Today, I continue the story of our Summer 2008 trip to Greece. To see all of our pictures, click here. For most of the pictures, Nik has mapped them so you can see exactly where in Greece they were taken. If you missed them, here is the whole list!
Part 9 (of 12)
For most of our time in northern Greece, we stayed with Nik’s mom’s side of the family. However, Nik’s dad does have a brother who lives in Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki is the 2nd largest city in Greece (only Athens is bigger) and it’s only about an hour’s drive from Kallikratia. Nik’s uncle and aunt also have a little vacation house very close to Kallikratia. So one day, we spent the afternoon with them and Nik’s two cousins, snorkeling at a nearby beach and then eating dinner with them. After we got home from our road trip to Kavalo, Phillipi, Thassos, and Xanthi, the next day, we went to Thessaloniki to get the big city tour. Nik’s cousins, Io (pronounced long e, long o “ee-OH”) and Vasili were our very fun tour guides.
Thessaloniki is famous for its churches so that’s mostly what we have pictures of from there!
This is the the church of St. Demetrios.
Nik’s cousins Io and Vasili with me in front of another church:
Inside that same church:
Nik’s cousins took us out for drinks at a cool place by the water in Kalamaria (a neighborhood in Thessaloniki near his cousins’ house). The restaurant was a in what looked like a restored mansion.
Nik with Vasili and his uncle Kosta (Nik’s dad’s youngest brother)
Nik’s aunt Dora (pronounced with a hard “d”, unlike his cousin’s name) was so hospitable to us that day. She served us two wonderful meals, made sure we had a place to take a nap, and was generally just wonderful to us! That day was also a nice break for me because their whole family speaks English really well. So they all kindly spoke in English the whole time. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed being able to participate in the dinnertime conversation until I could again.Thessaloniki was a really cool city. The population is about a million people so it was very crowded and full of energy. Io and Vasili were great tour guides. That day, among the church tours, we went to not one, but two, coffeehouses. That’s evidently what young hip Thessalonikians do – hang out at coffeehouses. So we got a taste of authentic college life as well as a little sight seeing. A fun day!
To be continued…
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