Week 7: Greece Pt.1 (Thessaloniki, Athens)
Thessaloniki is small, but packs a lot of personality. It’s known for it’s lively nightlife and bar scene since it hosts one of the largest universities in Greece. Much of the city’s economy revolves around shipping, so the seaside horizon is punctuated by cargo ships at all hours.
I arrived via bus near 10pm and caught a cab to Little Big House, the southernmost hostel in the Balkan Backpacker network. I was greeted by a sweet staff member who showed me to my room. I joined a table of rowdy travelers in the lobby after setting my things down. They were getting ready for a night out. There was a woman, who had tied a week of volunteering for refugees into her holidays, accompanied by a group of men loudly telling jokes. I clearly had some catching up to do drink-wise, and we got to know each other over a few beers at local bars.
I spent the next day walking around Thessaloniki with Flo, one of the guys from the previous night. He was 19, from Germany, and taking a gap year before beginning university. Flo was both charismatic and personable, and we had engaging conversations about our philosophies towards life and traveling as we were sightseeing and exploring the local markets. I set about planning the middle-eastern leg of my trip in the lobby when we returned. To my surprise, the lobby doubled as a cafe for locals, and I introduced myself to a group of chemical engineering students working on a group project. I asked them if they had any nightlife recommendations that were less touristy, and they kindly invited me to join them later that evening.
We met beneath the ruins of an illuminated archway and walked to a lively restaurant. One of the students in my group took charge on ordering food for the whole table, introducing me to a variety of heavenly, Greek cuisine. A guy from the table behind us joined our group for the entire meal. He eased his way in with some simple magic tricks and proceeded to shamelessly flirt with the woman next to me, much to the annoyance of her friends to my right. Still, I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered he had also practiced a style of traditional Japanese karate in the past, and the highlight of our conversation was exchanging a few fighting terms, firing rusty synapses and seeing martial arts moves in a Greek setting.
Midway through the meal, another guy approached our table with a glass of wine for the woman to my right. He handed her the glass along with a compliment, before asking if he could add her on Facebook. She compromised with an Instagram follow. I felt like I was being exposed to so many facets of Greek culture at once: university life, relationship dynamics, culinary tastes, etc. I enjoyed sharing my thoughts on Trump with them, which is the million dollar question everyone is dying to ask any American they meet. We ended the night at a local bar specializing in Greek folk music. It was fun watching how locals reacted to each song as they came on, belting lyrics word for word.
My last day in Thessaloniki included more journaling and booking tickets for the next leg of my journey. I met some German travelers near the end of the day, and we played cards before going out for drinks. I had an early train to catch the next morning.
Finally. I’d been wanting to see some European countryside by train throughout my entire trip, but busing was far more cost-effective in the Balkans. Everything was picture perfect about the four hour ride: the landscapes, the dining car, and my own little seating booth. As I entered Athens, I was surprised by how sprawling the city is, its scale and grittiness was reminiscent of Los Angeles. I’d only be spending three days near the city center, but felt one had to live there to truly understand how the city functions.
I showed up at my hostel, Circus City, which had an interior befitting of a classy hotel and was connected to an equally posh restaurant that gave out free drinks to hostel guests during happy hour. I met two young Australians when I entered my room and a woman travelling from DC, Valerie, shortly afterwards. We all got dinner together before joining the other guests back at the hostel for free wine, drinking on the rooftop terrace with an illuminated Parthenon as our backdrop. Our group walked to a local pub once quiet hours kicked in and we spent the evening drinking and dancing and drinking and dancing with a bit of conversation littered throughout.
The next day, Valerie and I checked out the famed Acropolis, which sits atop a hill and encompasses the Parthenon. As I stood before the ruins, I felt like I had completed some type of pilgrimage. Seeing these structures felt like a mandatory bucket list item as a student of political science, even though their purpose was primarily religious. The view of the surrounding Athens was literally breathtaking. I couldn’t believe how far the city spread out in every direction. The site of all the densely scattered buildings played tricks on my eyes; a dizzying display of history, architecture, and urban life. On the way back to our hostel, Valerie and I stopped for some tea at a cafe decorated meticulously like a winter wonderland. We were seated by hosts in ornate, velvet gowns that matched the cafe’s interior.
I immediately passed out from exhaustion when I returned to the hostel, emerging from my slumber for happy hour. The group went out for drinks at a bar serving delicious chocolate tequila shots, which sounds like a bad mix but are dangerously the opposite. We progressed to the another bar down the street, where I engaged in activities that lead me to fall asleep later than expected.
I spent my last day wandering the city and checking out any sites I may have missed the previous day. I found a magical street with a row of cafes that ran alongside both sides of a descending staircase. I tucked in early for the night, writing and catching up with family over the phone. I’d be waking up at sunrise to catch a ferry to Santorini.
