Greece - Day 1 (Thessaloniki)

Day 1 involved a lot of walking and a lot of eating. 

The view outside our hotel window. You can't see it very well, but there is a big castle on the hill in the background.

Our first official day in Greece was in Thessaloniki; the 2nd largest city in Greece. This was where Jason's meetings were going to be. We had a full day with Jason all to ourselves so we wore out our feet by traipsing all over that little city to see as much as we could. 

We began our day with breakfast at our hotel which consisted of our first boughasta (a sweet pastry made with phyllo), our first Pantespani (a sponge cake soaked in syrup) and a very large helping of fresh tomatoes, olives and feta. Not the most well-rounded breakfast but oh-so-tasty! 

Then we hit the ground running. First stop after our big breakfast - a bakery :)

Not just any bakery though, we were told that this was the bakery to go to and that we would smell it before we saw it and boy, did we ever! We got a few assorted sweet treats along with a Tsoureki loaf (a greek easter bread flavored with Mahlab; ground wild cherry pits). Atticus loved the tsoureki and is still asking for more tsoureki! 

(And, on a related note, is there anyone who can enlighten us as to what the sweet below is called? It had a glazed, doughy outside and was filled with cinnamon, sugar and walnuts. It was very delicious. Thanks!)

Of course, on our way to the bakery we continuously pinched ourselves at how awesome it was to be in Greece. We adored not being able to read any of the signs and took pictures of random store fronts merely because it was all in Greek. We have no idea what any of the signs actually said so we started trying to find similarities and provide our own translations (all of which were most likely terribly wrong :).

And after the bakery we took our sweets on the road to soak up the sights of the city and a little history. 

We wandered down to the sea and marveled at the large ships out on the water while we caught glimpses of The White Tower (which we stopped at later).

Then back up through the streets to walk through central market where we made sure to stock up on some oranges, bananas and strawberries (to counterbalance all our pastries :). 

The central market led us into a maze of outdoor shops and what felt like a completely different world. It was cramped, smelly and loud as we made our way through corridor after corridor of skinned animals which dangled from the roof with the internal organs ripe for the picking. Anyone for kidney? Jason sure enjoyed the look on Laura's face when a man tried to sell the girls a large, googly-eyed fish, by attempting to place it in Laura's hand. Honestly, it was a bit gruesome in the meat market section, but it was quite the experience to get lost in all those corridors!

I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of all the dead animals (besides, who would really want to see that?) so here is a picture of a very tame fish stall.

And after the market it was on to a few historical ruins...

The Roman Forum...

The Yahudi Hamam (double turkish baths)...

This was all on our way to arrive at the Aghios Demetrios Church (the patron Saint of Thessaloniki). This Church has been through a lot. The original site was built in 321 AD, then a larger Basilica a century later but it burned down so they built a larger one. That larger Basilica was turned into a mosque during the Turkish rule (1491) only to become a Christian Church once more in 1912 (liberation of Thessaloniki!). Sadly, the building was then burned down again in 1917. The existing building has now been functioning since 1948.

And there were plenty of other churches that we stopped to marvel at. Many of the church interiors had their frescos taken down and white washed during the Turkish Rule as they were turned into mosques. 

After tracking down some lunch we made our way back down to the sea side to visit the White Tower. It is easily one of the most recognizable buildings of Thessaloniki and has quite the history. Built in the 5th Century AD it was originally called the Tower of Lions, then it was dubbed the Blood Tower during the Ottoman rule because of the blood of the convicts that were tortured there. And finally it received the name of the White Tower in 1890 when it was white washed by a convict in exchange for his freedom. Now it houses a museum. 

While we were down at the seaside we also tried to go take a look at the statue of Alexander the Great, however, there was construction and we could only get so close...

So we picked out a restaurant on the water to eat dinner at later and headed to the other side of the historical downtown to visit the Arch of Galerius (built in honor of Galerius' triumphant return from defeating the Persians; quite the honor!) and the Rotunda.

At this point our feet were aching and we figured that we all deserved a break so we went back to the hotel where the kids actually took a nap - a very late nap but it gave us a chance to rest before heading out to a late dinner.

We went to a place called Mangio on the water and chose it because it had Mousaka - though most restaurants have it so it was really poor reasoning... It was a great pick though.

The kids loved the restaurant and the waiter, who made sure to recommend all some delicious food from the menu. 

We enjoyed our first Greek Salad actually in Greece, Roasted Beet Root Salad, Piperies me Feta, Tzatziki, Keftedes (Greek Meatballs) and an absolutely delicious piece of Mousaka. Oh, how delicious authentic Greek food is! We indulged and enjoyed every single last bite. Atticus asked to order Spaghetti, which we ordered for him, then he politely declined it when he saw the other food and proceeded to ask for every single olive he could find. And Milayla serenaded us through a good portion of the dinner. 

Seeing that it was Valentine's Day our waiter, Constantino, surprised us with dessert and Ouzo (which we politely declined; the Ouzo, not the dessert :). 

It was a good thing we needed to walk back to our hotel as we were stuffed. A very good day rounded off with a delicious meal!