Luxembourg Thessaloniki

... years ago.

Thessaloniki extends along the Aegean Sea. We walked up and down the board walk a few times looking out at the barges in the distance and the few small Greek fishing boats nearer the shore. Across from the boardwalk are all the really trendy cafes where only the young, snobby-looking fashionistas hang out with their $7.00 cappuccinos while listening to blaring American pop or Eurotrash techno music.

A really ...

... br>
Bin um kurz nach 20:00 gelandet, und um 23:50 dann mit dem Nachtzug weiter nach Sofia. 18,50Euro fuer die Strecke, habe aber noch fuer 10 Euro auf den Schlafwagen upgegraded, da der eine Waggon ziemlich voll war (und ich ausserdem doch recht muede war).

Gruss
Ralf

... galleries. Here we went to an art gallery whos exhibits which ranged from several hundred beer cans arranged in a spiral to a musical video about communism. Top fun!

We also went in to a photography gallery and a museum of cinema which was quite cool. A pretty awesome 3D film at the end as well!

This passed most of the time we needed to kill and we filled the rest with wondering the streets looking around.

We arrived in Thessaloniki from Macedonia late in the evening and as there were no trains continuing down to Athens that evening we were forced to spend the night.

We stayed in the cheapest place we could find which was probably a bit of a mistake as the bedroom floor was sticky (thankfully it smelt of beer) and vefore we checked in what can only of been a prostitute came and took the "concierge" away for 5 minutes to sort out some business :s

The most exciting ...

... on an eight lane highway. I’ve emailed him since, and he made it to his hotel just fine.

Once I got to the Thessaloniki bus station, I caught the bus that was to take me to my hotel and was so bummed out when I arrived and they told me my room wasn’t ready. I sat my things down and got on the internet for a while, and was finally let into my room (after hunting down someone that spoke English). I settled in, contemplated taking a nap, then decided ...

... a hotel in Katerini, which was close enough to Bulgaria and was a good starting point for Meteora, Mount Olymp and at the same time at the beach. The whole country was moving around and to nighbouring Greece and Turkey, so we decided to start our trip on the second day of the holidays to avoid the terrible traffic on the road and the jams at the border. As expected, most of the people had already moved out, so without ...

... the middle of the modern city. We can't say for certain, but we suspect the modern city was built very quickly to house the newly arrived population from Turkey so that many interesting archaeological sights are only found when new constructions requires someone to pull a building permit (We saw one sign that the town's Roman toilets were located under a particular apartment building. We wonder how Greek real estate agents spin that factoid in ...

... one. Jared was a little tired of shopping by this point, so we made our way back to the apartments without any other stops. We came back to Jared's apartment and started writing the blog for the day, but when we decided to save it as a private draft because it was not finished, his computer froze. We couldn't believe it. We had just written so much and it was all lost now, so we decided to get over the loss with a quick nap. When we woke up, I took my new clothes back to ...

... on the beach with the correct recipe for love. A white piano with a Greek man singing tunes throughout the meal, roses and great wine. The meal was to die for; I had the lobster with risotto (100 dollars) and Curtis has the salad (10 dollars). We had the best view of the sunset with no one in our way to watch the color of the sun turn from yellow to orange to red and disappear into the horizon of the sea.


After our filling meal we headed back for some relaxing in our hotel ...

... my brain for my limited knowledge of Thessaloniki train schedules. Where exactly did he think that info came from? Anyway, Thessaloniki was a much-needed shot of the big city after all those small villages. Clean, modern, and with a great energy. We went to a bookstore and stocked up on English-language books, and ate a great meal at Kitchen Bar, right on the waterfront with a view of the White Tower. Definitely too short of a stay in Thessaloniki, but Santorini beckoned ...