Day 70: Thessaloniki and Athinos, September 9th.

Beach day! Up around 8 to meet the others for the beach. We walked to the centre, got a bus out to a terminal, then bought a ticket for a long journey out to one of the three peninsulars. The bus journey was long. I listened to music and felt sad. I keep thinking I’m done with that and then it still happens. I’m still grieving the previous part of my life. I have to accept I’m in a new stage now and be excited about it. This put me in an up and down mood all day – but mostly it was up.

We got to the beach around 13:00, bought some cookies and walked down past restaurants, churches and small shops. It felt like a Greek island. It was nice. The beach itself was fine. The water was turquoise and clear, which was lovely, but it was mostly scrubby sand and low rocks. I spent the next few hours swimming, reading and trying to sleep in the sun. Not a bad day. Later I joined Oryan for a walk up and down the beach and he tried to show me how to headstand. I reckon I could do it with some practice.

Around 5 we wondered back up into town and went to a restaurant. They had honey sesame feta. Andrew was jealous when I sent him the photo. I got an excellent meatball dish and enjoyed some tzatziki and ouzo. A very Greek day.

Honey Sesame Feta

After that we got some excellent frozen yogurt then went back for the 6:40 bus home. I slept most of the way, as did the stranger next to me, mostly atop me!

When we arrived back at the terminal around 8 we found out all the buses into the centre had been cancelled due to a protest about lack of jobs, flooding etc. Typical! We took a bus part way then walked 4km through conspicuously protest free streets. We eventually stopped at one bus stop and Oryan bought a cake to share with the whole hostel. A dream of his. We walked on until about 2km from the end we slipped onto a very crowded local bus and rode it for a few stops.

We got back to the hostel around 10. I said hi to everyone and ate plenty of cake. Good cake indeed. Later a French girl called Sarah walked in and also partook of the cake. She agreed to go to a local Greek music performance in a taverna with Oryan and I. We both showered then met up with her. I said goodbye to the girls then we went to the Taverna. Two guys played guitar-esque instruments as we sat behind a bar and watched. I drank beer. Sarah drank her first Ouzo. I’m not sure she’s too big a fan.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a0ac57_b8a99570d8204f269e0bbf3e0cf392b3/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

She’s a journalist in Paris – cool person! A Belgian guy sat next to us and spent his night chatting or dancing with the guys playing. It was great fun. Later she and Oryan got into a somewhat heated debate about Israel and the army – she works for AJ. I think I diffused the situation successfully. As we left she paid his entrance fee! Very kind. I went to bed around 1, and slept well indeed!

Video of this day (and others)