Our time in Greece was spent in two stages. Our final stop in Bulgaria before heading to Istanbul was Sofia, which meant Thessaloniki in Greece was basically on the way, so we decided to drop by for a few nights before catching our overnight bus to Turkey.
Thessaloniki was an interesting city with loads of historical sites. During our two and a half days here, we saw churches galore, including Agios Dimitrios, Agia Sofia and the Rotunda. The Rotunda throughout history had been a palace, a church and a mosque at different stages, there was evidence of each of these eras with Roman ruins, marvelous mosaics and a minaret. We also visited the Vlatadon Monastery that marked the place where Paul preached to the Thessalonians. We had missed the opening hours for the Monastery but seeing as someone left one of the gates open we snuck in and had a quick look around.
The White Tower and fortress walls were interesting landmarks of the city's former defences, the museum inside the tower was not something we were really interested in but since it was included in our museum pass we thought we would check it out. It was a hot day outside and inside the tower was ten times worse, with 100 percent humidity thrown in for good measure. The tiny holes in the walls that barely passed as windows offered no respite as every inch was blocked up with tourists attempting to get some relief from the humidity. We didn't last too long in there but managed to get up to the roof for some decent views of the city.
We also went to the Olympic museum (which we visited on the first day of the games in Rio), the Archeological Museum and the Museum of Byzantine Culture, all of which had interesting exhibits. Then of course there were the Roman ruins like the Roman Forum and the Arch and Palace of Galerius. So much history of so many eras and all in one place! The cultural tour route offered by the public bus service for 2 euro was a great way to get around to all of these sights without walking in the heat for hours.
There was a handful of companies offering free sunset cruises as long as you purchased a drink from their onboard bar. Seemed like a good deal...... We picked one that apparently also had a "buy 1 beer get 1 free" offer, however, after buying our beers we were charged full price and given a voucher for a "buy 1 get 1 free" that we could only use the next night after buying another beer. Although it was still cheap for a sunset cruise with drinks we were a bit pissed off at what we thought was a fairly dishonest sales pitch.
We re-entered Greece by flying from Dalaman, Turkey to Athens. We had three days to spend here. We were excited to see all the historical sites so purchased the 30 Euro combined pass for the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Temple of Zeus, Hadrian's library, Kerimikos Acropolis site and Aristotle's Lyceum. While it seemed to be OK value for money, we soon realized that apart from the Acropolis you could see basically every site just as well from outside the fences and some of the places were really just 'fillers' to make it seem like more was included. The most disappointing part was discovering the Acropolis, which we thought would be the highlight of our Greece trip, was covered in scaffolding and surrounded by machinery for maintenance. This has happened a few times this year but as Rick Steves has informed us lots of these amazing sites around the world wouldn't still be standing if it wasn't for the enormous amount of work that goes into maintaining them.
In other sites, the changing of the guard at the Parliament building was comical and fun, the national gardens were free and restful and the view from Lykavitos Hill was amazing. The first stadium of the modern Olympic games was cool to see, this time we checked if we could see it through the fence without paying and what do you know...... just saved ourselves 10 euro!
We have hit the point where we can't face any more museums unless they are earth-shatteringly amazing so we gave those a miss and had lots of incredibly tasty coffees instead. Adrianou Street was an atmospheric place to eat and we had an amazing meat platter here. It came highly recommended by the waiter and we were told we would not finish it. Challenge accepted! The platter came out and I couldn't believe the mountain of food that has risen up before me, but after some time and a severe case of the meat sweats we ate our way through and proceeded to hate ourselves for the remainder of the evening..... A bit of a downer was all the homeless people and beggars - not sure if it's worse than it used to be because of the financial crisis, but was very sad to see. For tourists, prices are still reasonable here but not as cheap as Easten Europe and Turkey.
Have you ever arrived somewhere and thought, "Now this is where I belong"? In Nafplio, Greece's first capital, now a romantic little town, I definitely had that feeling. We stayed in the heart of the old town, where narrow pedestrian streets were filled with cafes and had balconies that draped flowers. We had a roof top apartment through Airbnb with great views over the town, fortresses and coast. Eating out was surprisingly affordable, but we also made the most of having our own kitchen and prepared some nice home cooked meals as well. We had planned to use this town as a base for exploring the peninsula and local ruins but loved it so much that we couldn't bring ourselves to leave. We instead spent our time strolling through the lanes, drinking delicious coffes, swimming in the beaches, exploring forts, cycling along coastal and country paths and relaxing at the apartment. No museums or churches! Divine.
Our next stop was Meteora, where 6 monastries have lasted the test of time and are perched upon pinnacles of rock. We arrived around dinner time and proceeded to heat up our leftover spaghetti bolognese that we had stored in snap lock bags, I have never felt more like a backpacker. The next morning we bussed to the furthest monastery then spent the day walking from one to another and then back downhill into Kalambaka. The monastries were an awesome sight from the outside, and should have been peaceful, spiritual oases from the inside, but the tourist busses and bustle of people did detract from the serenity. Still a unique experience though.
Our last stop in Greece was mostly just for ease of public transport but turned out to be a surprise gem. We had booked an Airbnb in the university city of Ioannina and our host, Leonadis, a retired butcher, went above and beyond in hosting us. He spent a couple of days showing us the sights: Pamvotida Lake, Its Kale Citadel, the castle, the Perama Cave with its multitude of impressive stalagmite and stalactites and shopping districts. We enjoyed a coffee with a view at Frontzous, souvlaki at his favorite place and a Greek history lesson at Vrellis wax museum as well as learning about Greek culture and the crisis from Leonadis himself. He and his lovely wife even had us over for a sumptuous lunch of traditional foods. We're now Facebook friends for life and hope we can return the hospitality in Adelaide one day.
From Ioannina we caught a short bus to Igoumenitsa, where we waited for our delayed but cheap overnight ferry to Brindisi, from where we'd start our workaway in Italy. We were curious as to why everybody was racing to get on the ferry because we all had booked seats. We discovered as we were making our way to our uncomfortable airline type seating that lots of other people had claimed the comfortable couches in the lounge areas. A good lesson for next time as Josh spent the night sleeping on the lino floor and I attempted my best contortionist impression on the 2 seats in my row.
So although we didn't have the time or budget to enjoy the islands that Greece is famous for, we still enjoyed the sun, history, food and fun that make Greece an unmissable destination.
