GREECE the North (Meteors, Thessaloniki and Chalkidiki peninsula )
Florina is a beautiful modern city with small squares equipped with gardens and identical buildings with huge terraces, many shops and outdoor bars.
I take a tour in the couple of hours that separate me from the departure of the bus for Meteore. I see a beautiful, fairly recent Orthodox church and a river canal on the edge of the center. I eat a pizza in a bar chatting with a young customer and the friendly manager.
The route towards Meteors is pleasant, beautiful green hills and extensive, cultivated fields unlike the other villages previously visited which seem uncultivated.
I arrive in Kalambaka, the town close to the Meteora in the late afternoon and I am enchanted by the spectacle of the imposing rocky mountains that overlook the town.
I find a room with a view of the rocky giants on the fifth floor without a lift, but for only 25 euros and I set off towards the path that leads to the first monastery.
The route is easy and pleasant, with cobbled paving surrounded by green bushes and small rocks that anticipate the subsequent giants.
I meet some tourists who are returning and a kind English lady informs me that they are closing the monastery at 5pm, but that we can visit the garden. I hurry and glimpse the staircase and the path carved into the rock. I arrive at the entrance just as a gentleman is preparing to close the door. I beg him to allow me a quick entrance to take in the landscape and take some photos and I manage to convince him only after having insisted for a long time.
The monastery is small, it looks like an old and neglected house, surrounded by a lawn and a few small trees. On the other hand, the view is extraordinary, over the town and the other rocky massifs, in particular the one to the north which houses the major monastery which can be reached on foot in a couple of hours along a path which you take after climbing the ridge through some hairpin bends . I can see buses and cars parked high up right at the start of the path that I decide to follow the next morning.
I have an excellent dinner in a Greek tavern, it seems like the only place open of the many waiting for the tourists to arrive in the coming tourist season.
The prices are not those of the Balkans, but still not excessive: 17 euros for an excellent mousaka (parmesan made with aubergines and minced meat) and souvlaki (veal skewers) plus to half a liter of retzina (Greek white wine served cold and which takes its name from the wood of the barrels that mature it). As a digestive, the usual anise-based ouzo which is diluted with water as it is decidedly strong.
Unfortunately, waking up the next morning is disappointing as the sky is covered with very black clouds and a thunderstorm threatens from any moment to 'other.
I therefore decide to leave for Thessaloniki on the 7.45 train which is full of students and commuters going to reach the second Greek city about two and a half hours away.
During the journey many cultivated countryside, a huge plant that looks nuclear but instead produces energy for the whole region by burning coal and Mount Olympus, the highest in Greece, about 3,000 meters and sacred to the gods which however I cannot distinguish as the sky is covered by low clouds .
ortunately in Thessaloniki the weather is better and after finding a hotel for 35 euros in front of the train and bus station, I begin the exploration of this enormous city of around 1.5 million inhabitants.
Not exactly a beautiful city, but interesting enough. It is first of all a large port with a seafront that can be explored on foot along a wide pavement from which one can see with horror the very dirty water, probably the result of washing the tankers of the oil tankers, as the water has a reddish color and smelly. Such a shame! They should punish the criminals who ruin the sea in this way and I wonder how he can fish in it.
At the end of the walk there is an enormous and cylindrical ancient tower, transformed into a museum and in the middle of the adjacent park the colossal statue of Alexandros Omega on horseback, i.e. Alexander the Great, the great Macedonian emperor who, starting from these lands, had established one of the largest empires in history: the entire Mediterranean basin, the Middle East, Babylon, reaching as far as India where he was defeated and died young in following an infection contracted in that distant country.
S Thessaloniki is made up of an endless expanse of recent 5-storey terraced buildings that climb the low hills, but with several dated imprints: many ancient Orthodox churches in red brick, some at a level a couple of meters lower, pieces of the ancient walls that they surrounded the original nucleus which can be glimpsed in various points and which in the upper part are undergoing restoration.
There are two enormous archaeological sites in the centre: the forum and what remains of the palace of the emperor Galerius Maximian. The cathedral and the remains of an arch with white marble bas-reliefs of a certain value with military scenes are spectacular.
The main street bears the name of an ancient Roman road that passed through the city: Egnatzia, the shopping street with many shops, especially clothing stores, but at reasonable prices. In the center of this oppressive and very busy street is a perpendicular interruption with a park to the north, one of the very few in this concrete city and a large avenue that reaches the sea to the south and which is named after Aristotle, the famous Greek philosopher represented on the edges of a large coffee bar by a statue of him sitting with parchment in hand. The enormous white buildings on the sides are beautiful: very high Greek style columns and a very particular architecture, they are part of the local University and a large and luxurious hotel.
On the sides of this Mall there is the bazaar-market, very crowded divided into foodstuffs, meat, fishmongers, fruit and vegetables and other items, clothing and merchandise of all kinds, but also nice taverns offering mainly fish dishes.
I can't find the mousaka and I'm happy to eat a plate of excellent sardines with Greek salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, black olives and lots of feta cheese. Retzina and ouzo and delicious dessert (cream cheese with Turkish sweets). The Metaponto tavern, this is the name, is in the old part of Thessaloniki a few blocks from the Aristotelus. A very interesting area, with restored parts and others abandoned, occupied by taverns, pubs and above all very picturesque discos with murals and rocking signs where the atmosphere is probably very hot at night and the noise is thunderous. It is an imposing peninsula with a flat central body and three enormous fingers that jut out into the sea: Kassandra, Sithonia and Mount Athos or Agio Oros.
It is located east of Thessaloniki, a couple of hours away by bus from the terminal for Halkidiki in the southern area of the city not far from the airport. You can take a bus from the central station to this terminal, unfortunately I missed the 7.15am bus and I had to wait until 10.00am and I was so exasperated by this long wait that I thought about abandoning Halkidiki and going to Istanbul.
In fact I had found not far from the central station there is a company that connects Thessaloniki to Istanbul with buses at a cost of 45 euros, but the duration of the journey is 10 hours with three departures, two of which are at night which allow you to arrive in the Turkish metropolis around dawn .
I decide to stay in Greece and I note that even the three peninsulas of Chalkidiki are difficult to access, at least in the low season. You have to get to Poligiros, the capital in the upper and squat part and then change buses depending on the final destination.
I choose the first available connection which proves to be an excellent choice as it takes me to KALLITHEA, a nice town a few km away to the south on the northern coast within the gulf of Kassandra.
Arrived in the town after a pleasant journey and beautiful green landscapes with fields cultivated with olive trees, I see a small road that leads to the sea below and I follow it until I reach the beach . There is a large 4-star hotel but it wants 51 euros for a single room, so I continue and see some lower buildings with tavern-hotel signs. A gentleman comes down from a taxi and offers me a room for 25 euros in his hotel-restaurant with a terrace overlooking the sea and the nearby beach. Since the weather has improved, I decide to stay for two nights and enjoy the sea.
In fact I spend the whole day on the beach and have some excellent swims in the cold but inviting water with a light blue-blue color as in. .Côte d'Azur.
In the evening I go up to the village and enjoy an excellent dinner at Elena's tavern, also frequented by locals, which is a guarantee of good food. Sardines and Greek salad, just for the sake of change. Sweet offered and nice chat with three local thirty-year-olds who burst out laughing and pat me on the back when I compare the dessert offered by the house to Elena's ass, the beautiful brunette who serves us and who highlights her busty curves with very tight jeans, like all the good-looking Greek women I meet on the trip.
The next day I decide to do some excursions since the weather has worsened. Kassandria is a few km from Kallithea and I reach it on foot, at least I try but then I give up and hitchhike. I'm lucky: a nice place stops immediately and leaves me in the center of the town, rather insignificant, with a small square, an unexceptional church and a pedestrian street.
On the other hand, I eat well, spending little at the local tavern: souvlaki and Greek salad. I drink ouzo in another bar and they bring me a plate with various tastings: 3 euros!
I return by bus and try to reach Kalandra, surname of a friend of mine from Trieste of Sicilian origins whose family probably had something to do with with this location, perhaps a few millennia earlier!
Kalandra also disappoints me: a small town on a hill, with a small church in the center that seems ancient but is closed to visits. From the map I see that the sea is not far away, so I set off towards Posidi which I reach after an hour of uninteresting journey. There are various terraced houses under construction, advertising signs in Italian for sales and perhaps even Italian companies employed in the works.
Posidi is rather ugly, with a dirty beach, full of debris brought by the sea and lots of bottles of plastic which is the disaster that can be seen everywhere. Some women are sweeping the streets and everywhere, as in Kallithea, cleaning and painting are underway for the next seasonal reopening and the arrival of the first tourists of which I represent the vanguard.
I return to Kallithea and I I enjoy the last hours of the sun which fortunately has reappeared.
In the evening I have dinner at the nearby restaurant, again based on sardines rich in Omega 3 which is very good for cholesterol and depression.
There is a Greek group eating next to me, they are half drunk and laughing like crazy between a glass of retzina which they horribly mix with Coca-Cola because it drinks better (according to them!), ouzo and a another very celebrated digestive-cognac whose name I don't remember and which I have never tried.
Later the owner of the restaurant who the next morning, as the bus departs, I find photographed on an advertising billboard with his ponytail hair, a prevailing trend among the Greeks in their forties and fifties who still have flowing hair, invites me to an after-dinner party still based on retzina and ouzo in which I overindulge to the point of feeling ill and giving myself an unbearable headache the next day.< br />Kassandra is more touristy and equipped with hotels and discos while Sithonia, the second peninsula is greener and more relaxing with many campsites.
I skip it because now there are few days left and I decide to aim for Mount Athos, or Agio Oros, almost an independent republic, with many monasteries, a single short and central road between Dafni and Karies, in the heart of the peninsula whose monasteries can be reached by vaporetto from OURIANOPOLI (city of Uranus) to the entrance of the peninsula.
According to local indications, I went to the religious center of Mount Athos in a small square in Thessaloniki a few steps from the arch to obtain the necessary permit to enter the monasteries , access to which, among other things, is prohibited to women!
Nothing to be done: the kind official pointed out to me that you have to book six months in advance and that I could try by calling in case someone had given up in the following days.
I arrive in Ourianopoli at 1.30pm after two bus changes, at Poligiros and Agio Prodromos, luckily with connections and I make friends with two Greek boys, Stratus and Sotiris who are going in the same direction.
They invite me to follow them to the monastery since they had booked three nights in a room for three and a friend of theirs had given up at the last moment. It seems that luck is on my side and rewards my insistence but instead... as soon as we arrive we discover that the office where you have to register to get the definitive permit has closed only half an hour earlier at 1.00 pm and the attempts for a alternative contact. So we decide to split the cost of a three-bed room that a nice lady offers us in her guesthouse right in front of the religious reservation center at the price of 30 euros. We hang around the friendly town full of shops selling icons and bottles of wine together! jewelers and many restaurants competing to attract the few tourists with the bouncers who extol the local specialties and the low prices.
So we stop for lunch in a restaurant on the seafront, won over by a friendly Albanian pimp who speaks 5 languages, including Italian; I jokingly threaten to steal his job since I also know as many languages and I'm also practicing a lot with the sixth: Serbo-Croatian!
The boys, short of money (they thought not to spend it since the monasteries they give free room and board) they eat kebab sandwiches for 2 euros each, while I don't miss the sardines and Greek salad and I offer the retzina.
I would like to go to the beach but young people prefer the elegant bar beyond the ancient palace-tower which is the only attraction in the place and which houses an interesting museum next to the pier from which the boats depart for the peninsula of the monasteries.
In front there are also three islands, one of which is very popular and touristy, with good beaches, but which can be reached from another port near Ierissos, a few km before Ourianopoli.
We have a drink milkshake-coffee which is the most popular throughout Greece, listening to good background music and learning that in the evening there will be a concert with live bouzuki music, that of Zorba the Greek so to speak.
We have dinner as usual restaurant, they always have kebab sandwiches and I have souvlaki and mousaka and then I find myself tired and sleepy, given that throughout the trip I have adopted Spartan habits: in bed before 10pm and waking up early in the morning at dawn around six !
The young people, on the other hand, are eager to stay up late and we say goodbye. I will hear them come back late and they will tell me that the music was horrible with a singer that was impossible to listen to.
We turned to the religious center for permission, but I was refused because... well! if I had been Greek and Orthodox they could have changed the name with the boys' father and I would have passed, but being Italian and Catholic everything becomes complicated and bureaucratic. In short, I have to give up and say goodbye to the guys who leave disappointed. Me too, but then I convinced myself that perhaps the beaches glimpsed outside the country could have been just as interesting, compared to the dozens of Orthodox monasteries already visited in Bukovina, Bulgaria and around the Balkans.
Then the Orthodox start to piss me off: always kissing the icons, making countless signs of the cross, swallowing the hosts offered by the Pope with a single spoon that is inserted deeply into the mouth, without any regard for hygiene. And as if this wasn't enough, their claim of superiority over us Catholics who have changed from original Christianity over the course of history. I have always been very secular and against all religions, the main cause in my opinion of so much hatred and separation, violence, wars and millions of deaths.
These then seem rather fanatical to me, almost as much as their Muslim opponents and therefore I head for the free beach where I spend an excellent day in a deserted cove which allows me to completely undress, away from prying eyes and give vent to my desire for direct contact with nature, in short the naturism I have practiced for years in my native Istria, but also in my residence in Sistiana on the outskirts of Trieste which hosts the famous naturist beach of the Costa dei Barbari, right under my house.
Sotiris and Stratus had promised me to return the following day and invited me to their home in a small seaside village near Kassandra to spend the last days of my holiday, before the departure of my flight to Milan, scheduled for the morning of May 4th.
I had given it some thought, curious to meet their family of six, two other brothers and their parents who made a living by selling cigarettes in a shop they owned.
Personally I thanked them, inviting them not to give up their spiritual program and in fact I never saw them again and I resigned myself to spending one more day in that nice town taking advantage of the good weather and the beautiful beaches, of the excellent restaurant of which I was now a regular customer to the point of get to know all the staff (a nice Romanian, the Albanian with a play-boy appearance, the semi-boss and the austere real boss).
The last day, for yet another about-face of time, returned in the worst case scenario, I decided to take the 8.15 bus which took me directly back to Thessaloniki this time without any other changes.
Putting the camera away exhausted from the 1,500 shots, I spent the last day walking around Thessaloniki, trying to understand reality local beyond purely tourist interests. Found an excellent three-star hotel, in a quiet side street behind the central Via Egnatzia, the Augustus Hotel,at the same price as the other, 35 euros, the Hotel Rex of significantly lower quality, I spent the last hours of this month-long journey worried about the weight of the excessive baggage that Ryanair could challenge me by forcing me to board and check-in. which would have resulted in an additional cost of 40 euros. Instead, I took bus 78 and reached Makedonia airport in less than an hour with a 0.80 euro ticket, and was personally searched with lots of physical groping (I imagine due to fears of attacks following the recent assassination of Osama Bin-Laden). , but Ryanair spares me the weight-measurement checks of my suitcase and in two hours I find myself in Bergamo-Orio al Serio happy to return home due to tiredness, happy with a nice trip that lasted a month through 8 Balkan countries after having spent about 1,500 euros and changed about fifteen hotels and locations, having jumped from one bus to another during this long and satisfying Balkan itinerary that I recommend to everyone.
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