Thessaloniki - Welcome to Greece

After Bulgaria, as the southern turning point, one of the promising highlights of our journey was planned: Greece. This welcomed us, in the Bulgarian style, with another road use anecdote. After Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria, we were once again greeted by a EU member state with the Euro currency and EU standards... another 'Gotcha'! To avoid a similar situation as when entering Bulgaria, we thoroughly researched road use and payment options before crossing the border: Six highways in Greece are equipped with tolls, which are charged with different fees. These fees are payable in Euros, both in cash and by card. This was the situation we encountered on the highway, which we had to drive immediately after crossing the border. First, we passed the passport control without any problems, and the customs officer only glanced at our car, scratching his head, before quickly letting us go. Less than 100m later, we reached the toll station, where we approached with our VISA card. 2.40€ and our journey was ready to continue. Except for this well-known and Kafkaesque phrase: 'Only cash,' which the ticket booth attendant told us. 'Why is that? It clearly stated on the internet that card payment is accepted! We haven't had Euros since Slovakia.' - 'Sorry! Only cash!' he said with a sympathetic grin - 'And now? There is no ATM here, and we can't go back due to the concrete barriers.' After a short period of reflection and with honking traffic behind us, the ticket booth attendant instructed us to drive to the emergency lane after the barrier and come back on foot. He would inform his supervisor. And so, after a short wait, I found myself in a heated discussion between toll booths with the Greek official. 'Where do you think you're going without money?' 'What a silly question,' I thought to myself and explained the situation politely and comprehensively. As a result, my ID card was requested, and with its help, an oversized form in Greek was filled out for me and handed over. The associated quest now required us to be allowed to pass the highway until further notice, but immediately pay the invoice of 2.40€ at the National Bank with a 67-digit reference. Otherwise, unspecified consequences were sure to follow... maybe... or maybe not... Of course, we chose to make the transfer. As a German, you don't want to sour your relationship with the Greeks even more.

That's enough about our first half-hour in Greece. Our main focus was actually reaching the second-largest city in Greece: Thessaloniki. Here, a mid-term surprise awaited us. My parents were visiting us for ten days during their autumn break =) A very pleasant change with a shared vacation rental (shower, kitchen, washing machine, bed - haaar ´^_^` ) and various beach trips awaited us. Therefore, this post and the two following ones should be considered outside the chronological concept of the blog, as in addition to smaller tours in and around Thessaloniki, we also made trips to the Chalkidiki Peninsula, and Anne's birthday fell within this timeframe.

We chose our first city tour on a slightly rainy and cooler Saturday, with the weekend market along our parallel street from the vacation house being the first point of interest. The further tour, from the White Tower at the harbor through various residential and shopping passages along nicely integrated ruins and churches, are best described by the photos. On the last day of our vacation, we decided to take a trip to the mountainous hinterland, from where we had a good overview of the city and its surrounding area. After finding an old hotel ruin on the mountainside, we headed to the city center for the last time and visited the district between the Roman Forum and Aristotelous Square, ending up back at the harbor. So, we didn't spend much time in Thessaloniki itself, as the otherwise outstanding weather drove us out of the city to the beaches. But more on that in the next blog post ;)