We arrive at our destination in Thessoloniki after catching
a ferry to Volos and then a regional and local bus to the main centre where our
AIRBNB hosts have a small apartment.
They are out of town for the first part of our stay so we have the place
to ourselves. Their friends let us in and
give us a run down of their beautiful apartment, conveniently located in the
heart of the city. We use Thessaloniki
as a base for a couple of weeks and plan to do a few side trips from here.
Thessaloniki is a vibrant city, with an active café culture,
creative street art, monasteries, icons, monks and candles and a population
that is still quite religious. There are
Roman ruins that hint of this cities past prominence situated at the cross
roads of two important Roman roads. The
new city that has evolved around it made us question what Emperor Galerius
would say if he saw this city today. Thessaloniki was also an important Biblical
city. Paul came here on his second
missionary journey and preached in the city’s synagogue for at least 3
weeks. The city sits on top of its
ancient ruins so many of these ancient sites may never see the light of
day. However, we were able to enjoy the
Roman Agora, the Galerius Palace and Arch, the Hagias Sophia church as well as
the Church of Demetrious.
The sunsets in Thessaloniki have taken our breadth away. The
fashion conscious women of this city can be found parading the promenade and
would easily rival their counterparts in Nice. The food is excellent and we feel this is
perhaps the choice of the younger, trendier population in Greece.
But there is a dark side.
Thessaloniki is one Europe’s most populated cities and one of its most
polluted. After spending 3 weeks in Skopelos,
a sleepy pedestrian village, our senses have been confronted by the impact that
unsustainable populations of humans can have on a place. Whatever your stand on climate change, when
you live in a place that is enveloped by smog, it is hard to dispute that man
has certainly left his mark on the environment…a mark that can only have an
adverse impact on our natural cycles. We both come down with sore throats and
personally feel the health effects that big cities have on its populations.
One of the fun things we did in Thessaloniki was to see 3
films in 3 days during the Thessaloniki Film Festival. The Film Festival is the oldest film festival
in the Balkans and the top festival in South Eastern Europe. The film festival gives a chance for lesser
known directors and independent films to get exposure. We enjoyed the festival although 2 of the 3
films we saw were quite sombre in what I understand was the general feel of the
entire festival.
The first film was called Voice of the Voiceless and highlighted the plight of deaf children
who are exploited in many big cities.
This particular film was set in New York and based on a true story. It told the story of a young teenage girl who
was taken from the security of her home in Guatemala with the assumption of her
family she was going to learn sign language.
Sadly she becomes nothing more than a slave, earning money on the trains
for her masters. It is a silent film,
giving you a sense of what it must mean to be deaf. The silent movie told through the eyes of the
deaf girl gives you a real insight into her world and her feelings.
The second film, Hide
Your Smiling Faces, is the story of two brothers dealing with the death of
their friend. The story is about their
unsupervised summer, which seems completely devoid of any fun or meaning. We felt that many cultures, especially Greece
where we saw this film would find it hard to connect with this movie. Both Steve and I reflected back on our own
teenage summer holidays, which were full of fun, friends and play. This movie was incredibly depressing and
despondent and perhaps only relevant in the US where it was set.
The third movie we saw was thankfully far more upbeat. Called Hank
and Asha, it was the story of two strangers who start up a friendship using
video messages. Asha is a conservative
Indian girl studying at film school in Prague.
Hank is a film producer who lives in New York. The story documents their friendship and
ultimately the hard choices that Asha has to make, given her conservative
background and parental expectations.
While we were in Thessaloniki, we were also able to
witness the Ohi Day celebrations. The
sounds of the fly past was deafening and the parade put on by the army in a
massive display of their military might a little unnerving! But it was a celebration of the fact that in
1936 the then Greek Prime stood up to the ultimatum issued by Mussolini with a
single word ‘Ohi” meaning No. Greece had a choice - allow the Axis forces to
enter or face war. Greece chose to go to war and thousands of Greek people took
to the streets chanting “Ohi”. The
celebration is a little ironic in that today, Greece is facing the choices put
before them by the forces who control the EU but has chosen to face austerity
measures rather than the harder choice of saying ‘Ohi'.
One day we took the bus to the old town of Thessaloniki. After exploring the ruins scattered around
the old town, we ended up at the Castle Cafe to watch the sunset over a drink. Unfortunately, the city is engulfed in a thick
layer of smog. The cafe owner seeing my camera says, "you are unlucky, you've
come on a bad day. The views from here
are usually amazing." As it turned
out, while the city was covered in smog, the clouds in the sky contributed to a
stunning sunset. I happily snapped away
and remembered that every cloud has a silver lining.
Thessaloniki is also an ideal place for street
photography. There is so much happening
both on the promenade and around Aristotelous Square. I loved to just sit on a bench in the square (a
few minutes
Toward the end of our stay, the smog cleared and we had a
day of beautiful blue skies and warm weather.
We took the opportunity to go out on one of the boats on the harbour. The boat rides are free but you are expected
to buy a drink. It is really relaxing to sit there and look
back at Thessaloniki from the water. We
really enjoyed the evening and had timed the outing perfectly as we caught
another brilliant sunset.
Our stay in Thessaloniki eventually came to an end. Over drinks at the rooftop bar of one of the
hotels on Aristotelous Square we said goodbye to one of our favourite cities in
Greece. We had got to know this city
quite intimately over the time we had been here. Our hosts eventually came back and we also
spent some time chatting to them about life in Greece and got a better
appreciation for what it meant to live here during an economic crisis. But now it is time to catch a flight to
Istanbul – our last destination in Europe.
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