Abandoned Hot Springs

After a melancholic farewell from Skopje and a long bus ride I found myself confused in Greece. You can actually lift regular euros from the ATMs here. At least at the time I was there... Only this sensation felt strange after all the different currencies. 

I stayed in Thessaloniki for a couple of days and started my adventures towards east, because I sadly had a flight to catch. My goal was to hitchhike through Greece all the way to Istanbul and only visit a few local villages on the way.

The departure day from Thessaloniki started really badly, when I got off the citybus a stop too late and ended up in the middle of nowhere on the highway in the boiling weather. I tried to desperately hitchhike for two hours with minimal amounts of water, which started to worry me. After a few hours a Swedish family luckily stopped for me! 

By far the toughest day of my journey around the Balkans started to slowly turn around from here, because our dear neighbours were able to give me a ride halfway to Kavala! Almost immediately after jumping of their ride another car stopped for my thump. This time I got welcomed by a local couple who were going for a roadtrip to swim. They offered me cold beer on the backseat and mentioned an area with abandoned hotels and thermal hot springs. What could be better?

I often trust and try to make the best out of advice given by locals and this place sounded way too good to be missed. I asked for them to stop and walked the path they showed me. Some deteriorated walls started to peek from behind trees. Just as I had been told these abandoned hotels surrounded the most perfect river shore. There were a few families having peaceful picnics between the ruins.