I'm currently in Thessaloniki, the 3rd largest city in Greece, enjoying a day's break from the road by eating greasy food (imagine that!) and watching an American movie with Greek subtitles. Sitting here in an ultra-modern Internet cafe, I'm surrounded by rabid (and I mean RABID!) soccer fans watching the big-screen game and screaming at their team, all trying desperately to drown out the already loud stereo, while I try to compose my thoughts in some coherent manner. Rots of ruck... Speaking of greasy food, I weighed myself on some scales in the Athens train station - I've GAINED 2 pounds since setting out on this deal. Gotta get to a country quick where meat and olive oil don't figure so big in the cuisine. I ate a couple of Chinese meals in Athens - it was a nice break, but I still couldn't get away from the salt level. It ranks right behind feta cheese as the most used condiment here.

Thessaloniki is a coastal city in the Northwest of the country, halfway between Athens and Istanbul, as the bike rides. It dates back to 315BC and is named after Alexander the Great's sister. Beautiful place, it also has a very modern flavor, owing to a massive fire in 1917 that destroyed much of the city, and then an earthquake in 1978 that damaged most of the monuments and churches. The White Tower, pictured below, was the scene of a massacre of the Sultan's personal guards who'd revolted against Mahmoud II and were imprisoned here in 1826. It became known as Bloody Tower because of this, and the turks decided to suppress it by whitewashing and renaming it the White Tower.

I got here from Athens by taking the train for the first half of the journey here, in order to save a little time. This got me back up to approximately the longitude I'd started at in Greece (so I'm not REALLY cheating, ok?), and then I rode the second half into Thessaloniki at a record pace for me (a screaming 23 kph average!) If I keep this pace up, I should be done by, oh I don't know, May? I got so used to the hard, hard 60 km days in the Greek mountains that the 90+ km days of this week have been a shock. I think I'll be out of Greece and into Turkey within a week if all goes well, which is only a week longer than what I'd thought I'd take in Greece anyway.

This city is really fashionable - the waterfront cafes are simply packed with all the beautiful people in the evening - and this suits me just fine, although only by coincidence. I'd decided after having walked around the previous place on a Saturday evening, that I was tired of looking like such an obvious damn tourist in my shorts and sandals. NO Greeks wear shorts or sandals in November! (Not even other tourists for that matter, but then they aren't from Montana and traveling by bike!) I mean I get looks from people sometimes that make me wanna check the mirror to make sure somebody didn't slip Hawaiian-print bermuda shorts and calf-high black socks on me when I wasn't looking. And nylon hiking pants and a nappy fleece jersey aren't much more stylish. I can't believe I actually went to a Sicilian nightclub wearing that stuff. So tomorrow I'm going shopping for shoes, jeans, a shirt and matching (matching!) jacket - something I can wear out at night and not have people automatically speak English to me. Or look at me like I've insulted their heritage and offended their eyesight just by dressing like that in their presence. Where I'll store the new stuff on the bike I haven't decided yet. I've been making a list of less-used items that I can mail back or just plain not carry in order to make room. Like food and water (yes, I'm that desperate). So, we'll see what I can find in the shops tomorrow. Of course with my fashion sense, its likely to be very expensive Hawaiian-print bermuda shorts with dark socks... Though speaking of good taste, its not too uncommon for me to see a young woman wearing an outfit that might include TIGHT dark purple nylon pants and maroon leather jacket garnished with a pinkish scarf. It looks a bit like a slender eggplant wearing a pink wig being being slowly squeezed into a can of grape Nehi. (Aaw, hell, its the best I could come up with - you'd have to see it...)

On the train from Athens, I got into a conversation with a young Greek girl and, as we had 6 hours to blow, we covered a load of different philosophical terrain, ranging from materialism to politics to America's global role. I'm fascinated by the opinions of non-Americans on how America involves itself in the world, or at least on how they perceive us to be involved. Since other country's opinions, especially when about us, don't usually get much air time at home, up to now I'd only heard bits and pieces in that vein regarding our role in Yugoslavia. I knew that our military involvement wasn't necessarily popular worldwide, but its still an eye-opener to speak directly with someone who believes that America was in the wrong. I happen to disagree with her, but it was very interesting to hear that sentiment expressed, and surprising to see how strongly she felt it.

I'm continuing my current trend of staying in the worst (read: cheapest) possible hotel I can find in any town, particularly now that the weather is starting to get damn cold for camping. I mean I can hardly take my shirt off during the day anymore - how'm I gonna maintain my tan? And I could've sworn I saw a cloud behind me out of the corner of my eye this afternoon. But by the time I turned around for a better look, it had evaporated. So my place for tonight, and probably for tomorrow night unless the rats carry me off, costs $11. This isn't much more than for camping, and I get the added security of a locked room for my stuff while I ramble around. It might be a false sense of security however, as just about every room I've taken in the past month uses the same simple key, I swear. This place is such a hole that after the owner quoted me $16 for a night, he almost immediately came down in price without me even having to bargain - he was probably feeling guilty about trying to charge so much! At first he gave me a hard time (in mixed German and Greek) for not being able to speak his language when I asked him (in Greek) if he spoke English. So I snapped right back at him in garbled Greek and American that the only harder language to learn must be Swahili, and that any country where 'ne' means yes and 'ok' means no had better get its act together in a hurry - I think he was 1/2 kidding around, 'cause he's been a softy every since. So either he was pulling my leg or he was just trying to tell me where I could find the shower.

So, things are going quite well now. If I've given anyone the impression that I'm not having fun - far from it. I'm really enjoying the place and will be sad to leave it behind soon. Funny, every time I think I'm settling into some semblance of routine here, I do something to change it, almost without consciously thinking about it. I started out camping almost exclusively, moved on to staying in one place for a while, and now enjoy different hotels most nights. Wonder what new habits Turkey will bring...?

Ciao. Mark

The White Tower, built, um... a long time ago!