Thessaloniki is Greece’s second largest City, and while it matches Athens in sophistication, it excels in providing outstanding venues for people watching. Unlike Athens, Thessaloniki’s main squares, Platia Elefterias and Platia Aristotelous, are by the seaside. The squares have wide avenues and are vibrant and bustling venues with ouzeries, tavernas, top-notch restaurants, elegant, fashionable shops, and “bouzouki halls” where haunting Rembetika music is played by world-class musicians.
A few blocks from these squares is the neighborhood of Ladadika, said to be “the Psiri of Athens.” Epimenidou and Kastra are very old sections of the city known as the Turkish quarter. High walls surround it. In this quarter are some of Thessaloniki’s oldest neighborhoods with narrow streets, and old, 19th century homes with small but exquisite gardens. If you are visiting in October or November, don’t miss the world-famous Thessaloniki Film Festival, and if you are a bibliophile, visit in May for the 2014 International Book Fair.
You will not find a great deal of outstanding archaeological sites in the city, but many museums have magnificent Roman and Byzantine artifacts. A visit to Vergina and the tomb of King Philip, father of Alexander the Great, should be high on your list, as well as at least a day trip to Macedonia, the capital of Thessaloniki, and birthplace of Alexander. Don’t miss the beaches of Halkidiki, said to be some of the most beautiful in Greece.
TO TELOS (THE END)
Published in The National Herald, March 2014