A Greek odyssey for the homesick student cyclist
WE have all missed seeing our families during the coronavirus lockdown.
But one student was so keen to see his loved ones that he cycled 2,000 miles from Scotland to Greece.
Cleon Papadimitriou, 20, got on his bike for a seven-week journey after becoming fed up with waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted.
He left his student flat in Aberdeen and took a ferry to Holland before cycling through Germany, Austria and Italy.
From there he boarded another ferry to Greece. His family and friends greeted him with a laurel crown when he arrived in Athens.
They also held a large banner proclaiming: ‘Welcome Home Cleon: One more challenge accomplished!’
Mr Papadimitriou said: ‘I like adventures, so when I couldn’t fly home I decided to go by bike. I had a lot of punctures and had to put up with snow, hail and intense heat along the way.
‘Sometimes the bicycle tyre burst two or three times a day, and that not only cost me a lot of time but it wasn’t good for my morale either. It was a lesson I had to learn to manage.’
He added: ‘I’m a bit saddle-sore but it was worth it.’
Mr Papadimitriou camped while making his marathon journey and survived on a diet of bread, peanut butter and tinned sardines.
He plans to fly back to Scotland to complete his electronic engineering degree at Aberdeen University when flights resume.
He told the Athens Macedonia News Agency: ‘It started as a joke, but because I like adventures of this kind, I started to study if that was possible.’