I have been enjoying visits to Greece these past few winters and so came back this year to spend more time and look around a few cities. For the past week I have been living in Thessaloniki, on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea.

There is an older post about visiting Thessaloniki here on this site and I invite you to visit it if you are interested.

The white tower. Symbol of the city.

This is Greece’s second largest city with around a million people, but the downtown is quite manageable. It is a pleasant downtown because of the proximity to the sea and I especially like the city having many open spaces, giving it a nice comfortable feel as you walk around.

My apartment was directly north from the white tower.

And it turned out to be very nice, in a real neighborhood near the university and so in a lively area with lots of young people enjoying the small cafes and bars in the area throughout the evening.

This coast was settled in far antiquity and this was a notable bronze age settlement from around 3000 BC. “Modern” Thessaloniki was founded by conquest by the Macedonians in 315BC and named after a half sister of Alexander the great. The Macedonian royal family tombs are in a nearby village.

Later this was a very important Roman town. And after that everyone around the Mediterranean and from the Balkans held it for a while. It is only around a hundred years since the Ottomans lost the city and so it still has a bit of an eastern flavor. Literally in some of the little dishes where the spices can surprise you.

Even after centuries of war, sackings, fires, etc. there are ruins from the ancient times all around the city.

The Archaeological  Museum here has an outstanding exhibit on the Macedonians from their earliest times through their peak from say 700BC until they were conquered by the Romans.  Two surprising things:  how advanced they were for their times and how much the Romans seemed to have adopted from them.

Another thing I really like about Thessaloniki is that you can walk directly out of the city center and out along the harbor  .. for as long as you want.

I found mid-November to be a little late for visiting here. All of the seaside resorts up the coast have closed for the season and I have not encountered many tourists in the city, which is good. But the weather is changing rapidly. It creeps up into the low 60’s during the day but it is “jacket required” chilly in the mornings and evening.
You can still eat outside because the restaurants put out those propane heaters under umbrellas.

You want to be outside because everyone smokes here, everywhere, and so the atmosphere inside those cozy restaurants and cafes can be unpleasant.

There are restaurants everywhere. Food is inexpensive. A great meal with wine for less than 25 dollars. If you can eat sandwiches and pizza and the like, you can eat for practically nothing.  But be warned, here are some photos of restaurants at 7PM. They will not be filling up before 9PM and will be open until after midnight. They eat so late here that I have started to have my one big meal of the day mid-afternoon.

If you get tired of walking along the sea you can climb up hill over the city. Some of the old city walls still stand.

But more interesting to me is the ruins of an old fortress. The stones tell of Greek, Roman, and Medieval construction.

Of course I cannot end this post without talking about food.

The food here is similar to Italian.  The coffee is the same.  Less pasta and pizza. More Giros and pita wraps.  More fried food. More salads.  Hardly any mozzarella but heaps of feta. Street food is everywhere and many many people buy and eat food directly on the street.

Even little markets downtown are beautifully stocked.

There are more than one central city open air markets. Always fascinating to me.

 

The Seafood is great.

 

And there are tempting baked goods everywhere, both savory and sweet.

And that is it for Thessaloniki this year. Thanks for coming along.

Tomorrow I go over to the west coast of Greece on the Ionian Sea to visit the island of Corfu.