After a few long nights and fun parties in Athens I had to say goodbye to my new friends. We'll call them K, her daughter B, S and her friend E, CJ and Wight. (Wight isn't his real name but we'll call him that for now.) I'll never forget Athens because of you guys! Wight and I had to decided to travel together as far as Amsterdam or so, and we left AthensStyle for a train to Thessaloniki.
We soon found that because of the strikes going on and riots everywhere in Greece, there were no trains coming into or leaving the country. That sucked quite a bit because we were both using Eurail passes, so instead of a free ride to Sofia, Bulgaria, we would have to pay for a bus or something.
In Thessaloniki we wandered the streets a bit, looked for the bus station, saw more sad-looking wild dogs and a few funny signs, then headed down to the harbor area to see the ocean once more before our trip back into central Europe.
While in the downtown/ocean front area, we were accosted so many times by African street peddlers (basically beggers that trick and finagle you into giving them money) that we had to start being pretty brash with them. They get you by walking up to you, asking how you're doing and where you're from and then giving you a free bracelet. Well, while they tie the bracelet on you, they mention that they're taking donations and basically don't let go of your arm until you give them a few Euros. We didn't want any part of that and tried to keep away from them. They even bothered us while we were eating our delicious gyros and Mythos beer lunch. (Mine was chicken. So good.)
We then took a cab to the general area where we thought the bus station was, based only on shoddy wifi reception and a (presumably) 1990's website written mostly in Greek, that I was getting on my airplane-mode iPhone. Here's a short and terrible video I took while in the cab, trying to show off Thessaloniki, but instead just showing off a corrugated metal fence. Wight is talking to the cabbie.
Yeah. Lame. After the cab ride we found the bus station, which was actually just a tiny, privately owned store front in a strip mall along a side road, and made arrangments to take a charter bus to Sofia, Bulgaria. The bus didn't leave for 6 hours or something so we went looking for a bar or restaurant. We found a small, hip looking bar where some musicians had just started setting up and order a couple beers. For 4 Euros each we got a half liter of beer (I forgot which we ordered) and a bowl of (not fries) chips. Then, after we ordered out second beers, they brought even more chips, and then when we ordered thirds (over an hour had passed) they brought a big, free plate of food just for being good patrons! It was a hot dog-style sausage with creamy, melted cheese all over and small, crispy pretzel bites. Awesome. I tried to take a picture but it was already getting dark out.
After our food and beers, we went back to the bus... place? I lost my ticket stub but I think the trip was scheduled for about 6 or 7 hours. Before that though, Wight and I waited about another 2 hours for the trip to start, with a few others piled into a small waiting room (it was also the reception room that looked out onto the street). When we finally got on the bus they gave us each a bag of weird dried bread chips and a delicious orange and cream filled croissant. We slept for most of trip, but were awake for the stop at the border where they recheck everyone's passport and then let you off to shop at the duty-free mall area for half an hour. I saved my croissant for breakfast and went back to sleep until we arrived.
Yum!
No comments:
Post a Comment