The past weekend I spent with Benny in
Θεσσαλονικη (Thessaloniki) - oh boy what a city...
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| Arriving in the pouring rain |
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| Balcony View |
So Thursday afternoon we left for the airport in Athens and because it is only a 50 min flight it really doesn't take you long to get there. Exiting the aircraft, we stepped in the rain and had much lower temperatures than an hour before. After we waited for the aiport bus, it took us 40 min to drive to the city center and only another 10 min to find our hotel (we first wanted to couchsurf, but nobody could host us):
Orestias Kastorias. Location: EXCELLENT. For those of you, who know
Aristotellous Square it was maybe two blocks from there. View the balcony view onto some wonderful old ruins we enjoyed the cozy small room, that had everything to one needs (a clean bathroom, a mini fridge, TV, a doublebed with not that much space and ne person always stealing my blanky at night, but ok in general^^). The same night we went out for dinner to some sort of Steak House, I suppose, where we had a salad and an excellent chicken steak. Right after, we went to the bar
STAIN across from this restaurant. Speaking of the name of this bar, it is indeed a stain, only very and I mean
very young girls where there, dressed up more like whores than suitable for their age and then some old guys just waiting to hit on them. Gross! So we really did not stay there too long; the prices of drinks made us leave even faster... Nevertheless we wanted to celebrated into Benny's birthday at least a little bit, so we enjoyed a smooth cocktail at the
Havanna Bar right across from the hotel.
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| Kamara - @ the famous arch |
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| Benny and the White Tower |
Friday, I woke up with sun rays shining through the curtain and it directly made me excited for the day. We walked around a lot this day: from the hotel to
Aristotellous Square, to the
White Tower, to the University and Radio Station, back to
Kamara (famous for its arch), through many little side streets back to the hotel. Then I texted Panagiotis, a contact I made via
Couchsurfing and who volunteered to show us around. Just a few hours later I still picture us in a tiny cafe in another tiny side street with him and his friends (Kostas, Giorgos, another Giorgos and Dimitris).
All very nice, outgoing and funny people. We had such a great time exchanging cultural and Erasmus experiences that we met up again the same night in a bar, which name I forgot, but it was a very nice area, that I remember (like Kostas told me) was only established recently (the last 5 years) before it was only an old part of town that now turned to be a hip party place. And indeed it became quite crowded after midnight. Ok, as nice as it is to go out there, prices in
Θεσσαλονικη in general suck because they are outrageous (small drinks are like €6). So as far as I remember we where home around 5am, so the drinks could have not been that bad ;)
Oh by the way these photos of you are only in here, because you guys insisted on them^^
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| Giorgos |
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| Panagiotis |
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| Kostas |
Saturday, we decided to get a quick breakfast from the bakery before the bus stop to
Ανο Πόλη (the old part of Thessaloniki). Of course, besides the bus line we had basically no idea where to hop off. Most certainly you can imagine what happened next?! Yes, what else, we got off way too early and just wandered around. Then we past all the bus stops we could have easliy passed with the bus, but we walked ;) So finally we reached what we thought was the destination and just kept walking around to some old Turkish monastery, which used to be a former prison and is now a heritage landmark.
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| Overviewing Ανο Πόλη |
From there we walked back down to the center, passing a nice park (goofing around and taking MORE pictures) with another wonderful view onto a monastery.
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| What a palais?! |
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| @ Night |
Εxhausted we returned to the hotel took a rest and then met up with CS (couchsurfing) boys for a delicious dinner in a traditional tavern in a place that I found very much hidden. It was only a couple of blocks from the hotel, in the gateway/entrance to what seems to be a building, but there were many small restaurants. Best things always keep being hidden until you stand right in front of them (it's like this with everything in life, I guess...). Another great night of laughter and talking. After the tavern we went to
Λαδατικα (Lathatika) another part of town with numerous restaurants, bars and get-together locations. I think I have never seen a city with soooo many place like that. Anyway, we met two friends of Kostas, who went with him on his Erasmus to the Netherlands. Two very kind and pretty girls :)
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| Koastas and I (little sunburned) |
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| Benny, Panos, Giorgos after food |
Sunday, we looked for a new destination. So we decided for
'Εδεσσα (Edessa), famous for its waterfalls and located about an hour and a half bus ride from
Θεσσαλονικη. Before we took off we quickly munched some crepes and my big mistake: a sandwich. It turned out later that it was probably the sandwich's fault why I caught a stomach bug that gave me a hard time until now...
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| ΄Εδεσσα |
Back to
'Εδεσσα. First we had to find the bus terminal in
Θεσσαλονικη, which is located fairly outside the center and looks more like the arrival hall of an airport, but the buses are very much on time and everything works absolutely organized there *LIKE*. On our way (when I was not sleeping - buses always make me tired) I saw wonderful mountains, with still some snow on top, and great nature.
'Εδεσσα itself is on the hillside and not very big, but I can imagine it getting very touristic in the summer months. However, we were there on a Sunday and it seemed... DEAD, not a soul on the street, nobody we could ask for the way. The lady at the bus terminal completely missled us, so AGAIN we wandered around. Oh well, so we got to see at least some parts of this town. Of course, eventually we found the waterfalls, which are indeed flabbergasting. In total we spent about 2 hours there and then headed back. I didn't feel well and stayed at the hotel that night - shame, but nothing else would have helped.
Monday was easy and basically just the journey back home: checking out by noon, taking the airport bus at 3.15pm, boarding at 4.30pm, arriving in Athens at 5.45pm, taking the next train at 6.44pm and arriving at home at 8pm. Why do I still know all this times? I really don't know :)
GREAT TRIP, I would love to see this city again!! Thank you to the CS boys for showing us around, I appreciated everything you did for us. I know we will meet again, one day!
Filakia pola
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| White Wine with PEPSI |
#Fun Facts for today#
1. At the bus terminal in
Θεσσαλονικη you have to check in with your seat number in case the bus is full (our was empty) haha.
2.
Θεσσαλονικη is really famous for its pastry shops. Try the one at
Aristotellous Square, it is always busy but supposedly the best!
3. Greek students are similar to Spanish: instead of red wine they mix white wine with Pepsi. INSANE! (but not at all that bad... ;))
