooms 😉

    Thessaloniki itself seems like a city that’s fallen on hard times. Littered with important historical sites, it’s Greece’s second biggest city and has become one of the largest ports in the Aegean. It’s been a largely industrial city and it seems like there’s a lot of discontent. Political street art about everything from micro plastics to the holocaust (which hit the city hard with almost 25% of its population being Jewish at the time of WWII) in the suburbs, gives way to political graffiti and calls to ‘burn the police’ in the centre. I’m told the city was struggling due to de-industrialisation taking place but the pandemic and recent economic crises have only made things worse and it’s evident in the large homeless population and drug use visible in broad daylight even from the more ‘touristy’ area. Given that the sun is setting and the girl at the front desk couldn’t tell me quickly enough not to walk from the train station at night, I call it a night early.    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    Day 7

    Next stop Kastraki

    July 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    After a quick overnight in Thessaloniki it’s on to Kastraki where it’s supposed to hit 37 degrees today. Feeling very grateful for aircon right now 😅😂

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    1
    Day 7

    Palaeofarsalos

    July 17, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C

    After a modern train through rolling fields of green and gold, which left bang on time and subverts every Greek stereotype I’ve ever heard, I’ve got a stop to change trains which brings me to Palaeofarsalos.

    The platforms are empty and a group of men are sat outside the station cafe. It takes me a second to realise one is yelling ‘Kalambaka?’ at me. I say yes and a little girl next to him smiles and tells me 10 o’clock. My train ticket is for 11:42 but it doesn’t sound like I’m getting an option…
    In true Greek fashion, the next train turns out to be a bus… at 10am. Ticket be damned 😂😂    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    33
    Day 8

    Monasteries, magic, and mosquitos

    July 18, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    It’s 11pm and I’m dancing around a Greek mountain in the dark, in 30 degree heat, in some vain attempt to avoid becoming bug bait (spoiler alert, it doesn’t work). The sky is alive with the thrum of cicadas, the single note chirps of swallows swoop above and the buzz of thousands of mosquitos that have just discovered their next meal fills my ears. Just across from us stands the monastery of Varlaam, the biggest of 6 monasteries still functioning here in Meteora. Kris, my guide for the evening tells me how him and his friends used to explore the mountains here every day after school. He grew up in the town below, Kalambaka, and spends the night telling me stories of monks, hermits, Greeks and Turks.

    It’s been swelteringly hot today, hitting almost 40 degrees and so I’m grateful for the chance to explore the area without the sun directly overhead although it’s still extremely warm. Kris and I discuss climate change as we walk, apparently this is hotter than normal for Greece and they had rain almost all of May and June which is unheard of. Something’s definitely amiss.

    As the sun sets, we’re given a stunning view down the valley. The unusual rock formation created by being underwater millions of years ago, and the sandstone eroding, leaving impressive rock formations and small caves built naturally into the side of these stunning cliffs. As night falls I manage to get some star shots above one of the monasteries before calling it a night.

    I wake up and catch a glimpse of myself, my face red, tired, and puffy, like I’ve had a night on the town, only to realise moments later the puffiness is coming from three mosquito bites- one on each cheek and one on my forehead. Wonderful. I then discover the collection I’ve amassed on my arms, and a few on my finger tips. It’s going to be an itchy ride back to Thessaloniki before heading on to (North) Macedonia tomorrow although it was absolutely worth the photos and the chance to explore such a beautiful area.    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    Day 9

    Hot, hot, hot

    July 19, 2023 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 39 °C

    Much of yesterday was taken up by the heat. With time to kill before my train and stuck with all my luggage, I found myself stationed outside a bar in the small town of Kalambaka watching the temperature gauge climb on the pharmacy sign across the town square… 36..37…
    Kalambaka by all accounts should be swarming with tourists given the multiple tour company offices lining the streets but it’s dead.
    …38…39. My guide the night before had told me that they usually had more tourists around this time. ‘Maybe because of the heat’ he shrugs and waves a hand vaguely.

    Before the gauge can hit 40, the waitress comes out and motions me inside. I join her and another older local woman as they close the shutters and turn the aircon on. I thank them, glad for a reprieve from the heat and the older of the two smiles and tells me ‘not for you. For me too.’

    They speak very little English and I speak very little Greek but we manage to communicate somehow. I ask if this is a usual temperature for this area and they tell me it’s significantly hotter. Sweat is running off all of us and my arms have taken on a milky colour thanks to my suncream mixing in. We turn on the news to footage of Athens literally in flames. Wildfires have consumed homes, towns and forests at the Northwest of the city.
    Europe’s experiencing a heatwave, another year of record breaking temperatures and watching the impact of it today sat in 40 degree heat, just 200 miles away from the fires of Athens, it feels a little apocalyptic. As temperatures rise year upon year, it’s hard not to feel some despair and maybe a little regret that perhaps some of this could have been avoided.

    My time in Greece has been short and sweet but I feel like it’s a country calling for change. Even out here in the foothills of mountains and thousands of years of monastic traditions, political graffiti and anarchy symbols line the walls of the train station. When I change at Paleosfarsus again, I spot more slogans etched into the underpass. ‘No police, no nazis’. ‘Dead men don’t rape’ and ‘EU Sh*t’. While I appreciate the Circe-esque twist on the usual train station graffiti, it makes me quicken my pace.

    Given that Greece is the birthplace of democracy and politics as we know it, I shouldn’t be surprised by how political the social climate is. It feels like the younger generation are screaming for change in a system that is not doing them any favours. Having been hit hard by the soaring cost of living despite signs of Greece’s economy starting to stabilise over the past two years, Greece stands to lose a lot in the climate battle given that a fair chunk of its economy still relies on agriculture and tourism, and if temperatures keep rising, both industries will be impacted. I can’t help but wonder where Greece is headed as the discontent bubbles just under the surface.

    As I leave Greece to cross the border into North Macedonia, I think of the kind people that I met as I traversed the country, and I can’t help but feel a little twinge of sadness as I ponder what comes next for Greece.

    (P.S- no signal once I cross the border, might be MIA for a day or two)    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    1
    Day 9

    North Macedonia 🇲🇰

    July 19, 2023 in North Macedonia ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    Macedonians are built different. As the fierce heat continues, people walk past me in jeans and business formal, looking like they’re not even breaking a sweat. I can’t work out if they’re just very stoic or descended from Hades himself and therefore don’t notice the heat. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I on the other hand arrive tired, and dishevelled with a river of sweat running off me at any given moment even in shorts and a baggy t-shirt.

    I’ll admit I’m going into North Macedonia blind. Every other country on my list I have at least some preconceived idea of what I might come to- North Macedonia however is a country I know very little about.

    The Ottomans were here, so were the Greeks. It was part of Bulgaria at one point and the former Yugoslavia at another. It gained independence peacefully from the last in 1991 and remained ‘Macedonia’ until a dispute with Greece over the name resulted in the name change to ‘North Macedonia’ in 2019. They’re still disputing if Alexander the Great was Greek or North Macedonian though…    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    153
    Day 10

    Skopje - the City of Statues

    July 20, 2023 in North Macedonia ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    Skopje is an architect’s fever dream brought to life. It’s a city that’s hard to get a measure on. The centre feels very Las Vegan but turn a corner and you could be in Paris or East Berlin. In many ways it’s reminiscent of east Germany with lots of brutalist, grey, concrete buildings but modern recreations of Grecian, neo-classical and French provincial buildings have been shoved into every conceivable space in some modern attempt to beautify the city. In the background it’s flanked by a 6th century fortress in the distance. Aesthetically, the city is completely mad in the best possible way and within a 10 minute walk I’m more than a little in love with the place.

    Massive Macedonian flags pepper the skyline and there are statues everywhere. Everyone with any link to Macedonia seems to be immortalised in statue, no
    matter how spurious their claim to fame (or Macedonia for that matter). On a hill overlooking the city is the World’s second biggest cross, built in the millennium to celebrate 2000 years of Christianity in Macedonia.

    A red, double decker, London bus goes past and I do a double take suddenly wondering if it’s a mirage. Turns out the Yugoslavian government purchased a huge number of London buses in the 50s. An earthquake later destroyed most of the fleet but in recent years, a company has brought back the iconic buses as a flare of nostalgia for Skopje’s past.

    I turn down the Stone Bridge, a pirate ship parked to my left, I’m surrounded by statues of national heroes and saints alike, a massive statue of Alexander the Great ahead (although in an Aldi vs Marks and Sparks style twist, it’s officially it’s named ‘The Great Warrior’ as the government can’t make reference to Alexander due to ongoing disputes with Greece). The town centre feels surreally modern while the domes of the old ottoman bazaar peak out just a few hundred meters over the bridge. Everything in Skopje is either 12th century or built within the past couple of decades. There doesn’t seem to be any in between.

    It’s an endearingly bonkers city and my only complaint is that I don’t have more time to explore both Skopje and Macedonia more widely.    Read more

  • TravelerThirty Before Thirty
    1
    Day 11

    Bulgaria, We Meet Again

    July 21, 2023 in Bulgaria ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    With one last walk through Skopje’s eclectic city centre it’s back to Bulgaria for a night for supplies and laundry before I head on to Romania tomorrow.

    P.s terrible photo from a very manky bus window but look at those sunflower fields 🌻✨ Stunning countryside to drive throughRead more

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