Sunshine and Thessaloniki

Hi again...

As usual, this blog provides a good outlet for procrastination by allowing me to rationalize not working on something (in this case, my philosophy paper) by instead doing something somewhat productive (writing this post). But this is going to be relatively short...

Sunset in Thessaloniki

The White Tower

Last weekend, my friends and I decided to go on an impromptu trip to Greece. Early in the week, most of us were worn out from spring break and trying to get caught up on sleep and schoolwork. On Thursday afternoon, someone suggested going to Thessaloniki for the weekend, and we went ahead with it. We left on Friday at noon and our bus got in around 4 pm. Our hotel was within walking distance from the bus station, so we dropped our stuff off and went to the harbor in time to watch the sunset. Thessaloniki has a nice long street that follows along the edge of the water. There's a bike trail and a pedestrian part right along the sea, and on the other side the street is lined with cafes. We walked for a while before picking a restaurant. After dinner, we walked back to the White Tower, which was previously used as a prison and for executions but now is a museum and a city landmark. We wound back along the water and through the city to go back to our hotel (along the way stopping for some amazing ice cream).

The market

The next morning, we headed to one of the cafes by the water to get some coffee and plan the day's activities. I had an amazing iced coffee. Also, one of the cool things about Greece is that they always bring out little pastries with your coffee (or, if you get a beer, they bring you a little dish of pretzels or popcorn). We decided to split up and reunite in the evening. Abby and I wanted to go shopping, so we left the boys behind. First we went to this wonderful outdoor market that we had passed through on the way to the coffee. It was right off of Aristotle Square, one of the main landmarks of the city. It's a beautiful plaza lined with palm trees and cafes. We wanted to explore the market more, though. I love outdoor markets, and this one didn't disappoint; it had all sorts of different booths, with some selling raw meat or fresh fish and others with fruits and vegetables, lots of olives, or nuts. There were also booths with non-food items, like clothes, religious icons, and antiques.

Olives in the market

I wanted to buy a blood orange to eat, so I went to one of the fruit booths and pointed and asked for one. The guy said "One kilo?" And I shook my head and said no, that I just wanted one orange. He picked one out for me and when I tried to pay, he shook his head and smiled. So I got a free blood orange!

After the market, Abby and I went shopping, mostly along this one main street called Tsimiski. We shopped for a couple of hours before taking a break to get something to eat. It was so nice outside, so we ordered salads at a little cafe and sat outside. The menu had no English, so we just asked the waiter for salads and what he brought was amazing.

Abby with salad

After our little meal, we continued shopping until it was time to meet back up with the boys. We met them by the White Tower and watched the sun set over the water. It was beautiful, and afterwards we went to a seafood restaurant that was really good and had live music playing.

The next day we had to catch our bus back to Bulgaria at nine am, so we got all of our stuff together and walked back to the bus station. It was only 8:30, but we found out that we had missed our bus; apparently it left at 7:30, not 9. There were no other buses that day and we all had midterm exams that week so everyone sort of wanted to get back and have some time to study. We decided to take a taxi back rather than stay another night in Greece. We managed to get a flat rate rather than a meter, which probably saved us a bunch of money. It cost 35 euro per person, but it was worth it for the time it would save us. Unfortunately, though, there were five of us, so we had to fit four in the backseat. It was very crowded, but we got out at the border to stretch and our taxi driver stopped and bought us coffee at a cafe in Bulgaria, near Sandanski. We ended up getting back earlier than we would have with the bus, but it was somewhat of an uncomfortable drive.

Overall, it was a really nice and relaxing weekend. The city was beautiful and the weather was just amazing. After traveling so much over spring break, it was nice to take a short trip to somewhere close by where we didn't feel obligated to do too much sightseeing.

More pictures:

Walking along the water

Fishies in the market

Iced coffee

View from our hotel balcony

Part of Aristotle Square

Yum

Lastly,  Aristotle Square again

Anyways, now back to the philosophy essay. The "study" part of study abroad forces me back to reality. Duty calls...