Greece: Thessaloniki and the Surrounding Area

At two in the morning we got up and headed to the airport. By eight in the morning, we had landed in Thessaloniki and were scheduled for an entire day of touring. Now, before anyone messages me saying that I've misspelt Thessaloniki, let me assure you, I have not. Thessaloniki is the proper Greek rendition of the name. Thessalonica is the Latinized version of the name, which was replaced when the Greeks were liberated from the Ottomans.

Even though we landed in Thessaloniki, we didn't stick around. We headed east to the farther edges of Greece. At this point in are journey, we were in Mainland Greece. If you know much about the geography of Greece, then you know that it shaped a bit like Florida (a very generous comparison), except the pan-handle stretches east not west. The pan-handle is connected to a peninsula, which curves east to form a giant bay. On the west side of the peninsula, there is another smaller peninsula connected by a small, mile wide strip of land called the Isthmus. This peninsula is called the Peloponnese. So, at this point, we were situated in such a way that we could basically drive the entire length of Greece, from east to west across the mainland, down the Peninsula, over the Isthmus and around the Peloponnese, which is exactly what we did. In doing so, we followed the route Paul would have taken as his own ship took him to the city of Neapolis (modern day Kavala). You can see Kavala and Thessaloniki in the map below.

Mainland Greece is a bit more lush then the Peninsula and feels more tropical, something that became increasingly more obvious as a misty rain came to settle over the green hills. Our first stop after leaving Thessaloniki was the Lion of Amphipolis. A gigantic tomb sculpture that now sits unceremoniously by the side of the highway. It is so strange to me how there can be 2,000+ year old monuments on the side of the road in Europe and no one even seems to bat an eye. This was a fun site because it is something my professor had talked about in his classes before. It was another one of those things I never really though I would see in real life.

Through our travels, a friend and I discovered that Fanta is a lot better in Europe, and made it our goal to try the Fanta in every country we visited because each country had a slightly different recipe. For example, Italy makes their Fanta from their own fresh oranges. And Greece has Fanta in about every flavor imaginable. Of course, I had to try all of them. Honestly, one of the funnest parts about Greece is the fact that, because of its terrain and economy, it doesn't have train stations like the rest of Europe. So tourists travel by bus. Gas stations were a cultural experience. There were always fast food joints and bakeries inside, arcades, pet peacocks in one situation, small convenience stores, and lines of tourists and pilgrims chatting in dozens of different languages. I got culture shock a couple times walking into these gas stations and hearing so many people speaking American English, something I had become unaccustomed to.

Here is a picture of me in a gas station browsing books
and laughing at the Greek titles. I'm holding Moby Dick in this one,
or, in Greek "Mompi Ntik"

My favorite was Huckleberry Finn. Instead of transliterating his name, they
chose to use their word for Huckleberry. So, his name is "Xaklmperi Phin."

After seeing the lion, we went to Stagira, the birthplace of Aristotle, student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great, and father of modern rhetoric. As a writing tutor, I still teach students his rhetorical methods, which tells you how much influence Aristotle has had on western thought up to the modern era. This was a beautiful city, sitting on a hill which overlooked the sea. The mellow green forests were in perfect contrast to the sharp azure water, something my pictures could not capture.

Finally, we headed to our hotel for the night, thoroughly exhausted. After all, we had been up since two in the morning, and traveling by plane and bus most of the day.

Here were some ducklings I saw at the stream by the restaurant
we ate at. SO CUTE.

The next day, it finally felt like we were getting to the good stuff, which is saying a lot since everything had been amazing already. But on this particular day, we were headed to Philippi. I probably don't have to say much about Philippi because I'm sure you remember it quite well. If not, a little refresher: It was in Philippi that Lydia the seller of Purple was converted. It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas healed a demon possessed girl being used to do soothsaying. It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas were flogged, thrown in prison, and then released in a miraculous earthquake. Lastly, it was to the believers in Philippi that Paul penned his famous letter "Philippians" which contains some of the most precious promises in the Bible such as "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I know for me, Philippi was kind of the moment the reality of where I was really started to hit me. And to be quite honest, the realization hit me even before I walked the streets Paul, Silas, and Luke would have walked so many years earlier. The realization actually hit me when my professor pointed out the window as we were driving and said, "Look, thats the hill that Cassius and Brutus committed suicide on after losing to Mark Antony." and all I could think was, "are you serious right now? We are driving past a spot which literally changed the course of history forever." A sentiment I stuttered out quite ineloquently due to my excitement. My professor just laughed and gave me an all knowing smile. Its silly moments like these where I lose my composure, but sometimes I can tell by the way my professor smiles that he knows exactly how it feels to finally be standing in the shadow of your dreams and see all the stories and all the history you've read about come crashing down on your head, turning ideas into reality and thoughts into memories.

Here is that hill, in all its glory.

Before going into the city of Philippi, we detoured to a shaded little river nestled under the mountaintop. This is the river that Lydia would have been baptized in, and there was a beautiful Orthodox Baptistry nestled among the walnut trees. Also side note, but sometimes reading novels gives you the most random bits of information, and for some reason I always hold on to these random facts. So one of the funny things that happened here was that I peeled into a raw walnut to see if It would die my skin brown. I had read books where they used walnut oil to disguise themselves. My fingers were yellow for a week. Deserved, I guess.

This was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places we visited during our trip, and the baptistry was full of exquisite mosaics depicting the story of Paul and Lydia.

And look at this cutie!!!

Spring was such a good time to visit Greece, the poppies were in full bloom and the ruins of ancient Philippi were covered in them.

Surprises, surprise, I ran to the top of the theater. Genuinely
thought this theater would kill me though. Look at those stairs.

The traditional prison cell of Paul and Silas.

standing in the Agora where Paul and Silas were flogged.

The Agora

What an honor, to be able to stand freely in that place worshipping my God because of the things the early apostles suffered there.

After we were finished in Philippi, we headed towards Kavala to spend the afternoon by the water exploring the city. On our way there, we saw Via Egnatia winding towards the city bellow us. The modern highway follows the same route as the Roman road. We pulled over to look and we were told we only had two minutes. Us students were bummed that we couldn't go down to the road. Well, two seconds later, we saw our professor making his way down and we collectively agreed that if he could go, we could go to. So, our tour guide found hrself yelling at all six of us as we jogged down to the road.

This is such a chaotic picture and I love it.

But guys seriously, do you realize how important this road is?
And I was walking on it!!

The rebellious crew

In Kavala we got ice cream and puttered around a bunch, It was nice to end the day in a more chill manner after how tiring the day before had been.

I'm not sure what these turtles were doing in the fountain.

An aqueduct built by Suleiman the Magnificent. You guys
are so lucky, because I'm going to spare you from a deep dive into
another one of my special interests: the Ottoman Empire.

The next day, we headed back to Thessaloniki. We toured the city for a little bit, but to be completely honest, it wasn't my favorite place to visit. The modern city is built overtop all of the ruins, so there isn't much archaeology, and I have to be honest, mideaval history (except for the Ottomans) does not interest me that much so I was pretty bored during this part of the tour. However, we were given free time in Thessaloniki and it was a lot of fun to explore the bay on our own. Us girls took a short cruise on a "pirate" ship.

Here we are with Jack Sparrow.

And I saw a bunch of Jellyfish.

I will say, that the view from Thessaloniki was really beautiful. Mount Olympus, the legendary home of the lies on the western edge of the bay and it is 9,000 feet tall. Which, for a mountain at sea level, is extraordinarily impressive.