First pictures of Vranje

Here are the very first pictures from Vranje. I took these pictures during the firts two weeks of my stay.

Hamam (Influence from the Ottoman Empire)









The municipality building in the center of the town

Interesting house with influences from theTurkish architectural style (Roma neighbourhood)









Roma neighbourhood









City museum

Map of the city

Orthodox church

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki's main central street

Tamara, me and Martins, the "bike world traveler"

The White Tower (former Bloody Tower)

Pictures Thessaloniki, Greece - 1st, 2nd, 3rd May 2010

On 1st May, we went to the countryside for a picnic with a Greek group, Ioana's Friends.

Here is the landscape by which we were surrounded:

Martin (Uruguay), Ioana (Greece), Tamara (Spain), Katarina (Slovakia) and me:

There is a tradition in Greece in the 1st May - to make garlands and wear it:

Gathering the flowers:

3 days in Thessaloniki, Greece!

Thessaloniki was my first longer trip since I arrived. We spent 3 days in this town and at the end we didn't want to leave the city and especially the wonderful people we met there.

For the first time in my life I did what is called "Couch Surfing". (CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. See website here: ).

We were welcomed in two different houses. The first house was from a Greek student in farmacology and the other was of another Greek girl who was studying Biology. They have turned our stay in the country much more authentic and interesting. I like the concept of couchsurfing and I believe that this is really a good way to meet the local people and discover the real culture of any country or community, avoiding being just a simple tourist and missing the most important: making friends, learning at least a bit the culture and experiencing life as a native!

I travelled with Tamara, a Spanish volunteer working in the same organisation than me, and Catarina, a Slovakian volunteer in Skopje.
Our first host was already hosting Martin, a guy from Uruguay who travelled 2 months and a half by bike from Barcelona to Greece and whose objective is to get to Australia... all the way by bike!!!

Thanks to everyone of you and especially Cristina and Ioana who turned this small journey into one of the best I ever had!

FROM THE WORLD TO VRANJE

(First read the post under this video)