Thessaloniki: A Second Look

Cat at the 13th century Hammam

Ruth: We are spending our last four nights in Thessaloniki before flying home for a bit. I don't return to work until the 30th of January, so we will squeeze another adventure in after we have some time at home to pet our cat and reintroduce ourselves to family and friends. It will be fun to feed our own cat for a change. 

Now that I have gotten over the initial shock that Thessaloniki has no ferries, I can enjoy it for the many delights it does have. It is an interesting mix of urban sprawl, urban decay and dazzling ancient sites from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. It is also one of the best cities for bakeries, and trust me I have done a lot of research. The cheap eats to be sampled from the many bakeries range from feta and spinach filo pies to the most dreamy of chocolate mousse cakes. Of course there are also lots of varieties of delicious baklava. 

The weather has turned from the heat we had two weeks ago, when we were last here, and I am now heading out for our walks in a sweater and pants. Tomorrow wind and rain are forecast, with temperatures only a few degrees above those in Victoria. It is a quick transition in the Mediterranean, only two days ago I was still snorkelling. The sea temperature is still around 20 degrees, much warmer than our ocean ever gets around Victoria. 

Today we spent a lot of our time arranging to have our bikes boxed and transported to the airport. This is the part of any bike trip that is such a pain. Bikes are meant to be ridden, and with the airport just 20kms out it would be easy to do so, but the airlines want them boxed.  Grrrrrr!  We asked for advice on large taxis or minivans at the bike store where we got our bike boxes, which initiated a lively discussion in Greek between the staff and the customers. Yannis, one of the customers, offered to go and get his 1977 Chrysler hatchback to see if we could all fit. The test ride back to our apartment was successful, and he will be taking us to the airport on Thursday.