Changes

Another optionThis route is widely perceived to be difficult. If you are lucky it can be easy if you get to a Turkish truck. Take bus #27 from the centre (e.g. Kamara) until the very end of the line. [UPDATE: Bus bus #83 no longer starts where bus #27 finishes. Instead ask your #27 bus driver where to get off for bus #83] Switch to bus #83 goes all and go a few stops until you see the way to Langadamotorway . If Get off at Filothei (Φιλοθέη) when you stay see a BP Oil in green colour rest area on the other side of the motorway. Just follow the bus until it reaches this small townand go under the motorway to reach the other side. Once you are there, rally the petrol station personnel to help you . Show them your Istanbul (or Kavala or whatever) sign and ask them to tell you if they notice someone going to Turkey. Be prepared to convince the paranoid drivers that you are not wanted by the police and show them your passport. Getting a ride can easily hitch out in take anything between one minute and five hours. If it just does not work at the petrol station see the options below (thumbing up on the direction road etc). Also, there should be a toll station (peage) about [http://hitchwiki.org/maps/?place=6374 15 km east of KavalaLagynas], Istanbul, etcnear Analipsi (where bus #83a is supposed to go). When you get to the border you might want to switch to a passenger car because the truck could be stuck in customs for a while.

*''I followed Bus #83 goes all the instructions and went way to JetOil and got Lagkadas (Λαγκαδάς). If you stay on the personnel to helpbus until it reaches this small town, but it turned you can try hitching out to be quite hard to get a ride going east. Even though a lot in the direction of cars and trucks do stop there, the cars appeared to be going local and the trucks were heading towards Athens. After half an hourKavala, I decided to move on and got a short ride to the highway. After 5 minutes a truckerIstanbul, who was on his way to Iran, stopped for meetc. So even though I do not recommend thumbing up on the highway, it does work some time. December 2010, Lana''

*''I tried the recommended way of asking around at the JetOil trying to get out of Thessaloniki, with no luck. It seemed all the truckers were either sleeping, local, or going to Athens. Also, they were not that keen on taking hitchhikers anyway. After a few hours, I went to the highway right next to the station Update (there is an opening in July 2022): the fence, you just have to look for it), options listed above are extremely outdated and got a ride halfway to Istanbul within 10 minutesnot very helpful. It surprises me how closedminded the original post This route isstill difficult, being that it is entirely possible, and quite easy to get a ride on the highway. Just a lesson that you should never take anyone's recommendation as absolute truthbut there are better options. I would personally recommend getting the gas-pumpers at the station to ask around for you (they were incredibly friendly), and stay within clear sight on the highway in case they get you a ride before you do. February 2011, Jon''

*''First of all: it1) with bus number 83 you can get to Laguna from where there's not easy at all about 20 minutes walk to hitchhike in Greece btw Thessaloniki. We spent one day and two hours the next day in knot that area to ties local road 2 and highway 2. Here you can get a hike in the direction directly to turkey. If you take the bus #83 from town be prepared that it DOESNT stop on entrance of the highway. we drove to the next station and waited for the bus #86 to drive backKavala where you filter out any cars not going your way. the whole in the fence The traffic is an option very slow but a bad one because the cars are driving fast can stop and they have almost no space to stop. we got get a hitch good look at the drive-up, direction kavala. it is wide and the cars are driving slow. if you come with the bus and go under the highway you'll find it on your left hand side. 250m to walk from the JetOil. Good Luck! July 2011, Timo'There's a gas station about 30km down before Evangelios

=== North-West 2) The highway entrance after BP near Megalohare kantina is still very local, but there's enough traffic so it's possible to hitch longer rides. Since Greeks don't stop often we opted to go for the first ride which brought us to [[Skopje]] (FYROM) ===the 3rd option

Take a bus #8 (or #31?3) from Egnatias street in the centre to KTEL (last stop). Then switch to bus #81 which you can find on the upper platform. Afterwards40,7214723, you can do different things. You can get off at a first bus stop after you drive over the highway Athens-Skopje - [http://g.co/maps/3qj6m here]. Be careful22, 9740939 or the first big crossing you gonna come to is spot right after the crossing with the ring road (you are going to driver underneath it) while only the next on exit for Laguna is the one you need (you are going to risky. The cars drive above it). Then you have to walk almost 2km backwards (if you walk fast it takes 20 minutes) so be careful and you can hitch on the junction to there's a high probability the highway patrol tells you to Skopjeget off. However, if the bus goes into Agios Athanasios you can better get off and find your way we hitched a ride within 5 minutes with a Kavala sign as there are a lot of Turkish truck drivers going 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 Athens to the driver to make sure)Istanbul.

*''My girlfriend and me stood at the junction just next to the old paytollNone of these options are perfect, which seemed to be but they seem way more likely than the best place BP station since cars were 4-5 hours of hitchhiking there yielded only 2 rides going rather slowlyto Kilkis. After 10-15 minutes Since we changed strategy we were picked up by only needed about an hour and a Macedonian woman who brought us to the border. A week later I hitchhiked alone from the same spot and was picked up after 40 minutes and got to the junction with Polykastro before which the highway goes into one line for 500 metres. On that spot I thumbed and got to the border after another 40 minuteshalf in total. December 2011, [[User:Rozwal|Rozwal]]''Good luck!

Alternatively, you can get off [http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Thessalonikis-Edessas%2F%CE%98%CE%B5%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%BA%CE%B7%CF%82-%CE%88%CE%B4%CE%B5%CF%83%CF%83%CE%B1%CF%82%2FRoute+2&daddr=Leoforos+Konstantinou+Karamanli%2F%CE%9B%CE%B5%CF%89%CF%86%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82+%CE%9A%CF%89%CE%BD%CF%83%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%85+%CE%9A%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BB%CE%AE&hl=en&ie=UTF8&sll=40.692744,22.819805&sspnNorth-West to [[Skopje]] ([[North Macedonia]]) =0.090979,0.209255&geocode=FaD1bAIdtpZcAQ%3BFaD1bAIdtpZcAQ&vpsrc=0&mra=mift&mrsp=1&sz=13&t=m&z=13 here] which is reported to be a better place for cars to stop. But there you have a lot of cars going to the West, while if you come the previous stop you will have cars going only towards Polykastro or the border.

*Option 1:Don''I took bus 81A from KTEL busstation t bother to hitch hike to Agios Athanasios. Got off when it turns the border! There are free busses from the highway. From there hitched to Polykastro and another ride got me city centre which belong to the casinos across the borderjust before Gevgelija. You can find these buses on Tsimiski street. At They are easy to recognize (the border asked name of the casino is printed on the car bus, and it is written "free shuttle"). The buses leave at 17:00 and 21:00 so only useful for arriving in front of me for Skopje at night.  Option 2:Take a rideBus to Agios Athanasios. From "KTEL Macedonia Bus station" lines 81A, which got me 89B, 89K go there. You can hitch on the nearby junction to Highway A1/E75 to Skopje. Standing on  Option 3:Actually hitch hike. Highway EO2 effectively runs down the highway therecenter 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 was 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 quiet, but I was very lucky as an Austrian big shoulder where you can hitch hike. Continue following EO2 from there for 10km (in a car passed by now ideally) and got me straight you are at Agios Athanasios as in option 2 above. Take the exit to BelgradeA1/E75 to Skopje. January 2011, Lana''

Take Buses #31, #12, #8 or #78 to the bus station called KTEL. From there take bus #80 or #80A to the village called ''Malgara''(some of these buses don't go all the way to Malgar). You can go down out on the station stop "''25 Martiou''" which is the closest to the tolls but on the bus, it's announced differently (in Greek ''ikostis pemptis martiouIkostis Pmptis Martiou'' if you wan ask the driver). There you can ask and find the Malgara Toll Station toll station (in Greek ''diodia'') on E75 easily. You'll have to walk about 2 km to find it, but then there is a possibility to get a ride even straight to Athens. Before you enter the motorway where the toll station is, you will have to go through some fields. If it's night be careful, just before the motorway there is a small ridge that is a bit steep and there is water flowing down, you need to find your way around it. If it's day, from the fields you can see a small canteen on the motorway, head to that direction, you can bypass the ridge there very easily and also you don't need to jump the fence (easy to jump though) because there is an entrance/exit for the canteen. From the canteen you will see the tolls, they are less than 50 m away.  For those not wanting to take a bus or want to hitch closer to the city (and aren't scared to walk), go to the the A1 motorway going towards Athens. It runs right beside the city centre. Starting from near the train station after walking 2 km you will arrive at the international bus station. From there it's a 6km walk along the motorway to where the E90 highway joins on to the A1 road to Athens. This is a good spot due to the high amount of Turkish trucks coming straight from the border and bypassing the city as well as any traffic coming from the north. Stand at the end of the onramp where there is a shoulder for traffic to pull over and you can get a ride to Larissa or even Athens.

Go to the train station, which is also the inner-city bus station. From here, take bus 8 KTEL (the KTEL are the blue and white buses) to Makedonia bus station. From there, you can catch the bus #80 to the end of the line, then follow motorway signs walking (approx. 2km) to the [[toll station]]. Or rather than taking bus #80, just walk across the road (roundabout) till you come to an [[on-ramp]] where, according to [[User:Liva|Liva]], is a a pretty good spot to stop cars.

Take bus 83 (any of them will get you there, even the bus #27 express) from Aristotellous Square stop (on Egnatia Street). You want to get off at the centre Kombo Gerokomeiou exit (Google maps doesnt show the bus stops this far north, but on the final s top ''Platia Stavroupolis'' (Stavroupolis squareopposite side of the highway is a gas station called Derveni Gas S.A.). Then take bus #85 and MAKE SURE you're already on your way. Almost any stop of this explain to the bus leaves driver you want to get off at a good hitchhiking pointthis exit. Otherwise, but he might not get off the highway here and the nineteenth next stop ''21o chiliometro'' (21st kilometre) is right on a petrol station too far to walk back from. Stand on the way to Serres and shoulder of the Bulgarian border (to Sandansky, Blagoevgrad, Sofia)ramp. The road There is E79 and not a lot of traffic here, so it's not might take you up to an hour to get a motorwayride, especially after but I think its worth it because most of the bordercars going as far as Bulgaria will get on the highway here. These city bus tickets cost only 50 cents Good luck! Update (that you donAugust '22)Don't even take bus 83! You have to pay) and take bus 83B to get to the right place! Taking bus 83 will make you quite some kilometres out walk for a long time until teaching the ramp. Also, I wasn't so lucky there. I waited a total of 4 hours before I gave up.I think it's better to go to the city towards all destinationsShell gas station at 40°41′01.72″N 22°56′28.28″E and ask people. Thumbing on ramps is pretty difficult in Greece.You can take bus 53 until Strophe Oraiokastrou to get to the gas station. 

* This way is faster as you don't need to stay on bus #27 so long. Take bus #27 or #27a and get off at Minerva stop in Oreokastrou suburb. If you walk some hundreds of meters from the bus stop where you get off, in the direction the bus was going, you will reach a crossroads and on your left you will see another bus stop. From there you can take bus #84.* This way is easier because you don't need to change bus stops, it is the way mentioned in the Northeast to Sofia section. Take the bus #27 or #27a from the centre the the final s top ''Platia Stavroupolis'' (Stavroupolis square). Then at the same place take bus #84 / #84a and you're already on your way.

Stay on bus #84 whilst it passes through 2 villages, Liti and Melissochiori. When it is out of Melissochiori, at one point the bus will cross the road going to Kilkis and you will see signs for Kilkis. When you are at the cross roads you can press the stop button on the bus and it will stop just after the cross. There is a bus stop there. Then you are at a great spot for hitching a ride to Kilkis, Gallikos or even North Macedonia(but not the most common way to Skopje. it is a different border).

 ====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 a big problem in the big cities as Thessaloniki or Athens, so you better have something to enter protect yourself from them during the university! There night (get some long sticks near you). Normally they are few guards but don't have scared of "throwing a rock gesture" because some greeks do that against dogs. So, if you see an unfriendly dog try to pretend taking a rock from the right ground - it should work for lonely dog. ====Airport==== Place to touch stay for a short term. It is not closing for the night, so youcan always overnight there. ====Other==== We slept at a deserted camping space by the beach in Ag. Triada, which is really worth a visit. ItWe even made a big fire at night and it didn's generally safet disturb anybody. This place is about 30km south of Thessaloniki and you can reach it within 1, though perhaps not suitable 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 single femalecupple of villages before you get to Triada. Ask for the old camping at the beach, locals will guide you.

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 are cheap, only cost 0.80€ and sometimes 0.90€ (0.50€40€ for students). 2€ for airport route. '''Blackriding ''' is possible. It's risky because there is no chance of recognising controllers before they enter the bus, however the very control is rare.  Controllers are using civil clothes (they doesn't use a special clothes, they just unzip theirs jackets with controllers badges in the middle of the road, so they already know if you didn't validate your ticket). If you speak to the controller in a foreign language (showing that you're a tourist, not an illegal immigrant) they'll just leave you alone. If not, they first ask 30 Euros euro for the tax, in that case you can say you don't haveone. Then they ask your id an ID card, you say that you don't have it with you and then they'll just give you a paper to note your name and address, where you can write any fake name. Or even simpler you can give your real passport and they are supposed to send you the bill to your country. It's 100% SURE that they will not. 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 == One even safer option is the student residence. Noone here checks who enters. Ever. Even if they see you like a complete stranger with a tons of baggage and ask you anything, just tell them that you are visiting a friend or whatever. After you enter, go upstairs to any floor and you'll find common baths everywhere. It is located near the swimming pool at the city center. You can enter 24h. Location on map: https://goo.gl/maps/H8WZU

This might Thessaloniki is perhaps the only place in the world where you can eat everyday for free easily.  ===Fititiki Leshi (Φοιτητική Λέσχη) upd:2022=== Next to the campus of Aristotle University, Egnatia street, after the crossroad with 3rd September street there is the university canteen. (''Address: Egnatia, Thessaloniki 546 36, Greece''). Ask anybody for ''fititiki leschi''. There you can find a free full meal three times per day: 8.00-10.00, 12.00-15.00 and 18.00-20.00. These free meals are provided for the university students, but even if you're not one, you don't have to pay and you don't have to show a student ID or any document (but due to cobtrol re-enforcement you could be true anymoreasked for your ID).  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 heard 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. Just follow the queue, take the food and eat it. There's nothing to be afraid of, just try to look more or less like a student. Only disadvantage is that it is closed on weekends, summer holidays and not-working days for the university in general. Picture of the building [http://www.makthes.gr/filestore/modules/news/68918/lesxi.jpg here]. Alternative entrance: when you are there look to your right. At the end of the grass there is a stair case, you can go up directly to the dining hall (if it's opened, if it's not you can knock or wave through the door to another student, normally they will let you in). ''There is another option (easy in the morning, otherwise is more difficult):'' ===Alfa foititiki estia (Α' φοιτητική εστία):===Your aim is the same - free student food from student canteen, however now you are going to search it directly in canteen of student's dorms. There is no control at the entrance of student's dorms. The restaurant is located on the first floor, at the left side from the big marble stairs. The doors are opened at the meal time.  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 year instruction: - They are controling IDs only during day time and evening time, so it's very easy to get 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 doesn't really eat there, they are taking food away which they started checking for 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 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 pass: you tell random number in greek language (p.e. 103 = ekato tria, 25 - ikosi pende, 207 = diakosa epta, etc), so they will cross it out. Don't worry, students rarely take morning breakfast, so you are not "eating someone's food in 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. == Trashwiki & Nomadwiki ==