March 28th & 29th, 2002

Thessaloniki, Greece

Thessaloniki....
Greek culture and a big seaside city.

In Saloniki I finally connected with Elizabeth. From the bus station it was a long walk through the city to the youth hostel in town. The next morning, we saw the white castle and other archeological sites near the ocean . There was a fun market offering fresh and live fishes, displaying semi and fully-skinned meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, etc. At this point we were not up to par with the cultural siesta where everything closes at 1pm to 4pm and people mysteriously vanished. Where do they all go? There's obviously some secret we don't know about. During that time, we recognized an over abundance of female and male mannequins nude in store windows. Also, on television commercials and posted in the newsstands is the acceptance and celebration of the female body; completely exposed. Within 2 days of Thessaloniki, Greek culture was becoming clearer.

One thing Elizabeth and I soon discovered was the quality in fast food chains such as Goody's. Elizabeth couldn't get over these delicious criss cut dipping fries and my pasta was actually worth mentioning. Greek fast food was a cool experience especially watching everyone free with no law withholding them to smoke cigarettes, drink beer, and socialize amongst their company of friends and family.

Another interesting cultural difference was learning what the similar-aged Greeks do for fun. An occasional night out for a Greek the age of 20 is to socialize and hang out with his/her friends over some coffee and board games such as Jenga, Scrabble, and Uno at the hip cafe. Elizabeth and I were disappointed by how much fun kids our age were having doing simple stuff. Where did the simple enjoyment in self entertainment go from American culture? We decided to join two guys from Germany and play Uno over some Mythos beer and Ouzo before our bus departed to Istanbul.

From Saloniki we prepared for the one and only bus to Istanbul at 2 a.m. Just because we are so lucky, tonight was daylight savings time and our promptness cost us an extra 3 hours of sleep. We questioned the bus station attendant if it was going to be on the right time, but he told us to sit down. I think they dislike tourists traveling to Turkey.

Click on the "Saloniki" link or scroll down the page to view pictures of Thessaloniki.