Tourist anyone?

There are hardly ANY tourist shops in Thessaloniki. Thought it should be over spilling with tourist traps as all the Brits seems to flock to Greece in the summer for their holidays. Apparently not in Thessaloniki. They usually go to the islands or to the resort towns east of Thessaloniki. There are not many tourists here. Apparently holidays in Greece outside Athens is not for soaking up the culture and all that, but just an excuse to soak up the sun and cheap alcohol. The only 2 shops that can vaguely pass off as touristy are found right in the middle of the city just below the base of the white tower.

The Bay of Thessaloniki

We walked along the seafront, just thinking about what can we do if a tsunami hit us. It did occur to me that the whole sea front was a little too close and low to the sea. A little like the old Changi beach/jetty bit (not the bapok bit! The bit to go fishing and aeroplane watching) before they built the SAF ferry terminal there. It just looks so tranquil then, but its less than 1 meter high away from the sea level!!!! Anyway, this picture was taken from the western bit of the bay right beside the port, looking at the sotong satellite town. Its called Kalamari or Calamari… Not too sure of the spelling but I distinctly remembered it as squid town. It was actually a separate self-sufficient town back in the Byzantium empire but the suburban sprawl from Thessalonki together with the huge influx of Turkish immigrants sort of “fused” it together with Thessaloniki forming a metropolis. I think that’s the gist of it.

As the night goes on.....

And as you walk along the coastline and head towards the middle of the bay, you get to the white tower, the symbol of Thessaloniki. Try to think of the bay as something like a huge boomerang, with this tower in the middle where the angle of the two edges meets. < Can’t quite remember what was the time by the time we got to this. All that I can remember is that the other 2 guys already spent some time in a café and had something to drink. I think I had coke as they ran out of fresh fruit juice and I was really hungry.

Looking at the tower, although its not exactly very huge, one can imagine how it must have seemed like a huge beacon home to the fishermen and sailors out at sea when it was first built and had a fire lit on the top back in the days of the Byzantium empire.. Maybe it was inspired by the great lighthouse at Alexandria. I’m not really sure about the history of it. Have to wait till evo comes back from his honeymoon.




The good thing about this city as mentioned before is that it NEVER seems to sleep.

Being hungry at 3 am in UK means that you are pretty stuffed. You either need to cook your own food if you want anything hot, or you need to live of canned baked beans or biscuits.

Being hungry here at 3 am means that you wander about for about 50 to 75 meters and there will be a food shop open. Be it a traditional kebab shop, or a fast food chain or even a Greek sandwich shop (some double frankfurter/hot dog in a white roll squashed in a panini press together with a tub of chocolate milk seems to be the local fav)

Managed to buy the above thingies from a shop very near the white tower. A bit like the Turkish kebabs dotted all over London, but the meet is chunkier and they put fresh tomatoes and the French fries in them. The bread is also not like a flat nan bread, but a soft fluffy and chewey sweet bread. Its simply heavenly, and the cost? €3.70 for both. Would have cost me much more than that just to get ONE of them even in whitechapel.

Welcome to Thessaloniki

The big bright clipper standing out in absolute darkness.




I think its a clipper. Looks rather like it, but then again, I wasn’t sure as I can’t read Greek. Okay, shall stop being cheesy about Greek stuff. Starting to feel like the stuffing in a Pizza Hut stuffed crust.

We landed late in the middle of the night at about eleven at night. The plane was supposed to land at half ten but as usual, it took off late from London. Have to tell the story about the plane though. It’s a normal 737-400, so there was nothing much strange about it, but it had really generous leg room to compensate for an absolute lack of shoulder room. Took off late, flight was uneventful landing was normal until we were taxiing from the runway towards the airport. The plane has landed, and they gave us the “do not take off your seatbelt until the sigh goes off” warning. My travel companion did not that that too seriously and tried to unbuckle his belt, and then suddenly, at a speed still WAYYYY too fast for normal taxiing, the plane just decided to turn left quickly, then shortly after that, right. It was like riding in a roller coaster. The whole plane tilted anti-clockwise and then clockwise. I was almost worried that it may tip over (but of course, the wheels dint even leave the ground). He decided that it was much safer to leave the buckle on. First there was that scary Germany take off and now there is this super tarmac speeding 737. Maybe its an omen to stop flying so much.

Anyways, there was no problem with the luggage at all. By the time we got to the luggage belt, the luggage was already there going around and around in circles. I really wonder hoe they did it. Don’t think they even attempted to check the incoming luggage. They must have just tossed it right out of the plane and onto a skip that dumped it back straight onto the luggage belt. I actually think its faster than Singapore’s Changi Airport.




To be really fair, the clipper is not all that far out in the water, unlike the strange giant Christmas tree floating and glowing in the middle of the city lake in Hamburg. Its actually part of the Christmas decorations in a square near the seafront.

Back to the story, little furry Greek friend was there at the airport to pick us up as promised. We got a ride on his BRAND NEW, just out of showroom (with a printed slip of paper stuck onto the windscreen as temporary number plate) SUV. Little powerful monster that little thingie… Got driven in a maniacal style to his apartment, placed our stuff down and we both gave him the respective wedding presents, before we came out again. (yes, apparently the night life there actually starts at half twelve.) All the coffee houses, pubs and cafes were all still open, not to mention all the food shops. It seems that nothing seems to close at night in this city. What a refreshing change from London when everything other than the clubs closes down straight at 6pm in winter time.




One of the roads we drove along in the city (Thessaloniki). It seems to alive and bright and vibrant! Does not look like 1 am in the morning at all. Don’t you agree? Even Oxford street isn’t as well lit as this in the middle of the Christmas shopping rush at night. 10 million in London cant even match up to the “happenings” of this city of one million. Tsk tsk London.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

MY. Because I was there, and it’s the first Greek wedding that I have ever been to. There were a lot of stories told to me by a lot of friends and other colleagues about how Greek weddings go, such as the plate smashing, the gun shooting and the money dance and such. Oh well, none of that happened, though there was quite a bit of glass smashing, or should I say that a lot of glasses were smashed accidentally when everyone got a little too drunk in the pre wedding party. I managed to join in the fray too, breaking one. Muhahaha.

BIG. Don’t think that big is the correct word for the size of the wedding. I think it was humongous. It took one of the biggest venues in the whole city; packed to the brim, sardine style to attempt to fit the guests for the wedding dinner. Oh, did I mention that the main church of the city was also stuffed to explosion?

Fat. I was just getting fatter and fatter with the amount of food that my hosts were stuffing into me. Try this, it a local speciality, try that, its good, deep-fried cheese, mountain goat roast and all that included. I was weighing myself on their electronic scale and I could see my weight creeping up day by day. Sometimes 300g, sometimes 500g. (Scale accurate to 100g) I peaked at 99.8 kg on the day of the wedding. Dint dare to weigh myself after the wedding dinner.

Greek. It was in Greece, so what else can it be?

Wedding. Why else would anyone sponsor my trip to Greece and why else would I go to the northern Greek mountains in winter where the snowfalls can reach 1-meter overnight.

German Christmas Market

Pict taken from a store in the Hamburg main Christmas Market. Still trying to download the rest from the camera using an ancient USB 1.1. Going to Greece day after tomorrow for a wedding!