Thessaloniki, Greece

Four days in a closed city ~
We arrived in Thessaloniki by coach from Alexandroupolis, a cramped and stuffy four hour trip, only to find everything in Thessaloniki was closed. This was a bit surprising because it was 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, the last thing we expected was to arrive in a ghost town.
I say everything was closed, but that’s not completely true, while the shops, banks etc. were all shut, there were some cafes and restaurants open for business so we were able to have a late lunch in a place called Kouziva situated in the pedestrianised area of Thessaloniki. I ordered lemon chicken, Laura chose chicken with vegetables. Both meals were fine, expect there were no lemons used in the making of my meal. And the following day Laura was unwell, we blamed her chicken dish.
After that it about all the excitement our travel weary bodies could take, so we had a little wander along the sea front before returning to our hotel and calling it a night.

The next morning we turned-on our tourist mode and headed to the White Tower. Yes, it is a tower, but it was not that white. Entrance fee cost 3€ each, to see some digital displays on various levels inside the tower, and to climb to the top. The view from the top of the White Tower, or grey tower as I prefer to call it, was pretty decent, a wide expanse of sea and the town below.
Truth be told though, the money would have been better spent on beer – but you only find out things like that after you have parted with the cash. ;d

Video of Thessaloniki, Greece – Part One

Click here to view the embedded video.

Speaking of beer, climbing to the top of the White Tower had made us thirsty, so we stopped for a drink at a place in a nearby square. We stopped for about 30 seconds, just long end to peruse the menu, before realising this was not the place for us, or any right minded person for that matter. The cafe/bar seemed to have missed the whole economic crisis thing, and wanted 6.50€ for a 33cl bottle of beer. Unbelievable optimism, which may explain why all of their customers were drinking coffee. We beat a hasty retreat and thankfully found a decent place for lunch, and beer, called Krasodikio. This restaurant was definitely a more comfortable fit to our idea of what things should cost.
Best of all they had a lunchtime deal, 3 50cl bottles of Amstel beer for the price of 2. Happy days! The icing on the cake was the fact that the food was excellent. We shared one of the daily specials, meat balls (beef, lamb and veal) served on a rich tomato sauce and topped with yogurt, a beetroot salad, and a tomato salad. The grand total of the bill was a smidgen under 20€. Oh yes, almost forgot, the restaurant gives its customers free dessert, a large plate of banana, sponge cake, cream, and ice-cream to share. A pleasant end to a seriously delicious meal. With fat bellies we contetedly waddled back to our hotel.

In the evening we were still full from our lunch at Krasodikio restaurant, so we didn’t venture out for dinner, we relaxed in our hotel room.

Another day, another hike ~
We were feeling energetic, so we walked up to the old town and the city wall. The roads were steep and the sun was beating down, sweaty Betty.
The thing that really got our attention as we wound our way up the streets to the old town was the amount of graffiti. It was absolutely everywhere, not a single surface seemed free of it. Obviously a lot of the graffiti was political, but as we don’t read Greek we couldn’t make out what most of it said. There were other pieces of art too, much of it very good, bright, colourful art, pictures, sprayed on every available wall, pavement, door, window, lampposts, etc. Being from London we are used to seeing graffiti everywhere, but nothing on this scale. We realise that people are frustrated, and this is one way to let off steam, but all of the graffiti makes the town feel far more depressing, and threatening that it is.
If I was going to move to Thessaloniki, I would set up a shop selling aerosol spray paints. I’m sure it would be a thriving business, if walking the streets is anything to go by.
Once we finally reached the top and excited through the old city wall, gasping for breath and questioning why we thought it was a good idea to go for an uphill walk whilst suffering from exhaustion, and in hot hot hot temperatures, we were rewarded with a very pleasant answer. Nirvana. Or close enough to nirvana – we found a very nice bar, selling really good beer. So we settled down for an hour, or so, to recover from our walk and rewarded ourselves with a couple of pints of wonderfully refreshing Craft Beer. A couple of Weiss beers for Laura, and I started with the Athens Lager followed by the Smoked Ale. Happy days!

Sticking to the old adage, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, we ate dinner at Krasodikio. Another very good meal of chicken kebab, tomato and cucumber salad, and a lovely light fresh cauliflower salad, all washed down with 50cl of house wine. And yet again the bill came to under 20€. Great food, great value. Highly recommend this restaurant. Can’t remember the address, but it’s well worth asking Google.

A day without end ~
Thankfully we are masters at procrastinating. A skill which comes in handy more often than you may think. On our last day in Thessaloniki we were on top form, procrastinating like professionals.
We had a night train departing at 11pm for Athens. So, from the minute we woke up we shifted into low-gear, we ate a very leaisurelt breakfast, then we lingered in our hotel until the last possible minute before we checked-out. We left our bags at the hotel and went off to visit a couple of the sites of interest in the city.
First stop was the Arch of Galerius, then the Rotunda (Church of Agios Georgios).
I could write about these sites, but it goes against my love of doing nothing.
Sites seen, well, these two sites, we then wandered round town for a while enjoying street life and people watching.
Lunch beckoned. We went to, can’t remember the name, where we ordered the days special. Meatballs. This time the meatballs were all veal, served grilled with no sauce or yogurt, but having said that they were very tasty. We also ordered a mixed salad, which was lettuce, tomato, cucumber, beetroot, and feta cheese. Good food.

After lunch we strolled round the streets again before stopping for a drink at a place called Coffee World. Laura stuck with tradition and ordered coffee, a frappe. I broke the rules and ordered a pint of Mythos beer. As we still had many many hours to waste before our train departed, we decided to adopt the locals approach and we managed to nurse our drinks for over an hour. Impressive. ;o
Being too comfortable and lazy to move we decided to order another drink. Laura wanted sour cherry juice, but alas it was all gone, so she had a bottle of sparkling mineral water, I oredered another beer. This time I chose a pint of Primator, a beer from Czechoslovakia. Or the Czech Republic. Or whatever you want to call it.
We successfully whiled away another hour, supping, chatting, and people watching.

Our bums were numb from sitting so long. So we left Coffee World in search of somewhere for dinner.
We almost ended up back in Krasodikio, but as we wanted to spread the wealth we chose a restaurant across the road from it called Oyzepi Taverna. We had a really good dinner of juicy pink lamb chops, a beetroot and greens salad, and a mixed salad which was covered in lovely hot spring onions. I had a jug of their house red wine, it was nice if a little too sweet, it cost 3.5 Euros for 50cl. Laura stuck with sparkling imperial water. This restaurant also gives customers free dessert. We received a small plate with two squares of spongey cakey thingy. Our bill was about 29 Euros, with tip.
Dinner done, we walked back to our hotel, collected our bags, and caught a taxi, because we were too knackered to walk, to the train station.

Video of Thessaloniki, Greece – Part Two

Click here to view the embedded video.

We arrived at the train station with just over an hour before our train left.
We had quiet successfully, and enjoyable made 10 hours vanish – just like that! ;D
Our train from Thessaloniki to Athens left on time(ish) and arrived at its destination on time(ish). Was it a pleasant journey? No. It was cold, cramped, and very uncomfortable. But at least we arrived safely.
It was easily morning and still dark when we disembarked the train at Athens station, so we did what every other passenger on board did. We stopped for a coffee in the train station cafe restaurant. Once it was light we started to walk to our hotel. I say started because after two steps, Laura hailed a taxi. We had finally arrived at our hotel in Athens. Let the fun begin!

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