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Published: March 13th 2007
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Old City Walls
A view of the extensive city walls in Thessaloniki which still remain. People live on both sides now. So, Thessaloniki is my new favorite city in Greece, in other words it’s the only place I can imagine myself living for a good long time at some point in my life.
We left on Thursday night from stathmos larissas in Athens and took the express train to Thessaloniki. It took about 4.5 hours, which wasn’t so bad. I’ll be honest, the train ride there wasn’t as comfortable as Amtrak, but it was a lot better than a bus. And, being that It was a class field trip, I didn’t have to pay for it, which makes it even nicer.. We arrived at about 12:30 AM and took a 20 minute walk from the station to our hotel in the center of town, amusingly enough it was called the Tourist Hotel. But, I can say for sure that plenty of Greeks stayed there too and it was a very, very nice place in a great location.
Unfortunately, my pictures don’t do justice to this lovely city. The weather was not great, a little cold/rainy, but it was still very pleasant, particularly Friday afternoon when the sun peaked out from behind the clouds.
Some brief info: Thessaloniki is situated
From the Hill
A nice view of the Eastern part of the city. north of the Thermian golf in Macedonia (the Greek province, not the country, yes that is an issue for both nations). It runs along the sea, in between a hill and the coast. It’s the second largest city in Greece with about 2 million people. It was by for the most important city in what is now modern Greece during Roman and Byzantine times, being the seat of emperors at different times beginning in the 3rd century CE. It was handed over from Turkey to Greece in the early 19th century. It is the Thessalonica to which the Apostle Paul wrote 2 letters now found in the New Testament and reflects this history well. All this being the case, it was quite nice for the Early Christianity/Byzantine history professor to take his classes to Thessaloniki.
While we were there we had a number of presentations at different historical sites, including the ancient Roman forum (where it is believed that Paul probably preached), the Arch and Palace of the Roman Emperor Galerius (3rd c. CE), the Rotunda, which is just super cool, and numerous churches of historical and religious importance. Needless to say, I had a great weekend!
We
Agios Nikolaos
The Byzantine Church of St. Nikolaos, has been virtually unchanged since (not even converted into a mosque) since it was built in the 14th century. were also able to visit some of the best local restaurants and bakeries and bars and simply walk around the city, taking in its history and beauty- a mix of ancient, medieval and modern wonders. The food in Northern Greece is definitely a little spicier and more flavorful than what you find in Athens. And the restaurants are cheaper! The highlight, though, was Saturday night, when a few of us went to a bar our teacher recommended where they serve a large selection of beer, something very unusual and quite welcome in Greece. Here we sat around the bar and ordered different kinds of beer from all over Europe (except Greece, I’ve had enough Greek beer to last me a while). My favorite was a dark blonde from Belgium called Leffe which, to my surprise, they sell in bottles here in Athens at the nicer grocery stores.
During the day on Saturday, we went to the Museum of Byzantine Culture, which was the nicest museum I’ve been to since I got to Greece (and free with my student ID card). There’s an amazing collection of early Christian artifacts, which are really cool to see. I’d recommend this museum highly,
Erasmus the Turtle
There were turtles in the courtyard at St. Nikolaos! Luke is trying to get this one (whom I named Erasmus after one of the cool Saints in the AMAZING frescoes in the church) to come out. as would the EU, who named it the best museum in Europe in 2005.
I was also able to find the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception on Sunday morning, which was pretty new and very nice, which a surprisingly large Greek congregation. I’m always surprised by how much Greek Catholics there are. And I often wonder what it’s like to be ethnically Greek but non-Orthodox, I really can’t imagine how their identity works that way.
Finally, I was able to try a Thessalonian pastry called bougatsa. It was delicious, but waay too sweet with its rice-cream filling. But, I’d eat another one sometime probably.
Honestly, I was comfortable and happy from the moment I got to Thessaloniki to the moment I left, perhaps it was just a good trip, but I plan on going back and maybe even spending a longer period of time there for some reason....
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poppo
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cerveza
Hola mio Sounds like a great weekand, save some fun, would ya. Dad