Thessaloniki: Day 2 (10/16/19)

I left to check out the city early this afternoon, following the general route that Greg gave me yesterday. My first local was St. Demetrius Church, a UNESCO site from the 4th century AD. I only took a quick look since it was packed with droves of high school students and tourists. I then cut through a park to the old Roman Forum ruins which were quite impressive! I did a loop around the area but all the gates were closed so presumably it was not open to visitors. Understandable since it looked like conservation site.

Heading towards the sea, I waded through Aristole Square, a massive open space leading up to the water. While walking I was stopped by a guy that told me about some Jamacian dance party this evening while trying very hard to put a wristband on me. No thank you! I know this trick good sir! I’ll not have you putting that on me and then demanding payment!

A short stroll along the Marina led me to the White Tower of Thessaloniki and another dance inviter, who I had to physically break away from. A little further I ran into the Zongolopoulas Umbrellas, which are apparently quite striking at night but just looked like a random sculpture to me since it was midday. At that point I turned around and wandered north passing some museum and just taking in the city for a bit until reaching the Arch of Galerius (which I saw when I arrived and is close to where I’m staying) and Church of St. George. The church functions as a museum of mosaics too, which was pretty neat!

After that I went back to the AirBnB and relaxed for the rest of the evening. I need to work on my graduate applications and plan the next few weeks of my trip so I’ll do that tomorrow hopefully.