East Macedonia and Thrace is a Greek periphery (what some other countries would call a province), consisting of five prefectures. Again it must be noted that there is no connection to the country of Macedonia. The population is more than 600 thousand people, and the area 14 thousand square meters, which makes the periphery slightly bigger than the island of Crete. In the North it has a long border with Bulgaria and in the East it touches on Turkey. With that part of Turkey Thrace has deep historic ties, for indeed it should be called Western Thrace - with Eastern Thrace now being on the Turkish side.
This Eastern part of Greece has fewer tourists than, most notably, the South of the country. For this reason it is in East Macedonia and Thrace that real estate prices are a lot more favourable than in most parts of the that nation. And especially Greece lovers who are looking for less crowded places and beaches come to this region.
Lately high tech has become more and more important as in economic factor for East Macedonia and Thrace. Altogether it can be said that the region is now a lot more vibrant than it was expected by some experts in the early nineties of the last century.
