Greece. Thessaloniki and return to Bulgaria. Day 66

Day 66: 

Alejandro!

Our day started at 11.30, with an interesting hangover crushing us. We all were fucked –in general-, but Adri was worse. Sergeant Téllez was an authentic zombie. We left the hotel and went to the streets looking for some repairing meal. Feta cheese again. Cheap & tasty. On Monday morning, the city is full of activity. People and cars everywhere. And 4 phantoms roaming. Of course, we wanted to do some sightseeing, so we took the car and went to the seafront. I parked in a forbidden place, but Adri (absolutely knocked) stood in the car while we were walking around there. 

The White Tower

Thessaloniki is the second Greek city after Athens, and has a long (more than 2.000 years) and complex history. Macedonians, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans… all them ruled the city along the time. The first big thing we saw was the White Tower (a prison during the Ottoman period), just beside the sea. We walked for almost an hour along the seafront, and took some photos around Alexander The Great and his statue. 

Josemi in Thessaloniki's seafront

Sgt. Téllez protecting the car with bravery

The day was really grey, and our heads absolutely black. Strange fruits in a nearby park captured our attention more than the historic remains of the city. Those fruits –fuck! What were they??- were really intriguing for 3 dummies like us. They were green and with strange smell and touch. We finally decided to use them to play baseball, and was quite funny. Once back in the reality, we remembered that a dying Sergeant Téllez was alone in the car, and he had no way to phone us if necessary. Shit! We went back and fortunately the car was there with a body inside, and there wasn’t a paper on the windscreen. But what would have happened if the police had come? Nobody knows, but I’m sure that Sgt. Téllez would have done it right. He is a soldier, used to be in the frontline! Later, we tried to visit other parts of the city, going there by car. The traffic was horrible and we were stucked most of the time. We only could see some old churches, interesting, but  completely surrounded by new and ugly buildings! Driving around there was stressing and we couldn’t even find a place to park! Result: Way Back to Bulgaria around 2 PM. Highway direction North. We only stopped to have a coffee –beer for Ronnie- in a Greek village, the rest of the trip was calm. 

Yes! We're spanish! But don't worry, we are not dangerous!

 Once in Bulgarian lands, 10 km past Dupnitsa the car engine suddenly stopped. What the fuck? I parked in the verge as I could. What happened?? I was afraid of it… No petrol!! Well, at least it wasn’t a breakdown. The car hasn’t pilot light for this matter, and I forgot to check the meter… 

-“Ok, ok… let’s go to do something before darkness. I’ll try to do hitchhiking and go back to Dupnitsa for some petrol”, said Ronnie. He tried it for a while and nobody stopped. The isolated place where we were didn’t help him. Just in case, I started to walk the way back to the village. 20 minutes and a few kilometers after, a car stopped for me. There were Ronnie and two gypsies in a very old car. They spoke some spanish because had been working in Spain, in the country. Once in the petrol-station, Ronnie said me that things like these proof that, in the end, poor people usually are the most humane. Nobody stopped except them. 

Not again!! :)

We bought a bottle of water and filled it with petrol. A rich couple in the other side of the road was “assaulted” by us, and they -of course- had to accept us in their car. Way back to the Golf and Adri-Josemi. 1,5 litres of petrol and another return to the petrol-station in Dupnitsa to fill up the tank. We arrived Sofia around 8 PM, really tired, but happy after all! The Greek experience had been good, varied and intense! Unforgettable trip! 

Greece. Meteora and Thessaloniki. Day 65

 Day 65:

We woke up at 9:30 in that guest house in Kastraki (a village beside Kalampaka), and the first thing we did was look for a place where we could eat something. Hard job on a Sunday morning. Having had a Greek breakfast (Feta cheese), we were ready to drive through Meteora huge rocks. 

The Great Meteoron

2 climbers here...

The day was cloudy, but that didn’t prevent us to enjoy the place. We drove up and down following the serpentine road that pass near every monastery. We visited two of them, going upstairs for a while (altough our legs didn’t like the idea). Monastery of the Holy Trinity was the first one, and we finished with The Great Meteoron, which is the biggest. It has 2 or 3 small museums, a dark church, an old kitchen, a cellar... and of course, impressive views, because it’s erected in one of the highest points. There were people climbing one of the enormous walls in front of us.

Kalampaka is -literally- under the rocks

Meteora monasteries were built around 12th-15th centuries, and some of them are situated more than 500 m. above the plain, on ancient rocks. This place is unique in the world. It’s hard to believe that there are a few monks still living here, but it’s true... 

The day was getting better and the sun appeared for a while -maybe a gift from the Gods, whom wanted to reward us for our effort the previous day-. We climbed a prominent rock, from where we could take some nice photos. We stayed there for almost an hour enjoying the relaxing silence, only disturbed from time to time by some car horn from Kalampaka, just below us. 

Views from a petrol-station in Kalampaka. Holy Monastery of St. Stephen on the right side.

H.Monastery of Varlaam

Back in the village, we ate something and started our returning trip to Thessaloniki (250 km), where we arrived around 21:00. The city is quite lively and busy. Hundreds of people are walking in the streets and filling up the pubs. Unlike northern countries' lifestyle (Bulgaria is an example), here we had something similar to Spanish culture. We rented a room for four in Alexandria Hotel (cheap, around 14 € per person). 

Marcos & Josemi

Once showered, we went out to look for some party. Ronnie cheered on the group with some street-beers. We walked through the city centre, beer in hand. We stopped in a club called Rocanrollar (similar name to Sophia’s one), and they tried to rip off us with a crazy price for 3 beers and a whisky. After showing our deep disagreement, the club’s owner came and he “negotiated” until we were happy. So crafty. After that, we decided to do something weird like walk to the upper side of a building under construction. Nice views over the city from there, and crazy conversation about Christmas and Cosmos! And we tought “Ok, we are in bastard-spanish mode now… let’s go until the end: botellón!”. We did something similar just beside a Rock-pub, with nice music like Rage Against The Machine and Pearl Jam. 

The team. Exploring Thessaloniki!

Latin Lovers

A dog came with us the rest of the night, he wanted friends and we were receptive. But after a long walk, we found ourselves in the industrial harbour of the city, and (surprisingly) there was a noisy night-club in the middle of tens of warehouses. “Fuck, what is this??”, Ronnie was excited. The club was absolutely full of people, dancing and partying hard. Very nice. We didn’t expect that around 3 AM on Sunday to Monday. Beers cost 7 € each one. Not so nice, but we paid several, anyway. Sergeant Téllez (Adri) showed a good sample of Spanish talent in the disco, but unfortunately greek females were on guard that night. Back in the hotel around 6 AM, with the army slightly injured. Our intention hadn’t been that! Thessaloniki has more party than we had expected. And Ronnie is a very encouraging comrade!! Fucking horse!!