Wow that was a wonderful week at the fourth edition of Battles in the North in Katerini Greece!
There are so many things to say about the event, but I try to keep it short:
I arrived on Wednesday at Thessaloniki airport with friends Jerze de Reus and Pascale Boots. We rented a car and drove to Paralia which is a beach town nearby Katerini. We enjoyed a nice bar/restaurant Sofrano which we visited multiple times! (can recommend a visit)
On the Friday we had the first event scheduled and we got some good lectures from Andrei, Mikkel and Axel who also held the lectures on the Sunday who I all enjoyed greatly!
The Saturday and Sunday were the main event, on the Saturday the open longsword tournament was being held. We started the day of poules of 9 people which lasted multiple hours! That where some good long fights which I enjoyed greatly. I won 7 of the 8 poule fights and got destroyed with a 0-5 when fighting my club mate Jerze.
Then we got to eliminations where I had to fight Andrei Chirlesan of @ironwillhema which was equal 4-4 until the last exchange! I gave a thrust to the throat of Andrei and the fight was over.
Jerze and I both passed the first elimination rounds and came back to face each other in the semi-final the fight started very intense in which we were both fighting hard for the win! The fight ended 5-2 for me after which I went on to the golden final and Jerze went to the bronze final
Jerze then went for bronze against Ilya Grigoriev-Starr and it went quite equal! Jerze held a good stand and ended the match with a powerful thrust to the body. Bronze for Jerze!
Then I played for gold against Mikkel Klausen. After an intense beginning which was very equal, it was determined the winner in SUDDEN DEATH! We both failed each other to place a clean striking attack and the tension was high. Until Mikkel attacked my torso and won. Thank you for the great fight and your deserved win!
Silver for Pascale and me. Bronze for Jerze and Damian who went very close for the win at the blademaster! Great performance for all!
On Sunday we had lectures of Mikkel Klausen , Andrei Chirlesan and Axel Pettersson which all gave great views for me in how to look at the way you use your development skills I want to thank them for the great workshop and the friendships we created over the course of the event 
love you all and hope to come to your events in the nearby future (and likewise).
I want to thank the organization of the event Yiannis Kombatsiaris , Zoe Efstathiou Kombatsiari and others who helped out like Nicos and so many that I cannot remember 
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I want to thank all the other people I talked to from Hungary, Romania, Greece, the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Israël and many more! You are all the real V.I.P’s. there could not have been a better vibe!
#historicaleuropeanmartialarts#swordfighting#swordfightingeurope#longsword#historicalfencing#hemaevents#BattlesintheNorth#hemagreece#hematournament#blademaster