A Not-So-Beautiful Woman

Yassas! Winslow here at the end of my journey from Thessaloniki to Mykonos. The young one and the boyfriend are a bit red but I’m still the same color. You may recall that the young one did not include me in her trip through Greece a couple years back, so these two weeks have been a new cultural experience for me (even though the young one has talked quite a lot about her previous trip and I often had to remind her that this was in fact a different trip). That’s the thing about Greece; it is a land where each person who visits and each place you go has its own unique story.

This country, or “ The Homeland ” as it had been referred to, has a strong culture with a people who heartily maintain their traditions. The pride that they have makes me want to be Greek too! The young one even gave up vegetarianism to show her own pride in an integral part of Greek culture, and I must say that if I could eat, I would try Greek food first!

 Some Greek pride displayed on a street in Thessaloniki. Only here and in the United States do you see so many flags.

It was also a pleasure to watch the islands come to life before our eyes as preparations began for high-season. A lot of shops, restaurants, and hotels are still closed, and not only are they being set up and decorated for the summer floods of people, but many appear to be in the midst of total makeovers and reconstruction! There’s sanding, building, nailing, drilling, and most importantly - painting. A fresh coat of white paint is applied to everything, including sidewalks. It was often that the three of us strolled by places in total disrepair, imagining what beauty and freshness they would attain in just a few weeks.

 Painting the street white

The young one and I would like to share with you then two specific aspects of our trip, one being Greek culture, and the other being how we managed to enjoy our time in the off-season (I tend to enjoy most things, off or not, it’s the young one who’s picky).

No matter the time of year, cities are always bustling with plenty to see and do, and nothing is on hold. We began our adventure in the second largest city in Greece, Thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki

For the young one, the image of a city teeming with people and shops and history, is contradictory to her actual experience there. After such a visit this question haunts her: what did I even do there? It’s always the same walking around, looking for something to eat, wondering why this is here and that’s there. What makes one city different from another, and what can make my experience unique?

Our favorite solution: free walking tour. Always do a free walking tour. Usually led by a local and/or passionate student, they enrich your visit and give you inspiration on what else to do and see. We attended two of them, led by the same Greek guy, and they were the highlight of our visit.

Our time in Thessaloniki was characterized by the walks up to upper town and back down to lower town, both parts covered by our guide. Upper town was tour number one. That’s where our hostel was, a cute little place with a deck and a café, and the main residential area. Alysseos tower has the best view of the city and is a popular hangout spot.

Upper town is very quiet and calm, with almost no cars, but is also the most run-down part of Thessaloniki and graffiti covers almost every surface.

Sometimes it is more like street art though!

Despite this, our time with our guide felt intimate and precious as he told us about how Thessaloniki has always been a home to everyone - refugees and Jews specifically. It’s also been the site of much loss, including murders by the Turks, persecution of the Jews, and a devastating fire during World War I. He even played us some traditional Rebetiko music on this funny instrument called a “ bouzouki ” that resembles a guitar. This type of music appeared in the 1920s and is still popular today, listened to and played by young people too! It’s so popular because it’s powerful and relatable (at least that’s what I’m told considering I can’t make sense of the Greek lyrics).

Fun fact: Rebetiko has the title of « intangible UNESCO world heritage ». I did not know there was such a thing. Nor did I know there could be so many UNESCO labeled sites in one place as there are in Thessaloniki, a city that dates back to about 300 BC.

In the upper town we also came to a monastery with an epic view and a large cage of peacocks, where we learned that in Greek mythology the unblinking eyes on their tail feathers are actually the 100 eyes of Hera’s faithful watchdog. There’s also a church somewhere up there with a mosaic that depicts Christ without a beard. Our guide made it seem like the most epic mosaic ever but we’ve seen better. Interesting at least, and a significant artifact.

The lower town and town center are much busier and noisier. There are ancient ruins scattered between shop after shop, restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and squares. The tall pastel buildings layered with balconies reminded us of Naples in Italy. There are, however, green trees and other plants along the sidewalks and spilling from balconies that create tranquil spaces within the city. It is as if the plants have taken over their rightful territory, claimed domain in certain areas.

We visited one morning the daily local market where you can buy all the basics: fresh olives, whole squids covered in their black ink, entire lambs, and feel the air around you vibrate with the shouting of Greek merchants. There is also an entire block dedicated to knock-off clothing and souvenirs.

Our guide on the second day took us to a few hidden spots downtown and lent us some tips and tricks. He showed us where we can go underground, into one of two remaining parts of a once extensive tunnel system. He taught us a few Greek words as well, the most important one being the word for “let’s go!”.

We also went to the Palace of the Cats, ruins of a palace dating to the birth of the city, inhabited at present only by a good portion of the city’s cat population.

To conclude our time with our guide he summarized the city of Thessaloniki pretty well by pointing out what everyone knows but never wants to admit: he compared it to a not-so-beautiful woman, who, the more you get to know, the more you fall in love with.

Thessaloniki is definitely not very attractive, and that’s because of the fire of 1917 that devastated 90% of the city (but remarkably left none dead). Long story short, it was rebuilt rather haphazardly and without attention to style. Regardless of its looks, Thessaloniki is known for having a “chill” way of life. It is a part of the people’s culture to sit for hours over drinks, mill about in public spaces, and apparently eat some of the best food in Greece. This lifestyle is represented by the young student population (Thessaloniki had the largest university in the Balkans) and particularly remarkable down by the water.

On what we could call a boardwalk that runs the length of the city from the port, locals and tourists ride bikes, jog, and zip by on rented motor scooters. The young one and the boyfriend did that while I hung on tight and watched the world pass by: sculptures, a huge statue of Alexander the Great on a horse, racing sailboats, playgrounds, outdoor gyms.

We are supposed to be able to see Mount Olympus across the expanse of sea, but the weather was never in our favor; it was cloudy, foggy, and even a bit rainy during our stay. I sure don’t like getting wet, and the young one’s mood tends to hang low under such conditions. But inevitably we pressed on.

 This sculpture was a perfect find considering the weather

The symbol of Thessaloniki is located on the water: the White Tower. Ironically, it was built by the Turks and served for a time as a horrible prison, was too expensive to destroy, and lives on now as the postcard image of the city. The area around the White Tower is the most popular hangout spot in the city where we counted many people drinking their iced espresso (called frappé), and sat ourselves to enjoy the soft and pleasant strumming of the boyfriend’s ukelele.

Because of how animated the city is as well as the influx of foreigners who call it home, my companions realized quickly and unfortunately how careful they must be! The young one actually had her phone swiped right out of her pocket, but the boyfriend luckily stopped the man before he got away. I was entrusted with guarding it from then on, though I was afraid I could be snatched up with her bag just as easily! Every day since, the young one has been grateful that her phone wasn’t stolen, and I’m grateful too because then I would have had to hear about it for the next two weeks.

Travelling really makes you accustomed to taking the good with the bad. After all, the ugly always makes for a better story, and our difficulties always turn into lessons learned. During our downtown tour a woman overheard our guide recounting the plight of the Thessaloniki metro (predicted to be completed in 2020 after 50 years of talk and attempt) and took him aside to ask why he is not telling us only the good things about Thessaloniki. Our entire group, finding our guide to be a genuine and delightful guy, can attest to the illusion of a world this woman is probably living in. Take the bad with the good - that’s called having a sense of humor.

The Greeks normally are optimistic - they are proud and happy and might as well have the words “ what crisis? ” written on their foreheads.

Three days wasn’t quite enough time to find the true inner beauty of Thessaloniki, but it was enough to know that it’s there.

 The drink of the city (but it appears to be the drink of Greece in general) - iced espresso called frappé

The overnight train to Athens was so awful even I was uncomfortable and couldn’t shut out the persistent noise in our cabin. We were all so relieved to have a peaceful early ferry ride in the morning for our first island hop! I was looking forward to my first ferry ride and was surprised at how comfortable it was, like a mini cruise ship! Plus, I’ll take a sea view without the sand any day.

Now, island life certainly has a completely different feel to it, nevermind the different atmospheres of each island from one another. I will talk about our island hopping in a separate post while you guys take in all that city information.

See you in the Cyclades!

Winslow