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Published: August 25th 2015
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Greece...we read or ear about Greece nearly everyday over the last year. So here I am, to help somehow the local economy, to visit some nice places and enjoy some pretty cool food! My last visit to Greece was back in 1999, another time for the country. This time, I'm spending a full 9 days in the country, exploring all the places I have on my wish-list for a while, as well as revisiting some classics that I visit back in 1994 and 1999.
I made my way from Skopje to Thessaloniki by bus. The border was a seriously crowded affair, but we went through pretty smoothly. Could already witness a lot of migrants at the train station trying to leave Greece, on to Macedonia on their way to Germany or Britain.
Thessaloniki is not the most beautiful place to visit, so I will not post a single entry for the city. I'm sleeping in the local Holiday Inn right in the center of the city. And yes, I could witness the hundreds of empty shops. While taking the bus, you can really see how the crisis has been hitting the local population for a
while. At the same time, by the sea, the more upmarkets shops are still open and busy. A lot of restaurants and bars by the seaside are busy too...welcome to a Greece at double speed....with those that have, and those that don't have!
I spent my time walking the seaside and shopping streets of Thessaloniki for a full afternoon. And yes, it's Greek food time....those salads, those slouvakis, those moussakas and some pretty nice wine too...I love Greece! But be warned, nothing is cheap here! I would have thought that a crisis would have bring prices down....so I can really understand the high level of poverty with such prices!
End of my first evening in Thessaloniki, and I'm going to pick up my rental car with Avis. First of a serie of "dump" rental in Southern Europe. I'm getting a small panda, not cheap at around 80 euros per day... You could think for this I receive a proper car...took me two hours to find out that the central locking system doesn't work properly...and it's not because you turn the key to lock the car, that the car is actually locked. By now Avis
in town is closed, it's week-end time...I guess I'll play Mac Giver for three days! Only my generation will understand that comment!
Next morning, it's driving time to Ouranopolis, short of 2 hours to the South-East of Thessaloniki. My goal today, is to have a glance to the Independent area of Mt Athos. Mt Athos peninsula has a border with Greece and some 20++ monasteries on the Peninsula. I could go in the details, but I'll have to go back to google to make sure I'm accurate. The basic idea is...only male are allowed into the peninsula. It seems that is also valid for most animals too. If you are an Orthodox male, it's pretty easy to have access to the Monasteries....if you are a male non-Orthodox, you have to write a full letter of motivation to get granted access to the Peninsula. And let's be honest, I'm not that of a religious person, so accessing the Peninsula is not that much of a priority for me. For everybody else, there is the cruises who sail for three hours to near the point of the Peninsula out of Ouranopolis. The only condition for the cruise, is that
the boat has to stay at 500 meters from the shore.
There are cruises in the morning, and in high season in the afternoon. I had read that the afternoon ones were less crowded, and with a better sun exposure. So here I am for a three hours cruise surrounded by Russians. Comments are blasts by speakers in Greek, English and Russian....but if you want the best spot of the boat at the front, well, it's impossible to hear the comments from here.
So first we had the birds....beautiful, and a lot of them. Than, we had the dolphins. I guess I would have been crazy about it ten years ago....but I'd rather dive with them...you remember....less than a month ago! We passed Mt Athos as well as some ten Monasteries. And yes, most of them are rather impressive...some by the shore, some built on steep hills...just amazing buildings. I had my proper lens, so could have a proper look at most of them. Not sure I would have loved walking between each of those. But that was indeed a pretty amazing three hours cruises!
I than made my way back
to my hotel in Thessaloniki...little bottle of nice red wine...and tomorrow is another day, spent mainly on the road...for a site back to my teenagers years!
Coming soon...more of Greece!
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GRACIELA
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MY LAST TRIP
I visited Greece last June. I visited several islands. It was the time of great revolution.