Greece 2005-Day 1

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The first instant we stepped off the airplane in Thessaloniki, Greece was the heat and stillness of the air, and the strong shining Sun in the cloudless sky. We soon boarded a coach which took us to our resort Bella Grecia, which took us an hour ish. On the way we stopped by 2 other resorts-one with a nice tennis court, away from the sea but very modern; another which was fab-right next to the beach, the sand was very fine and the water was so clear-the Aegean Sea. The coastline scenery was pittoresque-never seen such clear blue waters before! When we arrived at BG, we met the resort owner, who was quite a big beefy man who we nicknamed ‘Greek lo’. He shook our hands and welcomed us quite warmly. Our rooms were really nice! Clean and neat. We also saw the pool which was a bit small but looked nice, with deck chairs surrounding it. There was also a pool bar next to it with director chairs under a shady veranda. We sat at the bar and drank fanta and pineapple juice, chilling out under the hot Greek weather! We then walked into the town of Hanioti, which took us 20 minutes. We passed by lots of big Greek houses, some of them a dull concrete block house with small windows, but others with fab wide windows which made the house look soooo grand. There were nice trees such as olive trees and pineapple like trees growing in their gardens. The town was really busy, loadsa people, and it was really nice, loadsa tourist shops selling beach accessories and souvenirs. And within the main Square there were lots of different kinds of cuisine, Greek traditional, Italian, steak (American). We looked around to see where we should sit down to eat for dinner. On the way into the square and little kid came up to us and gave us these 10% discount vouchers. So we went to the restaurant to check it out. It turned out to be very romantic and posh! We sat on the top floor where we could see the surrounding buildings in the street, and there was English 1990’s songs playing in the background. The table was well posh, and we were welcomed by a ‘leng tsai’ waiter which JT said was probably intentional to attract customers! The ‘lo ban’ who was the only one who spoke proper English sat us down. The surrounding people were mostly English-speaking. We were probably the only Chinese people in the town, if not on the whole peninsula! They seemed so surprised to see us, and lotsa Greeks kept looking at us curiously! We explained the menu to kung and po cos they couldn’t read the English. We soon placed our order and I ordered a beef in a 4 cheese sauce which was yum. It wasn’t cheap though, average 10 euros a dish. After the nice dinner we went back to the resort by taxi which cost us 3 euros and we sat in a benz. The greeks drive too fast! Our driver probably averaged 90 km/hr on the road. And they sound their horn for no apparent reason as well, it seems. That night it was HOT! But we drew the blinds and stuff cos we didn’t want the mosquitos coming in! I got a few bites though, on the cheek and eye and on limbs.

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