June 17th: Istanbul to Thessaloniki

We left the hotel at 5:30 am and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over the empty highways leaving Istanbul. We got to the border at 8:30 and made friends with some Turkish people that were curious about our car.

Ali and Elif helped us push it over 3km to the first passport control so we didn’t burn out our started motor. It was so hot and they were kind enough to offer us some water and snacks so we gifted them a Kinahan P2P t-shirt as thanks. We waited 7 hours to cross that border into Greece. By the end the heat was making us sick. The process only took maybe 30 seconds to open the passports and stamp them though and we were across!

We stopped at a little waterfront cafe in Alexandropouli and enjoyed club sandwiches, the only food on the menu. After the cafe we drove another 3 hours to our hotel in Thessaloniki. The city smelled like a sewer and the smell permeated the hotel rooms. We navigated the labyrinthian hallways to the dinner room, ate some food and went right to bed.