A Weekend in Thessaloniki

Okay, so it has been a little while since my last post on Greece.  But this weekend I had the good fortune of spending Friday and Saturday in Thessaloniki with my roommate, Sean.  We left on Thursday afternoon because it was a national holiday "Oxi Day" which celebrates the day that Metaxas, the Prime Minister, told Mussolini "Oxi" (which means no in Greek) when Mussolini demanded that Italy occupy Greece during WWII.  Pretty cool stuff actually.  The locals were out in full force as all of the cafes and bars were packed when we left.  After a tumultuous travel afternoon, we made it to the bus station and caught the 4 PM bus to Thessaloniki.  6 hours later and we arrived at our hostel.

First, our hostel was awesome.  Really cheap and it was pretty much just college students there.  The staff was incredibly welcoming and helpful.  The rooms were clean, the bathrooms too and there was a complimentary breakfast and wi-fi to boot.  That was really nice considering I was half expecting it to be like the movie "Hostel" and we would be found with our heads stabbed on stakes and our bodies mutilated across the room.  Good times!

So we awoke on Friday, high-fived to the fact that we weren't in Greek class (which freakin' blows by the way.  A truly terrible mistake on my part to take that class.  Live and learn Petey) and made our way into the city.  Thessaloniki is significantly different from Athens.  Sure there are some similarities: tons of graffiti, some really good and others a skid mark on society, chain smoking out the ying-yang, and an active community.  But the biggest difference between the two was how much more personal Thessaloniki felt.  Since it is on the other side of the country, and not quite as big, it isn't quite the international city that Athens is.  The community feeling of Thessaloniki seemed significantly greater than that of Athens.  Strangely enough, it reminded me alot of Chicago once you get outside of downtown, but before you reach the suburbs.  Tons of commercial areas with shops and food places, but lots of apartments and people roaming the streets.  I think that is why I enjoyed it so much.

If you look at my Facebook (which you probably did to get to this blog) then you can check out the pictures that I took when we were there.  We hit up a bunch of museums and churches as well as the most incredible bakery everrrrrr.  I have to find a place equivalent to that in the US to gain the weight back that I lost here.  To die for.  I could go into detail on every thing that we did, except nobody wants to read that and I don't want to write it.  So all parties win this way.

I'm glad that I got a chance to go spend a weekend up there because it was cool to see a more "Greek" city, since Athens is so heavily international.  But I'm equally glad that I decided to study in Athens for the semester instead of Thessaloniki.  I'm just not sure I would be able to find enough stuff to do there for an entire semester, as evidenced by Sean and I spending about a collective 5 hours having coffee and just chilling by the water on Saturday.  But if you ever have the chance to go to Thessaloniki when you are in Greece (if I suppose would be the better choice there) I strongly suggest it.  A beautiful city with lots of culture and personality.

This weekend I am off to Florence to meet up with the one, the only, Chris Mario.  Expect lots of pictures and lots of stories (some probably NSFW, hopefully).  Missing the US and loving life abroad simultaneously.  Good times, good times.