Thessaloniki, Greece

The following day we left for Thessaloniki via train. The route took us through much of central Greece, along the Aegean coast. As soon as we left Athens the smog cleared up and we could see the blue sky! We arrived quite late in the evening so we grabbed some groceries and went to bed.

Thessaloniki features a long (6km) waterfront promenade lined with cafes and restaurants, as well as grassy parks and wide open parks. At night, especially on a weekend, the waterfront is absolutely packed full of people, including families and older people on late-night walks, so the atmosphere felt extremely safe and home-y.

On the 22nd we went exploring. Ancient Greek and Ottoman walls encircle the centre of the old town, and atop a hill overlooking the city is a castle called the Heptagyrion meaning "Seven Towers", which functioned as a prison until very recently. The prison cells were awful: tiny, narrow and windowless.

On the 24th we took the ferry to Perea beach to get some tanning in. The boat chugged for forty minutes down the coast. The water there was crystal clear but a bit sea-weedy, but we had drinks delivered to our deckchairs and the weather was impeccable!

On the 31st we decided to hike a nearby mountain. We walked all the way across the city before beginning our climb. The sun was hot and the mountain turned out to be steeper than expected, and we kept being attacked by large, very aggressive flying beetles (they were out for blood). The hill was very strange. Benches could be seen randomly deep in the woods; there were basketball courts in random places close to the peak. They even had toilet blocks (squatty potties) dotted around! We saw very few people up there, too, though we did some tortoises. After we returned, we found a café and had some slushies.

On the 3rd, we stumbled upon a series of massive political rallies. The first of them was quite small, whereas the second was enormous and had people blowing horns all night long. That evening, Steven damaged the kitchen cabinets and we had to glue it back together.

On the 6th we did a day-trip to the monasteries of Meteora, which are perched atop these incredible towers of rock, and many of them are only accessible via rope-bridge, or staircases cut into the rock. Our tour-guide Demitra told us fun stories about the regions we passed through them. She insisted that we should use the Greek name for kiwis because "kiwi" is the language of New Zealand which is apparently confusing to them....

On the 12th it was Steven's birthday! We had lunch and wine in a rotating restaurant atop a tower, followed by food at a Georgian restaurant (we figured we'd get a taste of what was to come). On the way home we popped into an internet café and played a few games.

The following day we took the bus to the airport...to pick up Amy's Mom and off to Kallithea!Leia mais