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→North-West to Skopje (North Macedonia)
=== North-West to [[Skopje]] ([[North Macedonia]]) ===
Option 1:Don't bother to hitch hike to the border!!! There is a are free bus busses from the city centre to the border! These buses which belong to the casinos you can find at across the border just before Gevgelija. You can find theses these buses on Tsimiski street. They are easy to recognize (the name of the casino is printed on the bus, and it is written "free shuttle"). The buses leave at 17:00 and 21:00 though, so it might be quicker to hit the road directly, but more comfortable taking the busonly useful for arriving in Skopje at night.
As of May 2024, it appears that the free shuttle no longer exists.
Option 2:Take a bus #8 (or #31?) from Egnatias street in the centre Bus to KTEL (last stop)Agios Athanasios. You can also take bus #45 which goes between From "KTEL Makedonia and KTEL Halkidiki (you want to Macedonia Bus station" lines 81A, 89B, 89K go to ''Makedonia''). Then switch to bus #81 which you can find on the upper platform. Afterwards, you can do different thingsthere. You can get off at a first bus stop after you drive over the highway Athens-Skopje - [http://g.co/maps/3qj6m here]. Be careful, the first big crossing you going to come to is the crossing with the ring road (you are going to driver underneath it) while only the next on is the one you need (you are going to drive above it). Then you have to walk almost 2km backwards (if you walk fast it takes 20 minutes) and you can hitch on the nearby junction to the highway Highway A1/E75 to Skopje. However, if the bus goes into Agios Athanasios you can better get off and find your way from there (it seems that this bus goes differently depending whether it is #81 or #81A and depending on some external stuff; you can talk to the driver to make sure). Bus 81A from KTEL busstation to Agios Athanasios. Got off when it turns from the highway. From there hitched to Polykastro and another ride got me to the border. At the border asked the car in front of me for a ride, which got me to Skopje. Standing on the highway there, it was very quiet
Option 3:
Actually hitch hike. Highway EO2 effectively runs down the center of Thessaloniki to Edessas. It's a normal road (called "Monastiriou", "Egnagia" and others) up until the junction with the ring road (A2/E90). You can walk down it (going north-west) while hitch hiking. There are gas stations along it where you can hitch hike. Just past the ring road there is a stop light before the ramp where you can hitch hike. Just beyond that there is a very big shoulder where you can hitch hike. Continue following EO2 from there for 10km (in a car by now ideally) and you are at Agios Athanasios as in option 2 above. Take the exit to A1/E75 to Skopje.
=== South to [[Athens]] ===
=== Camping ===
====The university campus ==== The university campus in Thessaloniki is just in the city centre and it's the seems to be a perfect place to sleep in your van/tent/sleeping bag, but IT IS NOT! It's '''NOT SAFE THERE''' ''(upd.2022)''. The drug business moved there, as unbelievable as it sounds. People selling drugs and fighting over things related to them, passerbys get attacked. If someone has a van maybe it's okay. But sleeping in a tent or sleeping bag is an invitation to get robbed. It's the worst place to sleep, really. Plus, starting from 2019 it is a place where a lot of immigrants sleep. Police has no right to enter that area because of some tragic past, i.e. it's ideal place for drug sellers and crime. ====Forest Recreational Center==== Forest Recreational Center near the Zoo (''Neapoli-Sykies, 554 38'') which is located on the only green place in hills above the city and because can be a solution. However, depending on your choice of the police "height" of that forest (after highway it becomes more wild, before highway it more like a park) there can be pack of stray dogs which is not a good gift. Homeless animals are not allowed to enter a big problem in the university! There are few guards but don't big cities as Thessaloniki or Athens, so you better have something to protect yourself from them during the right to touch night (get some long sticks near you). Normally they are scared of "throwing a rock gesture" because some greeks do that against dogs. It's generally safeSo, though perhaps not suitable if you see an unfriendly dog try to pretend taking a rock from the ground - it should work for a single femalelonely dog.
====Other====
We slept at a deserted camping space by the beach in Ag. Triada, which is really worth a visit. We even made a big fire at night and it didn't disturb anybody. This place is about 30km south of Thessaloniki and you can reach it within 1,5h by bus. From the famous ottoman tower take the bus to ikea. At the last stop ask for the bus to Perea and Ag. Triada. The last bus will pass by the airport and enter a cupple of villages before you get to Triada. Ask for the old camping at the beach, locals will guide you.
== Public Transport ==
Google maps doesn't really know how buses work, so they are unable to get you directions from point A to B in the city. So, if you want to move inside the city using a public transport download special application (''in 2022 there is an application called "Moovit").
The tickets for the buses in the city cost 0.80€ and sometimes 0.90€ (0.40€ for students). 2€ for airport route.
There were big movements in this city about not paying for public transport. Many people don't pay and controls are rare. [[User: HHer-Vert|HHer-Vert]] was living in that very city 5 years, and got controlled only 2-3 times.
== Shower ==
Thessaloniki is perhaps the only place in the world where you can eat everyday for free easily.
To avoid control you need to be a part of a big crowd which is hard to control, therefore try to be there during the most crowded time (normally the beginning of opening) and you won't be controlled. Another 'life-hack' that you can use if you have been asked for your ID is to tell that you just started to study greek language for university and you don't own by now any proof of that (there are a lot of foreign students who really study greek for that reason, and yes - they don't have any proof in the beginning). It is harder during the weekends (or holidays) because there are less people and have no crowd, so if you look suspicious you can be asked for an ID.
''There is another option (easy in the morning, otherwise is more difficult):''
You can find it by following ''address: Stilponos Kiriakidi 17, Thessaloniki 546 36, Greece''
The best way is to be hosted there by any student through hosting application or ask some students living there to help you get the dinner (regularly even if you cannot get main dish they provide you orangers or apples which no one takes). If you cannot find a student helping you, you can try get some food by your own, follow this instruction:
- They are controling IDs only during day time and evening time, so it's very easy to get therein there in the morning (8 a.m - 10 a.m). In the morning there are almost no people eating, so staff is really bored of checking IDs or is even absent. - Take the trey with food and go eat as all do at the table. Don't be suspicious, you are a student now. Many students dondoesn't really eat there, they are taking food away food which they can physically take out and leave the dorms. You can do the same. - Normally control-staff are crossing out the numbers on the paper. Each student have has his own number on ID-card and he tells it in the moment of entering. It's another strategy of pretending to be a student: you tell random number in greek language (p.e. 103 = ekato tria, 25 - ikosi pensepende, 207 = diakosia diakosa epta, etc), so they will cross it out. Don't worry, students rarely take morning breakfast, so you are not "eating someone's foodin his place".
- In the end, if you did not get any food, you are desperate and frustrated, you can try to tell staff that you are an adventurer, they are pretty understanding. They will give you food anyway if you came in the restaurant's closing time (10 a.m; 2.30 p.m & 9 p.m). There are always extra food, which they give to random people. Just ask.