The day began with stiff limbs after my sleep in the front seats of the camper van. But the sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky.
The brightly painted camper van attracted a group of farm kids, quickly followed by their parents. Soon a breakfast party was in full swing. An old woman with a long dress and headscarf passed around red hard-boiled eggs to go with our teas and coffees. I realise with my knowledge now that this was Easter Sunday for the Orthodox Church and painted eggs form part of the tradition.
I also had what I described as cake/bread given to me by the woman from my previous lift – I think now this must have been panettone, another Easter tradition.
There was o lovely sense of fellowship, and we were waved cheerily on our way by a group of men, women and kids with their pony-drawn carts.
We reached the Greek border via Skopje and Veles in the early afternoon, and half an hour later we arrived in Thessaloniki. We said our farewells and I wandered off to find a place to stay.
I wandered along beside the harbour and it had started to rain. I suddenly felt sad, lost and lonely in this big city. I was also quite weary. I managed to find a room at the Hotel Queen Olga to rest my head.
So, Day 18 and another border crossed, fortified with some decorated hard-boiled eggs (me fortified, not the border)
And what egg-citing (groan) place will I lay my head tomorrow? It will be a place between places, somewhere between Thessaloniki and the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia.
Psychologist on the Move 