THESSALONIKI Arrived Tuesday August 30, departed Sunday, Sept. 4, the Footsteps of St Paul 

Tuesday, Aug 30 – After a very long day of travel, we arrived in Thessaloniki around 8:30.  We’re obviously not in Kansas anymore because almost everything was written in Greek.  Our cab driver spoke very good English and we had an interesting conversation with him on the ride from the airport.  Thessaloniki is the second largest city.  It’s an important port, especially for Bulgaria as that is landlocked. The waterfront area isn’t especially attractive.  Most of the buildings were built after WWII so they look typically look like big boxes with lots of graffiti. We asked our cab driver how things are going in Greece and he said unfortunately, things were worse.  He is very unconcerned because it seems to him that people thought more about themselves than they did about the collective group and he was very concerned about that. He had a cross and a St. Chris medal on the windshield.  Cham mentioned that we were here for a church trip following in the footsteps of St. Paul.  He said while he didn’t go to church every Sunday, he was a very spiritual person and believed most of the people in Greece were very spiritual as well.  

As we later found out, 95 % of the population are Greek Orthodox.  The patriarch (pope) of their church is in Istanbul and apparently is safe there.  The Turkish government and the church have reached an understanding.  The priests are allowed to marry, which as one guide told us, has prevented a lot of problems. I had forgotten that the Ottomans controlled Greece until WWI.  When they conquered the region in the 1400’s, they converted many of the churches into mosques.  In some areas, Christianity was allowed, in others, as long as the church and individuals paid their taxes and didn’t provoke the government, they were allowed to exist.  From what we’ve seen, it’s astounding to see how strong the Greek Orthodox church remained even though 500 years of oppression.  I believe it says a lot about faith and also the legitimacy of Christ. We stopped in Kavala tosee a monument that had been erected to St. Paul and a group of Muslims were there before we were.  Our guide told us it was one of the few Mosques that had been converted into a church after the Ottomans left and that’s why they were visiting.

We were dropped off at the hotel and walked down to a food area two blocks from the hotel. We were hoping we weren’t too late for dinner because it was 9:30. Just what the doctor ordered; the driver didn’t know why, but lots of people were out that night. Of course we weren’t too late, things had just started to roll. The street was packed with people eating outside at all of the restaurants.  We had an excellent meal of grill chicken marinated in rosemary, tzatziki and lamb.  The restaurant also had traditional music and excellent inexpensive wine.  Across the street was a bar where they were having a beer pong tournament. 

The next day awakened knowing it was laundry day.  I went onto MapQuest and couldn’t find anything close.  We went down to the front desk and asked the manager where the laundromat was.  He said there wasn’t one close by because since the crisis they had all closed, but they would be happy to send it out for us. We are so fortunate and take so much for granted.  One of our guides later said yes, that’s true.  People can’t afford to purchase a home machine, but they also couldn’t afford to send their laundry out so most were doing it in the sink now and the laundromats closed.  Cham and I weren’t sure we wanted to tackle walking to the laundromat so we decided to explore.  We didn’t want to do too much because we knew we would be doing tours with the St. Paul’s.  We walked down to the waterfront which was very close to the hotel and saw an expensive ferry cruise that went across the bay to several beaches.  Perfect.  We took the 55-minute ride to the beach area, ate lunch and came back.  It was a lovely way to see the waterfront and to be on the water. We returned early and spent time doing logistics.

The next morning, I was prepared to tackle the laundry, but Cham very wisely said, I think it’s going to be easier to have them do it for us.  Not only do we save walking time, but can you imagine trying to figure out how to use a Greek washing machine?  I had to start laughing at that because he was exactly right.  If I had just barely mastered an Italian machine that had western writing, what in the world was I going to do with one written in Cyrillic?  We sent a load of whites down to the desk as a test case.   You sent it down by 10:00 and it as supposed to be back that afternoon.  We’ll see.

Cham really wanted to go to a local market.  I had asked the manager the night before where the market was and she said it’s right behind these tall buildings across the street.  Wow, this was the market we had been looking for!! Of all places not to have a kitchen!  It had everything, and I mean everything. The men were hawking their fish as you went by.  I thought blue crabs were only in the Chesapeake, but two of the many fish markets had several bushels.  Butchers were cutting whole carcasses into choice cuts. Of special interest were the goat and lamb heads with their eyeballs still intact. 

We stopped by a feta shop where the young lady spoke excellent English and gave us several samples.  I ended up purchasing a small chunk, thanked her very much when her father came from behind the shop with a chunk of one of their favorite sweets, a pink nougat with peanuts in it.  It turns out it was the woman’s birthday and they wanted to share some of her “cake” with us. We were so very touched by the gesture. They encouraged us to take big pieces.  What does one do when you don’t want to offend someone by spitting it out in front of them?  I didn’t care for it at all but of course thanked them profusely, choked down the piece and gave several stalls later, gave my remaining piece to Cham.  We went back to the hotel to deposit the cheese and decided to head off for the Ataturk museum.

Ataturk, the founder of modern day Turkey, which seems to be a reverting back but that’s my opinion, was born in Thessaloniki.  His home is located with the Turkish Embassy compound.  We had been told it was a very long walk.  We headed out and about a 1/6 of the way there, decided not to go. It was only a building to see so we decided to head to the Byzantine museum.  Once again we’re in a city where the streets change names and the map and street names aren’t always spelled the same way.  We got pretty lost and decided to stop for lunch.  Good idea.  The wonderful manager was happy to welcome us and also to marry off his son, who was quite cute.  Cham said we would like to try some ouzo so he asked what kind and Cham said what you like to drink.  He came back with a bottle that I think was 12 years old.  He put it in front of me and said, “memories are made with this.”  After one sip, I bet!  It’s 40 proof!  You put a couple of cubes in a glass, add the ouzo and a little water which turns it milky.  It tastes just like licorice with a huge kick.  Cham got grilled sardines and I got some kind of local sandwich.  It was perfect.  After getting directions once again, we headed off for the museum.  Several wrong turns later, we ended up at the museum where it was covered in green scaffolding and closed for renovation.  Huge sigh.  I had noticed a small church nearby.  The map said it had been built on Roman baths. It was absolutely a gem.  You left the chaos of the city by going down a flight of steps into a courtyard surrounded by roses.  I gasped when I went into the church.   It was dark and the icons glowed.  Baby blue ribbons had been tied on several icons in celebration of a recent baptism.  The Virgin Mary and Jesu icon were in the very front of the church surrounded by a wreath of flowers.  People would come in and pay homage by genuflecting, making the sign of the cross several times and kissing the icon, both the Virgin and Jesu. They’d say a quick prayer, pay homage again and go back to their lives. All in perfect silence surrounded by these incredible icons.  It was incredibly moving.  We noticed when we left that there was a small read chapel set up outside on the corner of the street which had several icons in it.  I saw a workman go in, pay homage, and leave.  It took perhaps 1 minute? I felt like their spirituality was much more interwoven in their personal lives than our own.

We were so excited when parishioners from St. Paul’s arrived the following morning.  They include:  Diane and Todd Vie, Susan and Dick Morris, Gail and Frank Morrison, Betsy and Chris King and ourselves all lead by Declan Pratt.  I’m going to start using some of Declan’s blog and incorporate some of my own thoughts into his hard work.