Walking the Old Wall of Thessaloniki

Saturday, 29th August 2009

Had a lazy start to the day. Got up later and read for a bit had my morning devotion then had a chat with my Mum and Dad.

Finished off on of my 1 litre bottles of water even before leaving the hotel. Made sure I had a nice cold shower before heading out since I knew it would be warm.

Wow…was it hot outside. Just moving slightly had me sweating away and my bag wasn’t helping matters and my back was completely drenched just thinking about moving my legs. As the wall winds its way from above the port side of the city up around and down the other side that leads back down to White Tower, I approached from the port side. People have built their houses up against parts of the wall. It is a great walk…but probably best not done in the heat of the day.

 

 

The good thing is that there was no one to get in the way of me taking pictures .

 

Met up with Florian at the top part of the Old Wall. We sat and reflected on our journey’s around Bulgaria awhile under the shade of a tree out of the scorching afternoon sun. The view from up there is spectacular and you can see right out over Thessalonica and out into the Aegean Sea. One of the things we found amusing about being in Bulgaria is that people nod there head for NO and shake their head side to side for YES…the exact opposite from how everyone else does it. I took lots of pictures along the wall as I always do. I got Florian to take some of me with my camera and then we did one of those turn the camera on ourselves…it kind of worked.

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Made my way down to the waterfront following the wall and sat myself on a park bench in the quiet shade and read more of my book Messages to Young People. One of the things I’ve noticed is the number of stray cats and dogs who seem to amuse themselves by sleeping quietly by themselves in the park. They aren’t scungy looking either but in really good condition like domesticated animals usually are.

Have a look at this neat fountain that had some coordinated water spouts.

 

Waited till the sun was sinking low in the sky before heading back to the hotel, to have another cold shower.

Once dark I ventured out again to walk the streets and found a dessert cafe along Aristotelous which is the main boulevard so people watched while eating peach and mango sorbet. I then felt hungry so I walked back through the park on Egnatia and saw a family preparing to sleep the night under the stars on cardboard boxes. There were what looked like three generations, it was quite sad to see. Little children, the parents and grandparents. Got take out Pizza to go back to my hotel room with. So I stuffed my face and finished uploading my photos.

Have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get the bus back to Sofia, Bulgaria.

~ TJ

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