Today we did a self-guided walking tour around Thessaloniki to see some of the ancient sights left around the modern city, which involved getting out of the city center for a bit and seeing the old town and the Byzantine walls. We also did done see a lot of kitties (including giving out some pets!) and graffiti. Thessaloniki has some impressive street art, outside of usual crummy graffiti scribbles.
Our first stop after a slow morning was the Agia Sofia, an old orthodox church which has lots of art on display. It’s Byzantine so it’s down a few feet from the city proper. All of these old churches are dark, punctuated by dusty beams of light from stained glass windows, and have lots of frescoes, icons, and gold on most available surfaces. They look fairly utilitarian on the outside, which is an interesting contrast with the elaborate interiors.
From there, we walked over to the Roman Agora, which is a ruin of old foundations of houses and bakeries and columns which were excavated from the city, too. While we were here, fighter planes buzzed overhead, low and loud enough to set off car alarms with their engines. Our best guess is that it’s either some kind of training run (with loaded planes?), or Turkey is being a bad neighbor. Locals weren’t phased and the news wasn’t blowing up (nor were actual bombs) so we figured we’d do best to ignore them and google it later. Maybe they were here to refill on grappa moscato as it is actual jet fuel.
Anyway, the agora!
Time to put our buns and thighs to work: to the city’s byzantine walls! As soon as we drove past them on our way in, I knew it was our destiny to walk up them. We worked our way up and out of the bustling city center and into the winding old streets of Ano Poli. These streets are labyrinthine and up, eternally up. This area is quiet, without the sound of rushing traffic and people, and feels much more like a neighborhood over the metropolitan rush and noise of the main drag. It was a nice change of pace, and a welcome different side of the city to see.
We stopped at a monastery at the top (supposedly one where Paul stopped in 51 A.D. if you’re into that) and rested while admiring the views. The monastery kept chickens and peacocks and had a wealth of hidden frescoes inside of incensed and unassuming buildings.
The walls were not too far from the monastery. They were apparently the site of a migrant camp in 2007 and now they stretch out along the hilltops for a ways. There are tidy arches cut through them to allow cars to pass now. They are relatively graffiti-free, amazingly enough!
Once we had walked along the walls far enough, we headed back to the main plaza, down side streets and staircases between buildings. It must have been siesta time, as we didn’t pass too many people, but we did successfully use our greek on a grandpa walking with his granddaughter. Would this be Greeking Out? Yes. Yes it would be.
Our lunch today took us to a neighborhood gem which served amazing Greek food. I got meatballs and met the love of my life, fried and spiced cheese.
We rounded out our evening with a walk along the waterfront, a quick stop at the old harbor, and drinks and gyros in the main plaza. We could see what we thought was Mt Olympus against the setting sun – there was a sign nearby about being able to see it and it was in the right general direction. Great success.
