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This route is widely perceived to be difficult. The best and rather easy way of doing this is hitching with a Turkish truck. Take bus #27 from the centre (e.g. Kamara) until the very end of the line. Switch to bus #83 and go a few stops until you see the highwaymotorway. Get off when you see a JetOil rest area on the other side of the highwaymotorway. Just follow the bus and go under the highway motorway to reach the other side. Once you are there, rally the gas 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 take anything between one minute and five hours but this IS the way to do it. Do not even consider other small gas stations or thumbing up on the road. 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.

Take the bus #27 from the centre the the final s top ''Platia Stavroupolis'' (Stavroupolis square). Then take bus #85 and you're already on your way. Almost any stop of this bus leaves you at a good hitchhiking point, but the nineteenth stop ''21o chiliometro'' (21st kilometre) is right on a petrol station on the way to Serres and the Bulgarian border (to Sandansky, Blagoevgrad, Sofia). The road is E79 and it's not a highwaymotorway, especially after the border. These city bus tickets cost only 50 cents (that you don't even have to pay) and take you quite some kilometres out of the city towards all destinations.