Thessaloniki

The view from my bed tonight 😁
My hostel, ‘Zeus is Loose’ is Greek god themed and after a very hot and sweaty walk from the bus station this afternoon, I make a mental note to thank the gods for a cold shower and cool rooms 😉

Thessaloniki itself seems like a city that’s fallen on hard times. Littered with important historical sites, it’s Greece’s second biggest city and has become one of the largest ports in the Aegean. It’s been a largely industrial city and it seems like there’s a lot of discontent. Political street art about everything from micro plastics to the holocaust (which hit the city hard with almost 25% of its population being Jewish at the time of WWII) in the suburbs, gives way to political graffiti and calls to ‘burn the police’ in the centre. I’m told the city was struggling due to de-industrialisation taking place but the pandemic and recent economic crises have only made things worse and it’s evident in the large homeless population and drug use visible in broad daylight even from the more ‘touristy’ area. Given that the sun is setting and the girl at the front desk couldn’t tell me quickly enough not to walk from the train station at night, I call it a night early.Read more