Mandrino Hotel Thessaloniki

... thing that happened here was being able to meet up with a familiar face. I have a friend from SPU who happened to be traveling through at the same time so we met up and the three of us went exploring a little together. It was fun to see a familiar face. (Her name is Ann and she was my P.A. on my dorm floor freshman year.) <br><br>Something I didn&#8217;t know about Greece before arriving was that they don&#8217;t flush toilet paper down ...

Hallo zusammen<br><br>und viele Gruesse aus Thessaloniki in Griechenland. Billigflieger fliegen selten in die ehemaligen Ostblockstaaten, daher sind meine zwei Fluege hier nach Thessaloniki in Griechenland und zurueck von Dubrovnik in Kroatien (an der Adriakueste, die sieht recht viele ...

We got back to Thessaloniki and we were going to have to spend the day there as the train out to Istanbul did not leave until the evening. Our expectations for the day were low based on our previous experience but we actually ended up having quite a good day!<br><br>We walked along the water front and saw a massive blue jelly fish which was quite exciting before heading to a pier that contained a few interesting museums and ...

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.<br><br>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<br><br>The most exciting ...

... out while there was still daylight to see some of the city that I was spending less than 24 hours in (plus, I had to find Ouzo to drink because Dad bought me a shot and I didn&#8217;t want to give him his money back :D ) <br><br>I strolled down to the water (Thessaloniki is a costal city) and walked along the coast until I made it to the famous White Castle. It was already closed, so I didn&#8217;t get to go inside, but it was pretty from the outside. After taking a few ...

... delay at the border and in about 4 hours driving we were in Thessaloniki. I've always liked the city and its cafes, so we couldn't miss the regular walk along the sea lane to the White Tower and a frappe in one of the nearby bars. We checked some shops and in a few hours hit the road to Katerini, some 70 kms south of Thessaloniki. Our hotel was in Olympic beach - a small and very peaceful at this time of the year ...

... sales pitches...) The brochures at Thessaloniki's very helpful tourist information booth describe the city as one that never sleeps. That turned out to be an understatement: most hotels seem to be concentrated on streets filled with roaring buses and motorcycles; most of the windows in the city seem to be singled-paned; Ray was still ill; and, jackhammers and pipe cutters were working all night on a major infrastructure project a couple of ...

... apartment where Allie was getting ready to go out with everyone to a hookah bar. Jared and I were straved at this point so we told them we would meet up with them later and headed for a local taverna. We went to a cute, small little place we had been to a couple of weeks ago where the owner was so nice and helped us learn some Greek words. Since the weather was pretty nice and I had my new jacket on, we thought it would be a good idea to sit outside. The woman who served ...

... and sleep. Ready to head to Ancient Olympia tomorrow, one day early.<br><br><br><br><br>Day 8 - July 5th - On route to Ancient Olympia<br><br><br>Arrived at Best Western today, another fabulous hotel and the first hotel that didn't take us a long time to find (thank you for the signs). <br><br><br>Checked in and settled in for three whole days. We headed down to the bar for some beer and banking. A few beer later (0.5L beer by the way) and we decided to head out to the ruins.<br><br><br ...

... tried to talk to the bus driver but he didn't speak any English. Then some old Greek guy turned around and handed me 2 tickets. I tried to pay him for them, but he wouldn't take it. Crazy huh? Yeah, so we had no idea how long this ride to the train station was or even when to know to get off the bus. This was a crazy experience! Every person that got on the bus started yelling at the driver in Greek and then the driver would yell back! One time the ...