Thessaloniki

Ive been in Thessaloniki for the past few days. Its really great. It is a hipper, collegy town with tons of stuff to do and tons of really cheap stores and good bakeries. The drive here we stopped in Thebes, just to talk about the famous war of Thebes lead by Phillip the 2nd, Alexander the Great's father. The lecture was pretty cool, but our bus driver however, is not really getting the job done. He got lost 3 or 4 times on our way to a small town monument. Even worse, he drives so slow that it took an entire 7 hours of just driving time to get to Thessaloniki, and we only had 1 break. So after we arrived in Thessaloniki after 10 hours of traveling, we finally got to our hotel. The Egnatia is super nice and most of us have double rooms, which is nice for showering and stuff. We then found a really great gyro place for dinner, and went to bed. You would think being on a bus sleeping all day would be good rest, but in reality it makes you even more tired, and in need of a really comfortable bed.

The next day we went to Dion, the ancient macadonian religios center, at the base of Mount Olympus. Seeing Olympus and the ancient town was really cool, there were still mosiac floors in some of the old courtyards. After that, we went to the beach, and after getting lost 3 times thanks to Christos (the bus driver), we finally made it for some well deserved relaxation.

On Thursday, we went to Pella and Vergina, each were ancient capitols in Macedonia at different time periods. Pella had more courtyard mosiacs which were interesting to me, because they were also in the house of Euripides, my favorite ancient playwrite. So after seeing Pella, the mosiacs and an ancient bathhouse, we drove to the middle of nowhere. We got out, crossed a bridge and came to a cave. As we sat down, Stavros told us that we were in the cave were Aristotle taught Alexander the Great for at least 3 years. Having lecture the same place where Alexander learned was beyond cool. After the cave we drove to Vergina, ancient Aege, and went to the best museum I have seen by far. It was the museum of Phillip the 2nd's tomb, complete with all the gold armor, crowns, and jewelry. There was the gold box where his bones were and an ivory couch that they sat on. Phillips tomb was a house with a sealed door, made of marble and hand painted with elaborate battle scenes. You couldnt take pictures in the museum though, and that was sad because that is definitly something I want to remember. After an exhausting day, all of us slept the rest of the evening.

Today, Friday, we first went to the Thessaloniki Archeological museum. The museum was all about the life of macadonians, and very cool. Huge marble statues, gold crowns, and even houses with gorgeous mosiacs were uncovered at that very spot, and placed in the museum. After that, we went to Olynthos, about an hour away. There was the site of a huge rival colony of Athens, one that was burned to the ground with all of the people inside. Sad as that is, today you can see all of the foundations of the city perfectly. The grid system of laying a city out like a checker board (the way most small town american cities are built) was invented here in Greece, and with just the city foundations down, you could see the grid perfectly. Then it was off to a wonderful nearby beach with soft sand, warm water, hot sun and hardly anyone on it.

When we got back to Thessaloniki tonight, we all went out for mexican food, the first I have had since I got here. I have been craving mexican sooo badly, and even though this was Greek/Mexican it was better than nothing and had real guacamole. After walking all the way there and back, stopping at a bakery on the way, Im once again exhausted and am ready for a good nights sleep.

Tomorrow we have one last full day in Thessaloniki, and then Sunday we leave at 6:30 am for Turkey. I am so excited to go, and once we get there it means my time here is almost up. Thessaloniki has been really great though, and Im really excited to go to Turkey even though I will understand even less Turkish then I do Greek.

Love y'all!