lukebuehler.com About the life of a pilgrim

Reaching My Second Goal

The first main goal was making it to Venice then the next step was to get to Thessaloniki, the second biggest city in Greece. Now after two more month of traveling since Venice I've made it here. But let me tell you first what happened the last two weeks.

I stayed with those really cool people working as volunteers in this small village in the back country of Greece. The village and its surrounding nature was amazing, very untouched with the mountain peaks covered with snow and the trees still in the autumn colors, I could go for long strolls or some adventurous hikes with someone. The people were even better we had so much fun. We cooked together, went on some exploring trips, had movie nights or long and interesting conversations. One night we went dancing and it was so much fun as we were only about three to four people dancing and let ourselves go. In the end I could look back on a week of resting and enjoying good people what motivated me to move on.

After a week up in the mountains, I hitch hiked back to the city Florina where I took the train for my first time to Edessa. At first I was quite bored in this city, but I didn't know that there were so many interesting places to discover. Edessa is built up on a big platform where the south part suddenly drops off with high rocks. There are rivers running trough the city that then fall over cliffs as beautiful waterfalls. I stayed there in a hotel where I read for a while and fell asleep early. The next morning I continued walking towards Thessaloniki. It was a rainy day but I didn't care as I felt so free and new motivation surging trough my soul to finish this trip. After about 20 kilometers of walking I hich hiked for another 20ks to a City called Ginnaitsa where I stayed again in a hotel. I explored the town and read a lot in the bible. I love to read this book right now, often at home I rarely read it and find time only about once a week. But here on this trip I read it all the time, for the first time in my live I discover the psalms. All the mysteries that are buried in those praises and songs to God its amazing I could definitely recommend to start reading some psalms when you've never read in that book. But don't read it like a normal book, find a psalm you like or you can connect to and meditate on it. I often experience how a totally different world of thought opens up.

After Giannitsa I visited Pella which was the Capital of Macededonia in the hellenistic period and the birth place of Philip and Alexander the Great. There is a good museum and a big archiolocial site that is quite impresseive becuase you can see a little bit how the people lived like in this time over 2400 years ago. In Pella I met two girls from Latvia and Germany and we traveled together the last 40 kilometers to Thessaloniki by bus. There I found a hotel for only 20 Euros, but it was the most ghetto hotel I've seen so far in Europe with puke in the toilet and the shower had no shower head etc. It was okey though for one night. I made a big effort to find someone to stay so I contacted some people via CouchSurfing.com and found a place to stay. The people there are so cool, especially the hosts. I'll stay there now for a few nights and even some people I stated with up in the mountains will come here to visit with me the film festival of Thessaloniki, which is happening right now.

When I stayed in Aigos Germanos in the mountains I had a lot of time to refocus on my pilgrimage. I made up my mind to continue without taking a long break somewhere, because I was thinking about staying in a city for the winter and then continue. I even had a job in Athens as a computer supporter but I felt quite strongly that I should continue going to Jerusalem. I made some adjustments though to how I make my distance. The most important way of transportation will still be my feet but I'll also hitch hike sometimes and maybe take even buses from time to time. The time of the year makes it to hard to only walk because it is cold and gets dark early, to sleep in my tent is also quite uncomfortable because I don't know what to do with myself being alone in the dark for so many hours before I can go to sleep and it is freakin' cold at night. Anyhow I'll still walk because it is so good for soul spirit and body, I notice every detail along the way. Mountains come closer slowly over days and I can feel the elements as make my distance. When traveling with a car I can still notice the landscape but it is like one big blurry picture in the end where I cannot remember much of what I've seen and experienced. It is also quite distracting and so the meditative aspect of walking is not preserved when using some sort of fast transportation. It was quite hard to make that decision because I felt like I would give up, but I realized that my main purpose for this trip was not walking but going on this spiritual journey where I can find God and myself.