//Day 39 /19-04-22 /Thessaloniki

No more rain today. A good start. Around 10.00 I started walking through Thessaloniki. 20 K later and somewhat tired I arrived back at my appartement. 

The weather had changed for the good : sunny, in the morning still cold but later in the day perfect city visiting weather. I had mapped a walk via the most important attractions of the city, mostly Roman and Byzantine archeological sites, churches, Ottoman buildings,…clearly a city with a long and turbulent  history (founded 315 BC). Besides the cultural attractions I should not forget the Aegean Sea as important attraction….It’s not a small city, nor flat, the further you go walk from the coastline the more climbing is required. The area closest to the coast has less or more a check board layout, bigger streets parallel to the coast lined with apartments. Further from the sea, the older part of the city, narrow streets and alleys intertwined with smaller houses.

A lot of commerces, shops, coffeehouses, bakeries,…..During lunchtime it became clear why there are so many coffeehouses and bakeries. After having walked and climbed the streets of Thessaloniki I was looking forward to a beer and something to eat : a salad, hamburger,….I could not find a place where beer, salad, hamburger seemed to be on the lunch menu. At the contrary the terraces, coffeeshop and bakeries where packed with people having all kinds of coffee  based drinks and pastries. It seemed as coffee was the  only drink on earth and drinking something else then coffee would be highly inappropriate. So I settled for a pastry as well, not with a coffee but a soft drink….

After my peer forced lunch I continued walking through the city, visiting the Agia Sofia and a busy commercial area. Not a lot of pedestrian area’s. The coastline, full with restaurants and bars have to tolerate a continuous stream of cars. Overall the car seems to be lord and master in Thessaloniki….Creating more non-car locations would upgrade the city significantly. Car-Pedestrian traffic is strictly regulated via traffic light managed zebra crossings. The intervals between red and green are strangely long. I did not record the time, but I always felt that tile really stood still when waiting for the lights to change status.

During the day I received a call from Timor, the owner of the apartment I was renting. Timor is also a journalist for a Greek news site called Etnos. He had found my TBBCA blog and asked if he could do an interview for his new site. At 17.00 we met at the bar beneath the apartment and talked about my TBBCA adventure. End of this week you can read the complete interview on the Etnos news site, Greek only….

In the morning I plotted the next days cycling to Athens, which will take me 5 to 6 days. Tomorrow I will ride to Leptokary, 133 K. I did not book any accomodantion for the next days hoping that the coast has plenty of options. We will see. I’m looking forward to do some camping, by the time I arrive in Athens it should be around 25 degrees…..I’m also looking forward to meet George in Athens, and old Pepsico colleague, maybe even have a steak tartare well done as dinner…..

Lessons learned :

• 1 day is not sufficient to discover Thessaloniki. I need to come again. 
• A lot of cats in Thessaloniki. Even in the busy streets.
• Still not used to have to wear a mouth mask again in shops, musea,…

Song of the day : Thessaloniki - Dimitris Mitropanos