The Beijing Olympic torch was carried nearly 240 km yesterday, sometimes through snow, from northwestern to northeastern Greece.

After traveling through nine cities from Ioannina, the torch arrived in Veria.

The third day of the torch relay began in the morning from Ioannina. The weather was fair when torchbearers set off. Two hours later, however, they arrived at the fist stop, the snow-covered town of Metsovo.

"Holding the torch is my dream, and it's very important for me," Nickos Koilofyris, the last torchbearer of the stop, who lit the caldron in the town's central square, said.

It is the third time the 37-year-old cross-country skier has been a torchbearer.

The 1994 Winter Olympian also carried the flame for the 2004 Athens Games and the 2006 Turin Winter Games. He said is expecting to bear it again for the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Wherever the torch was carried, enthusiastic crowds gathered to steal glimpses.

Holding the flags of Greece and China, crowds of locals welcomed the Olympic flame with warmth and traditional dances, demonstrating their faith in the Olympic ideals.

They also expressed their good wishes for the Beijing Games.

"I want to send my good luck to the Games," Fafalis Lefteris, the first torchbearer who carried the torch from Metsovo, said.

Lefteris is also a cross-country skier and is preparing for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.

The torch also stopped in Grevena and Kozani before arriving in Veria for an overnight stay.

Today, the Olympic torch will be taken east to Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city.

(China Daily March 27, 2008)