By Dimitris Vallas

Photo caption: The American bikers during a short stop in Larisa with local Forthnet Director, Mr. P. Aggeletopoulos

With computers and bicycles, they set out to travel around the world. So they started from New York in distant America and will complete a trip around the Mediterranean and we met them yesterday in Larisa.

The team is composed of a 27-year-old woman and three men, 25-30 years old.

They started from Morocco on the 25th of September and their journey is expected to finish on the 30th of September in Gibraltar.

The names of the places they have passed through sound quite exotic: Morocco, Tunisia, Malta, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan, Syria...

Yesterday in Larisa, during a break in their trip, we met these young people, making their great journey with a backpack, a bicycle and a computer. They were transmitting comments, photos and text about their stay and adventures in Greece.

BICYCLE AND THE INTERNET

We met them at Forthnet's office, where together with the branch manager, Mr. Panos Aggeletopoulos, they were busy sending their Internet reports to the whole world through the Internet.

Corinne Whitney, Ethan Gelber, Padraic Kennedy, and Anthony Ziehmke talked to "Elitheria" about their experiences and their big adventure that started seven months ago.

"The bikes and the laptops are symbolic...

We decided to use bikes and not cars as our mode of transportation because we would proceed slowly and ecologically, using only the strength of our legs. We advance slowly in order to be able to talk to people and get to know them better.

The computer is symbolic of the marriage between new and old. Through the Internet, we describe our trips and send reports to the entire world.

When we speak about Larisa, we will say that it is a modern city with lively people who have impressed us."

So, the bicycle and... the computer are what brought four Americans to Larisa and left them with only the best of impressions.