Days 0-2 (Sofia – Thessaloniki – Metamorfosi)

After a long daily trip with the bus to Thessaloniki, we had to go with some city bus to another bus station in the end of the city to get another bus to Halkidiki. Not to be hateful about it, but bus station “Macedonia” does not have real Information desk. Most people don’t even speak proper English and you need to be asking tons of questions to busy people who seldom help.

If you stumble on the same issue (want to go to Sithonia peninsula in Halkidiki) do the following. Grab city bus 45/45A (EUR 1 per ride) and go to bus station KTEL Halkidiki. From there you can grab some of the intercity buses to Sithonia villages.

Enough rant for 1 day 🙂 here’s where I arrived:

Art camping “Sunny bay” is one very good place. The beach is not that good, but the owners are very friendly and will try to help you, regardless if you stay or not. Here’s their FB page.

I’ve made some additional photos with my phone camera in the surrounding of Metamorfosi and Nikiti town. Not enough to show everything, but the place is small and barely anything happens there. Especially off-season and/or at weekends.

Vodafone Greece is having one week vacation when I totally need buying additional SIM card for my phone.

My phone is only good for pictures without SIM card, so I made angry selfie 😛

Fruits 🙂 Not sure if edible. Did not risk.

Pink Russian tractor 😀

Pink Russian tractor 😀

No way to reach Vourvourou from here. KTEL is not going there off-season.

Greek group for boycotting coca cola 🙂

Days 3-4 (Camping Marmaras @ Neas Marmaras).

A lot of mosquitoes. The owner blamed the weather, but actually – there was a small swamp near the camping site, so that’s where mosquitoes came from.

I bought 2 repellents and everything went fine afterwards.

Camping is small and has own private beach with very clean and shallow water. Excellent for kids and beach volleyball.

Being plagued by mosquitoes and having explored most of Marmara’s surroundings, decided to move to the next big town of Sarti. 30-40 minutes by bus. Or so I thought.

The bus I was supposed to take to Sarti was supposed to arrive @ 11:35 🙂

Alas KTEL Halkidiki came almost 1 hour late @ Neas Marmaras.

Finally, after 2 hours at the bus stop, I am traveling to the next destination 🙂

Arrived @ Sarti. Unfortunately there was no transportation north from there, so I had to go on foot to Platanitsi camp.

It was closed. 5 kilometers in one direction and then 5 kilometers back to Sarti. With one Souvlaki in sandwitch while resting a bit. Only one, quite illegal camping was in my way (free camping is prohibited in Greece).

Illegal camping @ Sarti.

Illegal camping @ Sarti.

Illegal camping @ Sarti.

So I had to return to Sarti and go south, to the other working camping I saw from the bus. Was very disappointed for being unable to go North by bus and did not want to pay for a 20 km ride on a Taxi.

Days 5-7 @ Kalamitsi camping (Kalamitsi settlement).

Everything is cheap, clean and well maintained here. So far the best camping I found off season.

Plenty of Bulgarians, not many foreigners. Looks like it is a Bulgarian village in Greece. Actually – too many of them for my taste. I was trying to run away from Bulgaria.

Even some of the signs are in Bulgarian. Or stamped with Bulgarian. By our proud football fans. Boo!

After 3 days in Kalamitsi, I was pretty fed up with the place. There is excellent nude beach, but it is infested with greek fishermen, so it’s not entirely naturist.

Time to move north to the Sykia beach. KTEL. Pretty late. Again 🙂 but I got lucky.

Should you trust this table? No. Go on foot or hitchhike 🙂

Hitchhiked a small truck. The owner accepted EUR 2 for tsipuru or frape 🙂 tried to push my hand away. I insisted.

Days 8-10 @ Pitsoni camping (Sykia beach).

Sykia. Very nice small town. Very good architecture from older days and some pretty sights. Plenty of cats, some old machines that still work and very calm and nice citizens.

Mount Athos is visible from the beach and is quite impressive at night or when the air is very clean (e.g. after rain).

The camping is small, but it has everything you need. Free WiFi, small shop, plenty of hot water even off-season and is far from the main road.

The beach is 3 kilometers from town and is quite big. Very close to the camping sites, so I suggest you rent a caravan in the camp instead a room in the town. It’s EUR 20-30 for 2-4 people.

There are 5 more beaches close to the camping area and 3 more hidden (2 naturist and 1 mixed). The naturist beaches are Kriaritsi (close to the abandoned/unfinished village of Agios Pavlos) and one named “Agridia” (ask in camping Valti about directions).

My camera’s card got full and my battery went down, so that’s all I had from this town, enjoy: