Greetings, earthlings. Princess Keit here.
This weekend was my first experience traveling outside
Italy. What an experience it was. We woke up early Friday morning ready for our
glamorous journey to Thessaloniki, Greece. The weirdness started as soon as we
got to the airport where they checked our passports and boarding passes
actually 17 times. Then we got on a bus that drove us about 100 yards to the
plane that was in the middle of the runway. As soon as the bus stopped,
everyone started sprinting to the plane. Literally a no-holds sprint. We were
all super confused. Someone offered up the possible explanation of the fact
that RyanAir doesn’t have assigned seating…? Well neither does Southwest but
people don’t sprint to the plane knocking down children and the elderly. Anyways,
we get on the plane and they hand us a booklet with pictures of the RyanAir
stewardess swimsuit calendar (weird) and price lists to buy a hotdog on the
plane. I took a Dramamine and slept the whole flight, until all the sudden we
were landing and people were clapping and over the intercom played a “Dodadalo
dodadalo do do do doooo” sound after we landed? Then once again everyone
started sprinting off the plane. Never seen anything like it. Then we took a
cab to our hotel, which was really near the city center, and started exploring
Thessaloniki. We were starving so we stopped for gyros. Honestly, heaven in my
mouth. Soooooo good. So good. I feel bad for people who haven’t had one.We walked
down to the water and walked right along the waterfront and saw the White
Tower. The weather couldn’t have been better and the relaxed vibe was just what
we needed after a long week of midterms, papers and presentations. At this
point, we see a Jamaican themed boat-bar. Yes. A bar. On a boat. Painted as the
Jamaican flag. Playing Bob Marley. Honestly best idea we’ve ever had. It took
us around for an hour and we enjoyed strawberry daiquiris and a
gorrrrrggggggeous view of the city. The water, sunset, city and rum made the
experience more than perfect. After freshening up, we headed back out to walk
around some more and get dinner. We ended up at this great restaurant near the
marina. We all got an appetizer and then got a Greek salad to share. It was
amazing. They gave us bread and tzatziki. Then we got sautéed pork in a white
wine lemon sauce. Rice stuffed grape leaves. Oven roasted feta with cherry
tomatoes. Fried zucchini. Something with fennel that was really good. And Greek
salad. And then we got dessert. Some sort of greek sweet thing topped with ice cream.
Not entirely sure but it was awesome. It was all awesome, and it was all
waaayyyyy cheaper than Rome. It was refreshing to know that we were going to
get a good, less expensive because we weren’t in a super touristy town. We loved
it. That night we walked around a little bit more until we went to bed in our
hotel (which was the Albergo del Sole 2.0 Greek version). We also had an
identity crisis when two men asked us where we were from and if we spoke English.
They clearly must have heard us speaking English and that’s why they asked us,
but we froze. We were warned that some Greeks really don’t like people from the
States, so of course I get the bright idea of responding with “Canada.” But it wasn’t
like I responded with conviction; it was almost like I was trying to say it low
enough for only my friends to hear. I remember hearing myself say it and thinking
“why did my voice sound like that?” It was a cross between Cher and Robin
Williams saying “Canada” in a low whisper. Well, the men ignored that, so they
continued to ask us if we speak English. Again, nothing. We are like statues. We
just stared at them. I think we stared for a solid 45 seconds before Carole
started ranting to them in Arabic. All we did was stand there, staring and nodding
like we understood what Carole was saying. We confused them enough to get them
to walk away but we actually couldn’t breathe we were laughing so hard after
they left. I don’t know if this story is as funny via blog, but you can imagine
how hysterical we thought it was that we just stared at two random men for five
minutes and the only solution we could come up with was acting like we were
Arabic speaking girls from Canada that can’t understand English.
The next day we woke up and set out for our Eat and Walk
tour. It was probably the best experience I have had in Europe thus far. It was
a private tour for just the 5 of us given by a fabulous woman named Magda. Magda
speaks four languages. Magda is a psychiatrist. Magda was born in Thessaloniki,
went to grade school on an island, went to high school in Thessaloniki, studied
all over, lived in Barcelona for a year, lived in Berlin for 6 years, never
took a single cooking class in her life, knows the food history of
Thessaloniki, and gives Eat and Walk tours to do something for her town. I’m
sorry, what? Can I be you, please??? It started with a homemade Greek breakfast
in her cooking lab. Cheese and cream filled pastries, a traditional sesame
bagel thing and Greek coffee. After she told us some history and we finished
eating, she read our fortunes using the lines of dried coffee inside our cups. The
craziest thing was how all five of our fortunes could not have been truer. After
that, we left the cooking lab and started walking through the streets and
markets of Thessaloniki. We met her friend and stopped at a little shop and
tasted homemade cheeses- incredible. She walked us through the fish and meat
markets (the veggies were a little freaked out by the pig heads but we made it
through). She had us try special olives from the region and explained certain
techniques and why certain foods were the way they were. We then sat down and
tasted more food and a traditional Greek alcohol, ouzo. Then we went to this
shop full of homemade jams and marmalades and Greek sweets. After tasting all
that, we went to a super trendy and chic restaurant. Not kidding, they brought
out a least fifteen different full dishes of food. I have never eaten so much
or so well in my entire life. Greek meatballs, Greek salad, a salad with lemon
and pomegranate, baked feta, grilled vegetables, eggplant, fried zucchini, more
meat dishes, breads, chick pea salad, bean salad, spinach stuffed things, fruit
over Greek yogurt and wine. It was all fabulous. The best part about it was
that it didn’t feel like we were on a tour. It felt like we had a friend from
Thessaloniki who was showing us around. She joked with us, showed us good bars
to go to, told us stories and acted like we were her friends. It really was a
great experience and I am so glad that I got to enjoy it with people who
appreciated it as much as I did. After that we were nearing entering a food
coma, so we walked around just a wee bit more before looking at some ancient
ruins and churches, watching the sunset, getting a coffee, heading back to the
hotel to rest and get ready for the night. That night we were not even close to
hungry for dinner so we decided sangria at an outdoor bar would be the perfect
end to our day.
Today, we woke up, went on a search for baklava, found
baklava, ate baklava and checked out of our hotel. We also got a Starbuck’s,
because those don’t exist in Rome and we missed it a lot, ok??? The person
taking my order spelled my name K-E-I-T….? I don’t know, it’s Europe. Anyways,
we flew back to Rome and once again was
confused by the clapping/landing/RyanAir thing and here I am. It was honestly a
perfect weekend and I could not be happier. The even better part- we only have
one day of classes this week before we leave for Southern Italy as a program on
Tuesday. Pretty cool, huh? I’m sure I will have plenty to say about the millions
of tours they will make us go through and the gorgeousness of the Southern Italy
coast.
Until next time,
Xoxo
International Kitty
Ps. Wednesday is our half way point.
WHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE YOU CANT MAKE ME LEAVEEEEEEEEE
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