This fall, I took myself on a lengthy, change-as-you-go ramble through a few countries in Europe. There was no excuse of book research or conferences or overseas signings. It was just to satisfy my hunger for faraway locations, and if you are going through life in 2025 America, you may understand what I mean.
The theme of the trip was one carry-on suitcase and one traveler, making choices that changed along the way, according to mood. My husband Tony accompanied me in the first two weeks, and I visited a few overseas writer friends at times along the route, but for much of the 33 days, I was alone. I left my laptop at home but brought an iPad, although I was too rushed to remember to transfer my manuscript onto it. I've always wondered whether living overseas would actually be too distracting for me to do any writing! In this case, the sheer tumult of packing a carry-on is enough to make me forget a book-in-progress. Fortunately, it was easy to just pick up and start a new chapter where I believed I'd left off. And work is good. Even writing a few paragraphs or a page made me feel I deserved some kind of an outing and a great lunch. Both goals were easy to achieve for a solo traveler in the historic Greek city of Thessaloniki.
My travel plan didn't make much sense to most people I knew, except for those interested in food and religious history. Thessaloniki is not an island, nor is it within a sought-after part of the mainland, like the Peloponnese. It lies in the northeastern region of Central Macedonia, and it's curved snugly around the Aegean's Thermaic Gulf. Turkey lies across the gulf, and the nations of Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria form a Northern border. When I saw big signs like "Balkan Shopping Center" I knew I wasn't in the Greece of travel websites.
Non-Greek influence is omnipresent in the city. Ottoman Empire Muslims ruled Thessaloniki or almost 500 years, a bit longer than other places within Greece where they ruled. During this occupation, other religions like Greek Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism and Judaism were tacitly allowed. This meant that Thessaloniki citizens had a plethora of places to worship, including the stunning Byzantine Hagia Sophia, which sits proudly in the center of downtown.
Another landmark near the Thessaloniki's waterfront is the White Tower, which served as a notorious prison in the Ottoman period. Even though it's now a museum, I just couldn't bring myself to enter it. I have a sense that sometimes the energy of the past lingers on in buildings. Jails aren't places I enter lightly, and I honored my instinct to go other places.
Above, I'm standing in front of a place with much better vibes. This is the Yahudi Hamam, a once-bustling Jewish public bath with separate men's and women's sections. As the Spanish Inquisition took hold in Catholic European countries, Thessaloniki, under Ottoman rule, was a haven for non-Christinas to settle. The Jewish population included both Sephardic Jews fleeing Spain and Italy, as well as Ashkenazi Jews from elsewhere in Europe. At one time, there were more than 60 synagogues in the town, and the various Jewish families spoke either Ladino, Russian, Hebrew, German, as well as Greek, reflecting their diverse origins. This situation had a tragic unraveling during World War II, when the Nazis came to Thessaloniki, rounding people up and taking thousands away never to return again.
To remember the lost, there's a Jewish Museum housed in a handsome neoclassical building. Jewish donors worldwide contributed to build it, including the designer Diane von Furstenburg, who has family roots in the city. Inside the museum, no photography was allowed, but displays have old photographs enlarged and narrate in Greek and English the community's story of rise and fall, of community inclusion and tragic betrayal. A few artifacts like tombstones, clothing, and jewelry are beautiful to ponder; however, the most unforgettable items are the uniform, tin cup and spoon that one Jewish man carried out of the concentration camp and back to his hometown.
It turned out that Thessaloniki is a hotspot for Balkan nations and hosts an international film festival annually. I tried to go, but was too late. All the tickets for opening night at the Art Deco theater, Olympion. Still, I enjoyed watching people flock from Aristotelous Square into the theater for the big show. During evening hours the town felt lively, with people out eating and drinking and listening to live music. The city buzzed, but in a manageable, walkable way.
I felt fortunate to be able to be about two minutes walking distance from the action to my home base, a hotel called The Modernist. It's a true boutique hotel in a remodeled 1930s building within a connected block of shops and restaurants. I had a small, nicely-appointed guest room with a postage stamp balcony that was shadowed by many taller buildings close by. A building boom in the 1950s resulted in Thessaloniki and many other cities getting packed with tall, wide and supposedly earthquake-proof concrete apartment blocks. They aren't much to look at from the street, but I can imagine the views these apartments offer over the water.
A few blocks from The Modernist lay Aristotelous Square: a wide pedestrian thoroughfare lined with original apartment buildings in the Belle Epoque style. The city is built along the water, and it was here along New Paralia (new port) that the military paraded on Oxi Day, an annual remembrance of the Greek prime minister's refusal of Benito Mussoli's demands in 1940. The national holiday brought families and friends out for parade viewing, strolls along the water, and long lunches and drinks at the plethora (Greek word, yay!) of restaurants and tavernas. I tried to wait as long as I could for the parade to formally start, but the crowds were giving me claustrophobia. Therefore, the shot I'm sharing is how the soldiers appeared while they were lining up for their grand march.
I wandered down the waterfront to a very charming part of the city called Ladadika, which boasts lovely old buildings from the 1930s. Most of these places were where olive oil was once pressed and wholesale food supplies were sold. "Meze" is the name for a small, savory dish sold at many tavernas and restaurants in Thessaloniki. It might be a few sautéed shrimp, an assortment of meatballs, roasted vegetables, and so on. The Greeks are generous, and it turned out that the average meze was more of an entree size. It broke my heart not to be able finish some of the dishes I tried, like the roasted onions and eggplants with garlic. Do you see what I mean about the portions?
Meze are traditional and famous within Thessaloniki, but the town has also expanded its reputation with Modern Chef Magic. In fact, Thessaloniki is designated as Greece's first UNESCO heritage gastronomic city. The sidewalk cafes were filled with people enjoying food in temperatures in the 60-70 Fahrenheit range most days. At night, bakeries were packed with people taking a sweet treat or two before going home. A lovely episode in the cable show The Bear has a chef traveling to Denmark to learn how to really cook sophisticated dishes and bring that sense back to America. In that spirit, I recommend culinary types who are interested in opening a Mediterranean-themed restaurant outside of Greece consider training for a year in a Thessaloniki restaurant kitchen. Greek food is so much more than salad, pastitsio and gyros!
Oh, the food adventures I had. It wasn't just pastry grazing at night. My hotel friends recommended a fancy vegetarian restaurant called rOOTS (not a typo) where the food was beautiful but tasted a little experimental, if you catch my draft. I love roasted red pepper and risotto, but a red cabbage coulis was just not as tasty to me as a full-fledged, sautéed piece of cabbage. In a list of the city's top restaurants, I settled on the seafood restaurant named 7 Thalasses. The pricey establishment had plenty of open tables at lunch and was exceptionally stylish, with elegant service and sophisticated treatments of seafood. Knowing my appetite, I ordered a salad and a single plate of shrimp, both exquisite. I admired the seafaring design theme that was carried all the way into the restrooms.
My language school, Peek at Greek, was ten-minute walk from my hotel--everything in the city seemed to be fifteen minutes away or less. I enjoyed climbing the staircase of the old neoclassical building to the schoolrooms. Although I had private classes, I know other classes were going on for more advanced students. Most of them are immigrants who've come to work in Thessaloniki. The school also runs multi-day excursions into scenic areas so students can practice Greek in the environment. Sadly, I'm still too much of a beginner to properly converse; but I'm now comfortable with most of the alphabet and I can understand some of the conversation around me.
There's nothing like getting to know a city through locals. Therefore, I talked as much as I could in my Greek-English mix to the teachers and people I met in restaurants and other places. One highlight was a walking tour through the city's markets and small restaurants. it was led by a young travel agent who had a genuine love for home city. She brought me to taste olives, cheese, meat and sweet pastries, Greek coffee, and a very strong spirit called tsipouro. In the Modiani Market, all manner of foods were for sale--including sheep's and goat's heads. Fortunately we moved past quickly to fill our noses with the scent of wild mountain tea and then peruse kitchenware made from olive wood. Living out of a carryon, I had no room for purchases, but I bought two tiny olive wood spoons--just right for scooping coffee or salt in my kitchen at home.
And this is how I will remember Thessaloniki.
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