Thessoloniki: Day 12?

Today we left Chalkadiki and drove the 1 1/2 ish hours to Thessaloniki. Today was honestly a pretty chill day. I’m definitely starting to feel the effects of traveling and the mental toll of staying in a hotel every night. Don’t get me wrong- I am having a superb time. But we are go go go all day everyday basically, so by day 12 we’re all pretty spent.
We stopped at a winery for a private winery tour and wine tasting. The grounds were gorgeous, so lush and green. They had flowers planted at the end of each row of grape vines, which is a detail that I feel would be overlooked on cost in the US. We got to hear about the kinds of wine that they produce and where their main markets are (EU, Australia, small markets in US, Canada, and Mexico). They showed us their manufacturing process, and I was intrigued by how wine is actually made today. We got to try 3 different wines- a red, a white, and a rose.
I……………….
Just don’t like wine I think.

I disliked them all. I’d have to say that the white was the only sample glass I finished, but it was also the first glass. The red smelled like oakey ash and like…. Rustic?
And I was expecting the Rose to be a lot sweeter.
In the first pic is me with the aging barrels. They keep them sealed off to keep the temperature, humidity, etc consistent. They also only use French oak barrels to age their wine so I suppose my red wine assessment hold some merit.
This winery also has one of the top 10 largest corkscrew collections. There were some really cool ones- some tiny ones, animals, people, cane corkscrews, multitools, etc. my favorite ones were the canes and one that was just a little fish on the top of the corkscrew.
The other part of their museum showed how various parts of the wine process happens/happened historically. They had exhibits for the barrels, wine, and cork stoppers. This particular winery uses only cork from Portugal (who is apparently known for their cork??)

After the winery, we stopped for a big lunch on the way to the hotel. It was arranged by the owner of the tour company (George). They brought us SO MUCH FOOD.
Plates of Greek salad, giant platters of meat, tzatziki, another dip, and we eventually had cake for dessert. We were rolling out of the restaurant when we were finished. After the big meal, we drove into the city and we checked into our hotel. My group that I usually choose to hang out with decided that we were going to chill. No going out, just a little bit of rest. We chilled for a while, I saw a rainbow, and talked to my mom.

Later, we discovered that there was a 24 hour market by the hotel, so we raided that and we all decided that it was an ice cream night. We got the ice cream (I paid extra for the imported ben and Jerry’s of course) and went back to the hotel.
The plan was to order room service and call it an early night. But the menu was boring. So instead, Bex had the AMAZING idea to find an Asian restaurant. And we did. And it was wonderful. And I regret nothing. You may be thinking- “now why the hell would you get Asian food in Greece?!!” BECAUSE I MISS EVERYTHING PASTA AND PHO!!!!!
After 12 full days in Europe, some of us needed a “normal” meal for us.
After that, we went back to the hotel and hung out, and the plan was to go to bed. I ended up sleeping in Sam & Bexs room.Read more