Happy day in Thessaloniki

My entries are a bit higgledy piggledy.  I accidentally published one day from the trip, whereas I had meant to hold back for a bit after my return before putting them up. 

I got Thessaloniki a bit more today, having ummed and ahhed, and tried to second guess whether I was up to walking to the other bus station and then heading out to Pella, I suddenly itched to get up to an exhibition in Thessaloniki at the Contemporary Art Gallery.  About half an hour walk from my hotel, it seemed to be a small oasis of poshness in the midst of run down estates, which is ironic as the subject matter was all about smash the state etc and the short period when Soviet art, subsequently collected by the son of Greek man, who had settled in Russia,    celebrated revolutionary ideas.  George Costakis eventually returned to Greece when he realised that his interest in the Avant Garde put him at risk, he sold much of his collection to the wonderful Tratyakov Gallery in Moscow, but the rest are on show in Thessaloniki, alongside an exhibition of protest material from my youth, which I found quite moving.

There is always someone who speaks English and the staff told me which bus to catch back into town, where I spent more time at the port.  There are three museums here all of which would probably be nice, but I was drawn into a free exhibition about refugees in Thessaloniki. Back in St Paul's time, Thessaloniki was one of the most multiracial parts of Europe and then the Jews were wiped out and several other people pushed back to either Bulgaria or the Middle East or Turkey and so it became a largely Greek town, but not now.    Despite the poverty in Greece and I have seen plenty of evidence of it, from people sleeping rough, to people digging in bins, and the hardest of all the dogs roaming the streets, there is also a more hidden group of people trying to find a life here, refugees largely from Syria and Afghanistan are being housed and helped through projects like the one on show down at the port. 

It was lovely in the sun, and I was almost too late to get to the archaeological museum. Normally I should have been able to satisfy my desire to see something of the wonders of Vergina here, but that bit of the museum is currently closed and a longing to get to this now legendary site is nagging at me, but there is nowway that I seem to be able to get there.   Ironic dead at 33 Alexander the Great ruled over the whole of Macedonia and an area I guess the size of Iran and the rest of Greece, but me, at 63 cannot even find the tourist information service to work out how to get to the site of his dad's burial place! 

Heavy riot police presence and twinkling Christmas lights - it must be Athens again, but rather worryingly Thessaloniki also has had problems today and I am arriving late tomorrow, so not sure that Greece's second and apparently normally calmer city will feel as safe as expected.

Hostel playing down the issue, but rather than staying out I have come back in which is a shame as the Benaki Museum does not shut till midnight tonight and in truth in Plaka it is still just fun,but the sight of people with gas masks on has had a somewhat negative effect.

Delphi

Such a powerful energy here and the views are just spectacular.

part 2.

Day I I planned to check out the bus station and then head to the Acropolis.  I did the former, but only after being drenched in hot coffee whilst celebrating my luck at being in a charming coffee house in the flea district of Athens.   I am still jumpy three days later, but the burn mark on my shoulder has more or less gone but that the time of the incident I was scared that I would be permanently scarred.   I tried getting the cafe to note the accident in their record book, only to be asked why I was trying to get the waiter the sack!  So not the ideal start to the vacation,  I sort of wondered round Athens in a shocked state, even having lunch in the very nice cafe at the Acropolis museum with the coffee still in my hair! Heaven knows what they thought, but finding out more about the history of the Parthenon and especially the terrible deeds of the dastardly Lord Elgin,  I was very and truly distracted from the incident.

display about Lord Elgin's method of looting from the Parthenon. 

Day 2.   Based on information about the new cultural centre in Athens I had bought a ticket to a children's show, only problem it started at 11, could not find the free bus, the tram was not operating and because the timing clashed with the opening of parliament had to get there via an alternative route.  So knowing this I left in plenty of time, however, even once I had found the outside of the building and the park surrounding, how to get in. I decided the entrance was via the park and the security guard telling me to go on up reinforced that so I really did go on up - up through the grass roof, up and up till I finally found a door, but security said the event was private and the only way down to the entrance was via the glass elevator that I was too scared to ride alone.    Security was kind enough to come down with me!  I got there in time and loved the show, it was a mix of animation and opera and live action.    It was nice to do something completely different.   Then in the afternoon I got to go to the Acropolis for free!!!!! All the world seemed to be climbing over it, but I guess that is what it looked like when it was first built.   It is right at the top of the hill, and I wasn't sure I would make it up, but I did, and so on my return felt I had to treat myself to a meal sat in the lea of the rock and next to Agora where Socrates would debate things.!

snfcc near Piraeus. 

Day 3.  Nice quiet start having breakfast in the sun in the square, then reading in the sun, before heading up to the Archaeology Museum where there are beautiful artefacts that are around 3000 years old!

Day 4 Now in Delphi,  which is in some ways just a quiet town, yet walking by the Temple of Athena way up in the mountains it seems so much more than that.  There is definitely something powerful here. 

In the footsteps of the Gods, the philosophers and my teachers! part one.

Athens - the train coming in is packed, but I have a three day pass for the journey in and for travelling around the town.  Around me seem to be citizens of everywhere in the world.    But the minute I step out Syntagma Square I seem to have returned to my past as I realise I have seen the soldiers in their pom poms protecting the Parliament Building before.  I only really recall that I passed through Athens on the way back from Aegina, that my sister in law and I roared with laughter at the Son et Lumiere of the Acropolis and beyond that I did not realise I had seen much, but Syntagma Square seems familiar.   To the right is in theory the tram I need for Sunday, except that it does not seem to be operating, but in the afternoon sun, that seems less important than heading straight for a little green oasis, next to the parliament building.  It is a short walk through it to Plaka, my home for the next four nights.    Apart from a number of problems with doors, my hostel is better than expected,  and the location perfect. Plaka it turns out feels a bit like an island village with tons of small shops, enticing in the travellers.  In summer it is probably heaving, but in the twinkly dark, of late November is seems enchanting, and I find myself lured into a cafe for an impromptu supper of feta and aubergine.  Given that I have not found any local food shops it seems a good way to end a first day.

I have just accidentally wiped the bits about my first full day so time for bed instead.

Plaka

It has  been an odd time since the Brexit vote. Immediately after it I was plunged into bitter despair, my hope of escaping if I had to to somewhere cheaper and assuming I went south, warmer to live should my health make carrying on what impossible scuppered. And what of all my friends who live abroad or love travelling and what about the young people who had work opportunities on their doorsteps, etc, etc.  Once over the shock and listening to some Brexiteer friends I have had to try and understand some of their concerns and because the EU is so unwieldy it is hard to defend some aspects of it, so whilst always hopeful that somehow the ghastly situation would somehow be resolved I have just sort of hunkered down. I have not acted actively to change the situation, but in my own way I have been quietly mourning the situation.   I have done this by deliberately trying to see and understand the EU in a slightly new way.  I went for example to Luxembourg for a weekend, a place I had never thought of going to before, but which suddenly seemed more significant.  I wish I could have taken away some of the information on the EU found there as it looked very interesting,  and I stood outside the EU offices and just stood really.

Then I celebrated borders without borders, slipping across from Italy to France, without being stopped and again from Spain to Portugal, not a passport in sight.  For all we know it might be just as easy come April 2018, but again it might not be and so then I travelled from Cork to Dublin and on through to Northern Ireland and that really sharpened the senses - and concerns about how Brexit might play out.     Northern Ireland voted to stay in, as did Scotland, but Wales and of course England predominantly voted out, so this "loyal" ist area has to follow where England leads yet so many Northern Irish people also just seem to feel Irish as well and definitely want the peace to hold whatever their politics.

Virtually everywhere I have travelled a great European Empire was there before me, unifying Europe but one where all the power was in the hands of the Romans, Britons were enslaved/ colonised/ conquered and then they were gone.  Sounds strangely familiar and so I returned to Rome and now I am in the place that inspired the Romans, who the Romans, amongst others conquered, but was in many ways the birth place of Europe and European ideology - Greece.

Peace restored?

Plaka looked quiet and lovely again in the morning sun.  A visit to the Jewish Museum tucked away up the road, showed both light and dark, and an insight into two Jewish cultures that came together in Greece, one using the Greek language and one more which eventually dominated the incoming Sephardic Culture.    Under the Ottomans Judaism had more or less had equal status and some of the Patriachs tried to stand up to the Nazis when they overran the country.     But just as I was thinking peace had returned the shouts of dissent, from a small march.

In theory Thessaoniki was like a war zone according to one correspondent, but having walked around Thessaloniki today,  I suspect it always looks like a bit of a mess partly because quite a lot is run down, and quite a lot is being rebuilt and in some places there are anti establishment views expressed in the graffiti, so it is not the most beautiful of places in the first place,     One member of the riot police was seen, but just one, otherwise everyone seemed to be happy to be out and about and shopping despite the cold weather.    And most people seemed to be enjoying the town,  especially along the port area,  where people were packed into the cafes,  but having been to places where the port is so much more attractive e.g. Lisbon, Malaga, even Genoa,  I find Thessaloniki a bit plain really after Athens.   Frustratingly I could not find the information service as I was keen to see if I could book a trip outside of the town, and it turns out that even local buses to one of the places I wanted to visit (Pella) do not go from anywhere near to where I am staying despite there being a bus station at the train station.

However, on the plus side, I have a nice room, with central heating and I have found some places a bit like the Turkish restaurants in Wood Green that serve nice Greek stews to take home and as there is a kitchen here, that is what I have done, come in out of the cold and done some teaching.  Also done some further research, having planned to visit, Pella on Monday as most local museums are closed, guess what - yes Pella is closed too!   I just asked the member of staff at the hostel to recommend something, so she suggested a town on the railway, and it looked most promising, but apparently the train station is actually 6 km from the town!  so perhaps not. I feel I got very lucky with lots of things in Athens and had known Thessaloniki may not be so promising but to make it worse I now know that Vergina and Pella are amazing places to go to so if I had been more organised I would have tried to ensure that I was able to get to them and to make it worse the exhibition of material from the former site that should be on display at one of the local museums is also closed.       I shall just have to make the most of what is available.