Bringing the rain with us--Thessaloniki Day One!

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Trip Start Sep 14, 2008 Trip End Dec 15, 2008 Next
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  Thessaloniki, Macedonia Region, Greece
Monday, September 15, 2008

Jared: So flying for the first time was slightly scary I wasn't sure if it was the whole supersonic speed thing or the triple dipper still digesting in my stomach from Chili's...but I didn't throw up, and that's what is important. The connecting flights were interesting to say the least, we met a business man who would constantly whine at his wife Majorie every ten seconds, kids who thought a great way to start a plane ride was to scream at the top of your lungs up until the actual take-off, and a small elderly Indian woman who for the life of her could not close her lunch tray and kept smacking the back of Megan's seat the entire 8 hr flight from Charlotte to Munich.
It was awesome though, especially when we got above the clouds and you looked out the windows and saw a sea of endless rolling white clouds, and small trickles of ice creeping their way from the corner of portholes.

Megan: The airport in Munich was the best by far. Where else can you find a filleted heron sandwich? Oh and the seafood salad was also one of my top picks for the flight to Thessaloniki. Raw octopus tentacles and baby squid smothered in a dark pink sauce. Yum! Well, at least Jared got a kick out of it. The Munich airport is also one of the most confusing places we have ever been in. First of all, the bathrooms were just another example of German engineering at its finest. The paper towels to wipe your hands are not actually paper towels. No. Instead it is a cloth-like material that dispenses from a paper towel machine and then winds back up after you're done using it. Ok, that's just gross. I do not want to wipe my hands on the same towel someone used just earlier after doing who knows what. Other than that, the airport travels were fine and dandy. (Minus the creepy Mercedes ad at the security checkpoint...don't know who thought that was an awesome marketing idea...)

Jared: So after our last leg from Munich to Thessaloniki (and several failed methods to properly pop my ears and actually hear what Megan keeps repeating in my ear) we make it off the plane and meet Joanna and Stephen, two other ACT study abroad students from Oregon and Massachusetts. So after we wait about 10 minutes looking for our luggage among the craziest mob of bag snatching people i've ever seen, we get shuffled to another baggage claim where we watch a small blue plastic bag go around the circle at least 25 times before they actually load ours onto the belt. Shortly afterwards we were escorted to a coach bus and got our first glimpse of Greek driving, which would be nothing compared to what we faced later. Megan and I ended up being in separate buildings :(
but the buildings are kind of across from each other so it's like a 30 second walk from one to the other. So after I met my new roommate Kyle, from Iowa State, I did my best to fit my one suitcase of clothes into my cell of a room. For those who have heard stories about my dorm in Kellum, think worse. But soon after jet lag set in and I went crashing into my small bed as a huge thunderstorm flooded the streets for the night. When it finally died down we watched the rest of the water from our balcony flow down the streets, and admired how pretty the mountains were against that grey-blue backdrop. Megan's moving in story happened a little differently though...

Megan: Fortunately for me, my room was a bit bigger than Jared's, although it still is an awful tight squeeze for all the stuff I packed. There is a small kitchen in the rooms, but they didn't provide us with any cooking utensils, plates, cups, or cookware! Supposedly they are taking us on a trip to IKEA sometime this week to get extra supplies. My roommate, Allie, is very nice and moved in a few hours after we had arrived and settled in. In the meantime, while I waited for Allie, I decided to set up the international converters for all of the electrical equipment. That didn't go so well, because now my alarm clock no longer wants to function, and my computer cord sparked everytime I plugged it into the wall. Deciding that since I had done such a great job with the first two items, I tried to set up my phone with the new Greek SIM card. Unforuntately the PIN code the instructions told me to use did not work with my phone and now it is in a lock down mode until I can figure out a manual PUK code (who knows what that is??). Thankfully Jared came to the rescue and fixed my computer cable so that we can blog you all now. Yay!

Jared: But the real fun began when we decided to go find dinner, and of all the choices we had, Megan chooses....80 euro cent Pizza. Wooo! Which didn't sound too bad after all the interesting airline food we had today. So we started walking, and shortly after discovered a horrifying fact. In Thessaloniki, maybe Greece in general...THEY HAVE NO TRAFFIC LIGHTS!!! I mean seriously? It was chaos...Megan and I sat at a corner for ten minutes trying to figure out when the heck we were supposed to cross while cringing every five seconds as cars literally rode each other's bumpers and drove into incoming traffic! We have also decided that there is absolutely no way that we will ride/drive anything. Moped/Motorcycles are absolutely crazy here! They drive up on the sidewalks, use pedestrian cross-walks, and have a nasty habit of honking the horn at people in the way. Were going to record it tommorrow so everyone can see, it's amazing there aren't more accidents. So back to the food search, we tried finding this pizza place for at least half an hour but when every sign is in Greek, Pizza just doesn't look the same. So we started window shopping and found this small little eatery that served flatbread pizza and these kiropitas (cheese pies) that were soooo good. We also bought a 1.5 liter of water to go with it and it was huuuuge! But it was great, and although not everyone speaks English here, its amazing what a bit of pointing and body language will do.
Tommorrow were going to get some really good pictures of the ruins and stuff around town during the day, so they're not so dark.
Blog ya'll tommorrow!
-Jared and Megan

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Jared's exploding suitcase!	Megan forgot the PIXIE STIX!	Lufthansa ticket	Filleted Herring Sandwich
Munich's Mercedes Ad	View from my balcony	Jared's room	Jared's itty bitty bed
small showers	Our amazing cookingware...	The armoir I had to share with Kyle	Our dinner!
Neon sign for restaurant	White Tower at night	Jared's bathroom	Better view of closet space
Greek signs everywhere!

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