This trip I’m bouncing around a bit – starting in Greece and then heading to northern and eastern Europe to see some new places before ending in Istanbul.
The Thai Airways flights I chose meant I had a day to kill in Istanbul so I booked a hotel near the Gayrettepe metro station (the end of the Airport line) to nap a little, then headed to Dogan Gok costumes to be measured up for a dance costume. I also popped into the Grand Bazaar to visit two other costumers – Gulseren Giyim who I had visited before unfortunately is currently unwell so wasn’t available to order from, and Ali Baba Bazaar had a few ready-made costumes but nobody seemed interested in taking a custom order.
Failed shopping meant I was in very good time to get back to the airport for my evening flight to Thessaloniki. I had a little trouble checking in due to the combination of an Aegean Air ticket for a Turkish Air flight, plus the fact that Thessaloniki is call Salonik in Turkish, but they found the ticket eventually and all went to plan from there on. I even had a spare seat next to me in the plane!
After my big day of wandering Istanbul after a night flight of not much sleep, I was pretty exhausted by the time I reached Thessaloniki and I was happy I’d booked a transfer service on arrival. The taxi whisked me to the apartment I’d booked and I was able to get in easily and head to sleep quickly.
I’d booked a couple of walking tours here – a food tour with an ex-chef Panos (Gastro Routes) on my first full day, and then a wine tasting walking tour on the second day with lots of Greek cheese to accompany it. Both of these were great and expanded my cheese knowledge, such as finding out that the aged smoked string cheese was apparently a great accompaniment for Islay whisky…
I also came down with a head cold – lucky me, but at least it only lasted a couple of days and I’d packed some cold’n’flu meds.
My last full day in Thessaloniki was Sunday – a very quiet day as the shops were all shut apart from cafes and bakeries by the looks of things (like Novus, a wholly GF bakery – delicious spinach pie!). I wandered down to see the White Tower and hopped onto one of the floating bar boats that take you on a quick circle of the harbour in exchange for buying a very overpriced drink. Works for me!
The next morning I hit the train station for the (on time, but only partially airconditioned) train to Athens. Apparently long distance train has a really bad reputation in Greece, mixed up with the terrible collision last year, trust in the government, privatisation etc. So everyone was surprised it was on time!
Two Weeks Away 