Portraits of Town

Sunday was a slow day. For my morning walk, I ventured to the NW corner of Thessaloniki to snap some shots of the old wall winding through the city. I caught a few glimpses, but quickly lost track of the wall as the streets I was wandering were not on my map. I saw some lovely views of neighborhood life on a Sunday morning: hunched over, white haired ladies leaving church, kids slowly padding alongside their parents and pastry and mini-markets the only shops open. With lunch secured, I headed back to the hotel to eat and pack up.

In my time here I've noticed how most Greek people seem kind and helpful--at least out here in the smaller cities and towns. Anyone who owns or works in a shop cleans it often. Most times when I entered a store someone was cleaning a window or the floor. All in comparison to the rather dusty streets and scent of cigarette smoke wherever you went. Greece is not a country which bans smoking. It seems to be something of a national pastime. As a whole, Greek people are rather expressive. As quickly as they flare up in anger or argument, so to do they return to calm and quiet.

After reading some Jane Austen and grabbing dinner for the train ride, I bought my ticket to Kalampaka and waited a couple more hours over some coffee and futbol. Overall, the ride was comfortable. Somehow the station created and issue as there were about 10-15 people standing in the car where I was and a lady and two men where loudly complaining. As best I can piece their expressions together, I think some of them were 1st class passengers without their prime seats and certainly not even a 2nd class spot to be had. After about 45 minutes waiting a large group of passengers moved out and walked behind my car. I didn't see them again, so I suspect another car was added. The 3 vocal people stayed in my car and stood until seats appeared as others got off the train. The only tense part was towards the end when many people began to exit and I couldn't tell if we had arrived yet or not. A woman across the aisle spoke enough English to let me know that Kalampaka would be after her stop at Karditses. I think I must have been one of about 5 people to leave the train at the last stop. I asked at the train office where the bus station was. He informed me it was closed by this hour (10:15pm), but he showed me how to get to the hotel. Little did I know that 2/3 of the walk would be uphill hauling all my luggage on rough sidewalks/roads. Much to my delight I found the hotel in the far NW corner of town with a desk clerk waiting to check me in and who kindly carried my bag up to the 2nd floor.

Sights and Sounds of Thessaloniki

While locating internet yesterday, I heard a moped accident in the street next to me. I'm not sure if a car hit the rider or if a flat tire caused it to flip backwards, but the guy ended up underneath the bike as bits of plastic cracked and flew into the street. They crunched and screeched under car/bus tires. He appeared to be okay and about 10-15 minutes later the police and an ambulance showed up.

Friday night is the time to par-tay in Thessaloniki. All night I heard music, loud voices, cars honking and zooming by and parties roaming down the street. All in stark contrast to the absolute quiet of the morning (which might be what woke me up).

A brief rain shower this afternoon sent me back to the hotel for my umbrella which I didn't use the rest of the sunny evening. I spent the day walking around town collecting fresh fruit from the market, photographing churches I found along the way and seeing a few of the sights along the waterfront. Amidst the Grecian styled high rise housing and corporate buildings are nestled ancient ruins and exquisite Byzantine stone churches.
The only breaks between buildings are where streets cut through the landscape. The 5-6 story height of architecture makes it hard to read signs along the streets and easy to miss the spot you're trying to locate. Cafes dot most corners though, unlike most of commercialized US, these are classy, unique places with their own flare and locally made food. Advertising takes place along corrugated metal sheets posted around construction sites, by throwing fliers along the sidewalk and pasting posters to wall billboards along the street.

My first stop was the Modiano Market where I picked up some citrus, an apple and a pear for E1.90--all ripe to the touch. There was a light breeze out and the market owner brushed my arm asking if I was cold. Quite the contrary, it was in the 60Fs and sunny. I meandered my way to the White Tower by the water. It's not so much white as tan-grey, but it is a very large tower. Unfortunately the tower closed at 3pm and it was 4. Mind you, my guide book said it would be open until 7pm. I headed toward the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art--also closed.

Instead I found restaurant Zythos and had Lamb Souflaki with a corn pita, sour cream, roasted tomato and onions along with an Alpha lager. There was something not quite like cinnamon or nutmeg to add the slightest hint of sweet/spicy flavoring to the lamb. All very tasty. On my sunset walk along the waterfront I had a cone of chocolate and pistachio gelato. Most delicious when paired with the orange blaze dropping below the distant mountains across the Thessaloniki Bay.

It's All Greek to Me

I attempted to rouse myself at 3am in London to get ready and checked in for my 7am flight to Thessaloniki, Greece. Talk about an early morning. Or was it a late night? I'm not sure which timezone I'm in right now. I made it to the departures counter on time to get my boarding pass, traverse through security and then wait for 1.5 hours until the gate number was listed on the monitors. At the London Gatwick Airport, gate numbers aren't assigned until 1/2 hour before the flight leaves. This only served to make me nervous that I might not be able to get to the gate in time if say it happened to be 95 and at the far end of the terminal. Easyjet doesn't wait for you to show up if you are late. All part of the no frills, inexpensive policy. Lest the suspense stress you out, I did make it to the gate on time though only half awake.

I slept most of the way through the flight though some guy a row back talked non-stop all the way there. Customs went well and I managed to find the bus ticket booth. The one slip in the plan was I took the wrong bus into town. On the bright side, I discovered there is an IKEA in Thessaloniki. Yea for international symbols! Didn't think I'd see one of those here. Once the bus circled back to the airport, I got on the right bus and headed toward town. The only trouble was that the stops called out on the bus didn't match anything in the map in my book. I kept looking for landmarks, but nothing looked familiar. Eventually I got off and wandered into a motorbike shop. One of the guys spoke enough english to help me figure out that I was about 10 minutes from where I wanted to be. All in all, not too bad for not being able to read what the signs said fast enough. One moment in life when I can say "Thankgoodness for Greek class." I can't speak much, but at least I can read it. I wandered around the area where the hostel was supposed to be, but no luck in finding it. There were about 10-12 other hotels along the street, just not the one I wanted. I did manage to find one that was close to my price range. The lady who checked me in was very helpful. She gave me a more detailed local map and told me about a nearby internet spot.

Since breakfast at 3am, I hadn't eaten and was a bit low on blood sugar and water. Once I got up to my room (no elevator and two flights of about 10 stairs each) I downed some water from the sink and remembered I had some chocolate covered cookies in my bag. Now that my brain had some energy to work off of, I decided to walk to the train station to find out which train would be my ticket out of town. I ate some mousaka, beans in a red sauce and salad at Sofi's House restaurant. I'm not sure exactly where the internet place was the hotel lady was trying to direct me to, but there's a Starbucks across the street with 2 hours of internet with a purchase.

And so the adventure goes on to explore the other sights of Thessaloniki and beyond.

One Night in London

Yesterday's travel plans were certainly up for interpretation. I left PA at 6:30am to arrive an hour later in Detroit, MI. Unbeknownst to me Atlanta was being stormed upon. All flights in and out were apparently delayed 3 hours. I shifted to standby for an earlier flight into Atlanta which fortunately got me in on time to catch my still on time flight to London. Atlanta? Yeah, it was sunny when I got there. What storm!?!

So now I'm relaxing in my 8x8 train cabin style hotel room at the airport. It's actually quite cozy. Hats off to the Europeans for combining functionality in a tiny space. Hopefully I'll get enough rest to carry me through an early morning (4am check out) and a busy day settling into Greece.

A New Door

After about a year of planning, working and waiting, I'm off for another traveling adventure. This time I am focusing on Western Europe. After a brief 20 hour stop over in London, my journey begins in Thessaloniki, Greece. I'll work my way north through various towns until I reach Ireland. Along the way I will be stopping in Italy, France, Germany, England, Scotland and Wales.

My traveling companions will be the complete works of Jane Austen and anyone I get to chat with via Skype. Not sure when I'll be online, but if you download Skype we can chat, voice and video call all for free. You'll find me at Skype name jkuntz27. Of course you can also leave comments on the blog--even without a blogger username.

Life has been tense and crazy with trying to pull everything together for the trip. Phone calls to companies, setting up finances, buying the last few items and trying to pack it all into my carry-on size roller bag and my shoulder bag. All in all, stressful. With assignment halfway completed (Region 8, synod __?__) and only a short time post moving back to PA, I've been thinking how it would just be easier to stay put. Certainly more comfortable and right now, comfortable would be delightful. Well, back to packing. Hopefully once I get there the adventure will set in again.