Towards Athens: Belgrade and Nis

The journey, made by car with friends, has been divided into several accounts, according to the states mentioned. The final destination of the trip is Greece; the various states of the former Yugoslavia were crossed to reach the Hellenic peninsula.

-- Thursday 28.07.83 Departure from Milan at 6:30 in the morning towards Venice. At Trieste our last refuelling in Italy and then the Yugoslav border. We stop before Ljubljana for a packed lunch. By 20:00 we're already in Belgrade but we can't find a free hotel, so we have to go on another 15 km; we have dinner at the hotel. Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and is a large, modern city, crossed by the river Sava and the Danube. The oldest part lies right at the confluence of these two important rivers. What to see in Belgrade? Certainly the National Museum, very rich, and the Kalemegdan Fortress, built on a rocky spur overlooking the confluence of the rivers.

-- Friday 29.07.83 We leave at 7:30 from the outskirts of Belgrade, passing Nis, Skopje and Gevgelija. Nis: it lies right at the junction between Greece and Bulgaria, and this has always meant considerable transit and trade. Turkish and Roman sites can be visited. The city has been at the centre of many battles (Goths, Huns, Turks etc.)

We have lunch, still in Yugoslavia, with very good steaks but in a restaurant with threadbare tablecloths. We set off again on the motorway and even get a fine on the motorway for speeding of 30,000 lire. We cross the Greek border and continue to Evzoni, then Thessaloniki, Katerini, Larissa, Volos and Lamia. We find a hotel in Lamia. During the day we suffered a lot from the heat.