Thessaloniki, Greece (Part II)

I finally arrived in Thessaloniki in the early afternoon and walked to my hotel (which was only a kilometer away). The hotel I booked was the “Golden Tulip Electra Palace Hotel.” Believe it or not, this is actually a 5-star hotel right in Aristotelous Square – a main square right on the water. Now I know what you are all thinking right now – “Hey, isn’t that also the name of a strip club?” The answer is probably yes. If someone asked me what the “Golden Tulip Electra Palace” was, strip club would be my top guess and 5-star hotel would probably be near the bottom.

Regardless, the hotel was very nice. We had 2 single beds in a non-smoking room. The room was very quiet, mainly because it overlooked a dumpy roof and the some ugly backs of buildings. The hotel had a very nice indoor pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. Too bad they were only open during the day and not on holidays (i.e. Monday, which was also a holiday in Greece). Still, I managed to sneak a couple hours in the Jacuzzi on Sunday. The 5-star service also offered fresh fruit in the common section of each floor – but apparently only on Saturday since that was the only day we saw fruit.

Upon returning to the hotel room on Sunday night I was going crazy looking for the controller (because I obviously can’t be expected to change the channel manually). After I ruled out theft, spontaneous combustion, and the controller coming to life and walking away, I finally found the controller underneath the sheets of the made-up bed. Yes, yes, never mind that black thing – they left it on the bed so they must want us to make the bed over it.

On one of my down times in the hotel I flicked on the TV to see what was on. The first thing we saw was a horrible Hallmark-style movie with Ben Affleck and a wedding in a hurricane, but I couldn’t follow it, it was so bad. The real interesting part was the number of commercials. The first commercial break lasted FORVER. Now, people always complain about commercials, but this was ridiculous. On the next commercial break I counted 25 commercials. I used the bathroom, took a shower and changed – all before the commercial break ended. I also watched the movie “Aspen Extreme” but that is a blog in and of itself.

One thing I noticed right off the bat in Thessaloniki was the large number of scooters and motorcycles. It seemed like almost everyone had one. I guess it makes sense. The climate there is probably relatively mild for most of the year which would lead itself well to scooter travel. Plus, like most major cities, it looked like parking was a b*tch. Not so with a scooter. It looked like they pretty much parked those things anywhere they wanted to.

After I dropped my stuff off at the hotel I went looking for a place to eat. I went down a side street with several restaurants on either side. As soon as I got on the street I was hustled by a guy trying to get me to eat in his restaurant. His deal was free drinks if I ate with him so I took a seat. The food wasn’t that great, but there drinks were indeed free! While eating I was able to view the “hustle show” going on outside the restaurant. Each of the 4 or so restaurants had a “hustler” who would try to get patrons into their restaurant. Everyone who walked down that street was accosted by several of these guys. They weren’t mean at all – in fact, most people they hustled were laughing at them as they tried to out-hustle their competitor (they were a pretty good show, I must say). I think our restaurant’s hustler was the best as he was able to bring in several groups of attractive women.

Thessaloniki’s lower class, from what I could tell, was African immigrants. Sofia has essentially no black people so it was a shock to see so many of them in Greece. They would walk around through restaurants trying to sell CD’s, posters, and plastic giraffes. I have no idea why a resident or tourist in Thessaloniki would want to buy a plastic giraffe, but you could buy one. Saturday was sort of a wash for museum touring since they all closed at 3pm, but I was able to get out and see some on Sunday.

My first stop was the White Tower. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Tower_of_Thessaloniki) The White Tower was part of the original wall around the city and stands on the waterfront. I’ll let you click on the link to read more about it. I was able to go to the top where there was a decent view of the sea and the rest of Thessaloniki. There was hardly anyone out as it was drizzling which was nice since I didn’t have to deal with any lines/crowds. I also ran into a couple Peace Corps members from Macedonia there.

The next stop was the Archeological Museum which was highly rated by the travel guide. I asked to buy tickets and they informed me that only 1 of the 11 rooms was open. I responded, “Just today?” The museum employee responded with, “Just for the last 3 years.” Hmmm, somebody down there must have gone to the Bulgarian school of museum administration. I ended up buying a package ticket which also got me into the Byzantine Museum around the corner … where I hoped more rooms were open.

The Museum of Byzantine Culture (http://www.mbp.gr/html/en/index.htm), which wasn’t even in the guidebook (despite winning European museum of the year in 2005), was fabulous. The displays were very well done. The museum was set up chronologically and by subject matter as patrons went from room to room. I was very impressed with the diplays and the setup.

After the museum I wandered around town to look at some of the many old churches. Despite being Sunday, most of the churches were closed. Perhaps they were 7th Day Adventist Greek Orthodox Churches. There was one church open, but it was under heavy construction with the entire inside covered with scaffolding. On Monday more churches were open so we were able to see the “Largest Church in Greece.” It was big, but much smaller than I would expect from the “largest church in Greece.” It was probably about the same size (only with a lower ceiling) as the Alexander Nevski Cathedral in Sofia.

Thessaloniki used to be completely surrounded by a city wall. Near the waterfront the wall has been torn down, but much of it still exists around the rest of the city. We were able to walk around part of the wall Sunday afternoon. Since Thessaloniki is built on a hill, the back section of the wall is high on a hill overlooking the rest of the city and waterfront. The hike up offered some spectacular views. The wall is in varying states of disrepair around the city. In some places, people use it as a wall to their house. In other places the wall IS their house – with a little door and mailbox on the outside. My trip around the wall took me through some very interesting and rundown houses. In some sections, one side of the street would have very nice looking houses (likely because they had views of the city/water) while the other side the houses were essentially ruins. Some Roma (gypsy) families had taken over a few of them.

On Monday I was witness to a parade of Greek communists holding Soviet hammer-and-sickle flags. Ummm, hello – did these people see what happened to communism? Do they know what it did to the economies of those countries? Down the crapper is the answer to both those questions. The only reason those countries are doing well now is because they fully embraced a market economy. However, I opted not to voice my objections to the parade participants.

Share on Facebook