Before I got to Thessaloniki, my Couchsurfing host, Pavlos, had given me instructions on how to get to his from the airport so I figured it would be easy to do as I've done this half a dozen or more times already. However, I guess I took the wrong bus and as I was looking at my Maps app, I saw it pass the the street that would run north to his apartment and the whole time, I was hoping it would turn back around but the bus just kept going west and eventually I got to a bus terminal where I asked a girl at the coffee shop how I could get back and of course, it was to wait until that same bus went back on the route. What should have taken about fifteen minutes to find Pavlos's place took about an hour and after quite an uphill walk, I eventually got there. Being quite famished, I asked what food establishments might still be open at that time of night but it didn't seem like much. I went into one place and asked where I could find gyros but I guess I was pronouncing it wrong even though I tried it with several different pronunciations that the girl I asked pulled another guy over and both of them eventually gave up and kind of ignored me so I walked out and kept on my way. I did come across a place with souvlaki so after a game of charades, I got two orders of that and what seemed like a salad.
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| Oh Google Translate at it again |
At Pavlos's, he told me that they have several days of holiday because of Ochi Day when Greece refused an Italian ultimatum and another holiday that was close enough to Ochi Day to have a few consecutive days away from school; Pavlos is a medical student and I learned about the Greece medical education system from him which got me interested in learning about other countries' medical studies. I'll be looking into that more in the coming months. After chatting with Pavlos for a bit and getting some tips from him about where to go the next day, he had a prior engagement that he left for and I stayed in watching the rest of Southpaw before catching some Z's.
I had a pretty chill morning because I had looked up walking tours in Thessaloniki and there wouldn't be one until late in the afternoon so I took my time heading out in the morning. Heading down the slope, I passed by some pastry shops so I got a cheese pasty and continued on my way down to Aristotelous Square which was supposed to be bustling with activity. The first thing I passed by on my way there seemed to be a church so I went to go check it out and it was the church of St. Demetrius; I guess there were a lot of people attending services due to the Greek holidays and everything. Aristotelous Square was the largest out of a few squares that are stacked right above it on the slope and it did have quite a good amount of people meandering about. Pavlos had suggested I go down the slope to the coast via the Square so I followed his suggestion and walked along the water. There were a lot of boats docked and they were offering a free ride with the purchase of a drink and eventually, I was convinced to hop aboard one that was playing reggae music. Now, I'm not a coffee drinker but someone did recommend that I try the Greek coffee so that's what I ordered; it might be because I don't have the palate for coffee but I didn't taste much of a difference between Greek coffee and the coffee I've had in the U.S. besides the Greek coffee containing the coffee grinds.
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| Passed by this church on my way down the street |
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| Another view of the church |
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| Sloping roads down |
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| St. Dimitrios Church |
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| Passing the Roman Forum |
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| Larger view of the Roman Forum |
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| Chalkeon Church |
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| Eleftherios Venizelos - considered the founder of Modern Greece |
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| Circling the very old looking Roman baths? |
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| Approaching Aristotelous Square |
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| Busy busy |
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| Got to the water! |
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| So pretty! |
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| Nikolaos Votsis - naval officer |
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| More views of the water |
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| The White Tower |
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| Hmm... Where to? |
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| Aboard the reggae boat |
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| Greek coffee |
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| Waiting to leave shore |
So I sipped on my coffee as I waited for the boat to get moving and was done by the time we left the dock so it gave me time to just walk around the boat and admire the view. I loved that the sky almost melted into the water yet there was still a contrast between the two types of blues. It was beautiful! And as usual, people watching was fun too. Before I knew it, we docked and the ride was over so I headed over to the White Tower. Pavlos told me that he had taken other Couchsurfers there before but it was a shame that all of the exhibits were written in Greek because there was a lot of information about Thessaloniki and Greece inside. I still decided to check it out. While everything was in Greek, there were English audio guides so I wasn't too lost. Some of the things that I remember from the audio guide was:
-Thessaloniki is named after Cassander's wife and the city brought together 26 of its surrounding villages.
-The city was first divided amongst the Jews, Christians, and Muslims
-There was a great fire of 1917 that burned for 30+ hours that destroyed about 1/3 of the city
-I believe Greece is or was part of the kingdom of Macedonia.
-St. Demetrius was a martyr and is the patron saint of the city.
-There was an event where seven thousand citizens were killed which resulted in Christianity being declared the official religion of Greece.
Each level of the White Tower depicted a different aspect of the Thessaloniki way of life from the people to the immigration and culture and ending it with the flavours of the city at the top, where one could get quite a nice view outside.
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| Views from the boat |
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| Alexander the Great |
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| The White Tower up close |
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| A concert hall |
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| The signs tell how far things are and how many kcal you burn to walk there! |
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| Phillip II of Macedon |
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| I noticed that his eyes don't look the same |
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| Inside the White Tower |
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| Round and round I go |
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| Learning about the history of Thessaloniki |
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| View through the window |
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| The people of the city |
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| Pigeon hiding out |
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| Learning of the landscape |
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| Travel routes |
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| The pathways get quite short |
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| Currency |
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| Way of life now |
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| Short archways |
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| i_mon_top |
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| View from the top :) |
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| One more quick look into one of the levels before leaving the Tower |
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| The top colored strip shows a timeline |
I think I planned out my time properly to finish up with the White Tower to make my way over to the Rotunda where I would find my guide with the red umbrella. When I met George, we waited on a few other people and while we were gathering, he mentioned that Thessaloniki didn't have free walking tours so he took the idea from when he was traveling and I'm really glad he did. Before our tour started, I met a group of guys from Germany, one from the Czech Republic and an English guy and after introductions, we went on our way. George first walked us into the Rotunda and told us a little bit about the Greek language and how the holidays they were celebrating were St. Demetrius Day and the Independence Day from the Turks in 1912.
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| Seen on my way to the Rotunda |
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| Another cool sculpture |
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| Stopped to get a quick snack |
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| Tiny church? |
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| The Kamara and the Rotunda in the distance |
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| Arch of the Kamara |
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| Carvings in the arch - so cool! |
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| The Rotunda |
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| George leading us into the Rotunda |
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| Ceiling of the Rotunda - much has been destroyed |
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| The Rotunda is currently being restored |
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| Old Greek |
From the Rotunda, George walked us over to the Kamara and explained the story behind the different tiers of carvings in the arch. He also explained that there were two archways and showed the spot where the other one used to stand but it had been destroyed.From there, he took us through the ruins of the city and told us more about the history of the death penalty, the frappe story, and other tidbits here and there. I believe there was a massacre in the Hippodrome which lead the emperor to repent later and now, when a death penalty is issued, there needs to be seven days [I think] before it can be carried out so there is no rash decision being made. The frappe story came from a server needing to make coffee but not wanting to wait for the water to boil, he instead took cold water and shook it up and called it a frappe and voila. Along the way, George stopped to tell us the story of Thessaloniki, the person, and it consisted of relatives killing each other and all those other types of mishaps that happen within royal families at that time.
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| Walking away from the Rotunda |
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| Another look at the tiers of people carved into the Kamara |
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| Looking down to the coast |
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| Ruins |
George made sure to tell us about the disrespect that the Greeks display in terms of littering everywhere and just throwing their trash in the ruins, which are supposed to be protected, but with the economy in the state it is, it is difficult to keep up with it. I never noticed but along the walkways, there is a large strip of a ridged walkway which is supposed to be for blind pedestrians and after George pointed it out, he also told us that restaurants and cafes put their outdoor seating arrangements right on these strips so there is no respect in that sense either. I haven't been hearing many great things about the Greek culture currently but I hope there's a change soon.
After the ruins, George took us to a baklava shop owned by
Zach Galifanakis's cousin and he is friendly with the lady that runs it so he told us we might get some sweets on our stop there and we definitely did! It smelled so delicious in there and the lady came out with these sweet treats for all of us. The pastry was perfectly flaky and the filling was moist and just yum!
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| Galifianakis Pastry Shop |
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| Yummy! |
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| I love free food! |
After getting our treats, we followed George to some underground sights. He took us to some catacombs which he said should be closed but the lady who manages it always leaves one entrance open so we went in and down through a tunnel to see some hidden paintings of Jean the Baptiste(?). It was quite dingy down there but it was cool to get an underground look of the city.
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| Walking into the catacombs |
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| And down we go |
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| Jean the Baptiste? |
From the catacomb, George took us past another sweet sight where they aim the smell of fresh cookies out to the streets to attract customers. It did smell heavenly but I was able to resist and not buy any cookies. From there, we walked down the Aristotelous Square to conclude our tour and George gave us some pointers of where to go and recommended two kinds of drinks, retsina and rakomelo, both of which I believe were a type of beer or wine. I had plans to make an American breakfast (yes, for dinner) with Pavlos but I wasn't sure on his timing yet so I go the contact info from the guys in the tour group to see if anyone wanted to meet up later and went on my way back to Pavlos's to touch base with him.
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| The vent blowing out amazing smells |
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| The tour group |
When I got back to Pavlos's, he was still out and he said we should do dinner way later than I thought so I messaged the guys from the tour and Rob, the Englishman, and Jakub, the Czech, were hanging out and I planned to meet up with them. While I waited for their response, I stopped by a bustling restaurant and ordered myself a retsina just to see what it was about. It kind of tasted like cider to me but I guess it really hit me when I got up to walk, especially having not eaten, because I was a little bit more tipsy than I had thought. When I did meet up with Rob and Jakub, we went to a bar close to the Roman Forum and got some beers that were recommended. After chatting a bit with the two of them, I got a text from Pavlos and it was about time to go cook some breakfast dinner back at his.
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| Retsina |
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| Greek beer at Cafe Palermo |
When I got back, Pavlos was already making a combination of some type of sausage with eggs so I got to making the pancake batter (Pavlos had never had pancakes before - crepes are the typical Greek thing) and I told him that you could put whatever you wanted into the pancakes like bananas or strawberries or chocolate so he got really creative with it. He bought a jam so I added that to the batter as I made the pancakes and some of them had peanut butter and/or nutella in the middle. It was really funny because at one point, Pavlos wrapped a Twix bar into his pancake because he's just so used to crepes and how they have things wrapped in them; I tried to snap a photo but he wouldn't let me. It was a fun experience to cook what is considered an American breakfast to share with a friend.
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| Eggs and sausage |
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| Pancakes. And yes, a Twix bar |
The next morning, there seemed to be a lot of activity going on outside. I heard what seemed to be fighter jets zooming by every so often and Pavlos was telling me there was a parade and when he turned on the TV, we could see it happening. I wanted to catch the parade so I got ready to go and as I was walking down the slope, I caught sight of some helicopters and jets. Pavlos had an idea of where the parade route might be so he recommended where I should walk to find it but I guess I was too late because where I was walking, there were crowds of people walking towards me which might have meant the parade was over. I didn't want to believe it so I kept trying to find it but no luck so I walked along Aristotelous Square again and checked to see what Rob and Jakub were up to. George was offering a different tour of the upper part of Thessaloniki that day so I had some time beforehand. Rob responded but apparently he and Jakub had too good of a time the previous night so as he struggled to get out of bed, I explored the museum of history.
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| Tried to follow the helicopters |
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| It's a jet! |
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| Try to find the jet! |
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| Wait for it... |
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| Kids crawling all over Aristotle |
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| The White Tower at a distance |
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| Sights along the way to the museum |
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| OTE Tower |
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| At the entrance of the museum |
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| Such intricate jewelry |
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| These graves are worth so much!!! |
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| Display of what the living situation might have been like |
When I met up with Rob, we went to a cute little restaurant where the server recommended getting moussaka and an octopus rice and sausage so we got those things as we chatted. I learned that Rob is able to telecommute with his work because I believe he works with computers so that's what brought him to Thessaloniki and he had been in Romania for six weeks prior to getting to Greece. Since his trip includes work, there isn't really an end date to his trip and it sounded really cool that he's traveling in that way.
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| Lunch of moussaka and octopus rice and sausage |
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| Rob |
After a quick lunch, I had to leave to catch the tour with George; Rob had already done this tour the day prior to us meeting so didn't join. We met up at the προφ ηλιας (Prof Ilias) church which was the one close to Pavlos's and there, I met a couple of Americans from the Midwest I believe, and a German. As we started on our tour, George told us about the church and how it also has a mosque attached and this was my first introduction to the leaning of mosques in the direction of Mecca. We were told that this tour would lead us through Neapoli (new city) or Ana poli (upper city), where many anarchists and graffiti artists find themselves.
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| Prof Ilias |
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| Seen at a distance |
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| Some sights along the tour |
As we walked upwards, George told us that most dead-end signs indicate abandoned houses to come and a lot of families just leave these houses because they're passed down and then whomever receives the house just abandons it. We asked about squatter laws and George wasn't too sure about it but it seemed like some of these buildings were in some serious need of TLC.
As we continued on our way, George took us to different spots with some really pretty views of the city and we had some feline friends meet us along the way (I don't know why Greek has so many cats around). At one point, George stopped to play us a rebetico, a song, on his guitar even though he told us they are traditionally played on something similar, called a bouzouki. I'm not quite sure what he sang about but it was pleasant and I got to, again, bask in the amazing opportunity I had to be in Thessaloniki.
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| Getting ready to play a rebetico |
After our short little musical break, we continued to walk north until we got to the wall that acts as the border of the city. We walked along the wall and found ourselves at a church where we encountered peacocks and George told us a Greek myth of how Hera had Argus's eyes preserved in the tail of the peacock, hence their tails looking like they do. We were told about how the church had been converted into a mosque and we passed a monastery where we were told about how it is believed to be the new arc (like Noah's Arc) and the monks who reside there are seen as the animals that are being saved.
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| Castle wall |
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| Houses built along wall to save on material |
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| Hi peacocks! |
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| Church turned mosque |
At our last stop of the castle wall, George ended the tour by telling us about Alexander the Great and Macedonia. At this point, the sun had pretty much set but the view of the city was still gorgeous. After I thanked and tipped George, I made my way back to Pavlos's to pack to get ready to head to Istanbul that night.
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| Getting darker |
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| View of the city from the top |
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| Flash makes the lighting weird |
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| Hi! |
Back at Pavlos's, I quickly packed up and had some time before I needed to head to the bus station so I hung out with Pavlos and his doggie, Aris (so funny that I met another Aris just one city prior). Pavlos taught me how to read some Greek letters because I told him that I only knew as much Greek as Greek life at Trinity taught me and I think that set up a spark in Pavlos because he was telling me how ridiculous he thought it was. To teach me how to sound certain words out while making sense of the letters, Pavlos pulled up some sort of news article and as I sounded out the words and tried to guess what it meant, he would help me along the way. It was a quick little lesson and wouldn't be much help for me in Turkey but it just gives me more things to learn in the future.
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| Reading about Harry Potter, I believe |
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| Aris! |
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| Such a cute doggie! |
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| My Couchsurfing hosts |
To make sure I didn't get in the same mishap as I did when getting to Pavlos's, I headed out the door pretty early and walked down the slope to figure out which bus to take to get to the station. When I got to the bus stop, rather than risk it, I just opted for a taxi which didn't cost to much and after some confusion (what else is new?), the taxi driver consulted with another driver and figured out where I needed to go. It didn't take too long before I got to the bus station where I'd get ready to hop on the bus to Istanbul. Even though the Eurail pass showed that there was a train connection from Thessaloniki to Istanbul, I'm glad I checked a few weeks prior to find out that the train had been stopped a few months (maybe even a year) back so I had to find an alternative mode of transportation. That's when I landed upon the Crazy Holidays bus to get me over to Istanbul. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Greece and I'd have to say that I really got to love Thessaloniki, despite the random mosquito bites I got. With Greece being so large, I know it will be back on my list of countries to visit again and I will have to touch upon more cities in the future.
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Getting ready for Istanbul!
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