May10, 2018
Diana:
From a historic perspective Thessaloniki is a fascinating city, with history spanning Roman times, through Byzantium, the Ottoman empire all the way to the present. If you like walking you can walk through this open-air museum as some call it, with walls, fortresses, ruins from different times, churches and mosques, museums and more. You don’t have to go far. It is also the second biggest city of Greece and an important industrial and metropolitan area.
However, Thessaloniki did not agree with us so we ditched it early, just in time to escape some major flooding.
We arrived from Meteora by train. Although our host advised us not to walk from the train station to his place due to construction, this is our thing. Rolling our carry-ons on the cobbles, through the dust and often broken pavers and observing our new city, town or village, the people, the traffic or lack of it, the garbage or the lack of it, the restaurants, the stores, the architecture… and construction of course.
We already knew that we’d leave for Sofia by bus, since the railway crossing the Bulgarian border was in maintenance mode at the border. We stopped by the bus booth and familiarized ourselves with the bus schedules.
Then we rolled our bags for about an hour through really crowded streets, through construction debris, through the city centre and beyond.
Our new home was close to the White Tower. Our first impression of Thessaloniki? Very busy and noisy. Especially after our sojourn in Meteora.
We were just two blocks away from the waterfront. There were many crowded restaurants and cafes. One could hear all kinds of languages spoken around. Hoverer, a major road – Geor. Papandreou – stood between the patios and the water. Why in the world would one want to eat sitting in the middle of a highway choking on the fumes and gasping for fresh air? And the “waterfront” restaurant prices are Champs-Élysées high without the quality. Prices in the city away from the waterfront are much cheaper and food much better.
Hungry at mid afternoon, we decided to try one that wasn’t so close to the road and with decent prices, after which we strolled east towards the White Tower and beyond, where the major road curves inland and the waterfront is left for enjoyment.
They call this area The Park, although not many trees or grass, if any, are to be seen. Loved the umbrella sculpture and the long walks by the water.
We walked a few times to the concert hall at the east end of The Park.
The view across the bay from there to the city is spectacular, especially in the evening. Pity there were not many places to eat or drink in the area. There were a few high-end hotels with restaurants.
On our second day we decided to share a seafood pasta at one of them, just so we could sit, sip wine and watch the water. This was the smallest and most expensive pasta we have ever had, let alone the non-existent seafood. The so-called seafood was a few mussels, mostly empty shells. That was it! A handful of spaghetti for 17 euros. We’ve had three times the size, half the price and ten times the quality in Venice.
Overall, as in Athens, we found restaurants near touristy areas more expensive than Paris or London for lesser quality. In the city where the locals eat it is much cheaper, food is good, though menus may not have English translations.
Alex:
On our last day, and scheduled for the 3:30pm bus for Sofia, we had time to walk up to Alysseos Tower to take in the panoramic view of the city…or so we thought.
It’s an easy but sticky walk uphill from our apartment on the pedestrian street which runs along the Gounari Palace ruins. Up past Galerius Arch, around the Rotunda, zig-zag in front of the St. Demetrios General Hospital then straight up along the Eastern walls.
About 90% of the way up we turned to take in the incredible sight of…black and deep grey clouds approaching at speed across the bay. So we decided that, discretion being the better part of valour, we’d head back, see how far we could get before it hit, and take refuge in a café if necessary. Diana being the organizer she is, had everything packed and ready to go in the apartment, but we’d need an hour to get to the bus station so our refuge time would be limited.
We trotted back downhill, bypassing the hospital, skirting the rotunda, ducking through the arch and to our door just as the sky opened. I fumbled with the outer door key and we dove triumphantly into the vestibule.
I don’t ever recall seeing rain so heavy.
The alley behind the apartment was a raging torrent (we had no windows fronting the street and not much light came in even when it was sunny out). We ate the last of our yogurt, prepared to toast our last bun and share it with olives and feta. I fiddled with the oven controls and found the broil setting, sliced the bun, put it on aluminum foil on the top oven rack, and… the power went out.
We finished arranging our things, ate the cold bun in the dark and waited for a lull in the downpour. The plan had been to avoid getting sweaty on the almost one hour walk through pedestrian hordes to the bus station, and take a taxi. Has anyone else noticed that taxis are as scarce as trees in Antarctica when it rains?
And so we walked, got soaked, and by Diana’s determination, pushed our way through the surging masses in 45 minutes and got to the bus station an hour early.
It’s now 3:20 and the inbound bus that was due to arrive 20 minutes ago is missing in action. Probably still caught up in the mess of traffic made worse than usual by the deluge and by areas with no power and therefore no traffic lights. And we’re in Greece where, apparently, stopping on red is optional at the best of times.
This is the most fun we’ve had in our time in Greece!
your photos reminded me of my trip in Thessaloniki 🙂 it was maybe 6 years ago, but i have such good feeling about this city 🙂 thanks for sharing! cheers from lisbon, PedroL
Thanks for stopping by. Yes, it’s a lovely city.
🙂