Since we are all moved in and our apartment is situated (although we are still waiting for our board games to clear customs-where they have been stuck for over ten days...), we decided that this week would be the perfect week to learn more about where we live!
All week we have been walking around by our house to scope out the best local grocery stores, a vet for Momo, hair salons, good bakeries, you name it, we have figured out where it is! We even discovered that there are year-round farmer's markets around the town. The one close to us is on Friday! This farmer's market has everything you need when it comes to fresh ingredients. You can buy fruits, veggies, fish, rice, nuts, and even clothing here! In fact, you are kind of lame if you go to the grocery store for fruits and veggies here (I was informed this by a super sweet lady while waiting for the bus one day). Don't worry, we are not lame; we buy pretty much all our fruits and veggies at the farmer's market. We do not buy our fish there, however, because they still have all their bones, scales, fins, and heads. Not my idea of a how I want to prepare my fish...
Below are some pictures of the farmer's market. They aren't very good, because it is pretty packed.
On Saturday we took a trip downtown to visit some of the points of interest in the city. We live about a block from the sea, and along the sea runs this wonderful biking and walking path that spans about four or five total miles. Its perfect, not just because it is beautiful for runs and walks, but also because it provides a safe and beautiful walk downtown. It takes us about 25 minutes to walk along the path downtown.
This is the view of downtown Thessaloniki from when we enter the path by our house.
Our first stop downtown was the White Tower. You can just barely see it above in the photo. It is from Roman times and was used to guard the city. Later, it housed prisoners. Now, it is a historical museum about Thessaloniki. Here are a few cool facts we learned about the history of the city (in no particular order, just the order I remembered them in):
- The city dates back to 300BC.
- Throughout it's time, it has been owned by Greece, the Romans, the Turkish, the Germans, and then Greece again.
- When the Bible mentions the Thessalonians, they mean the people of Thessaloniki back in Bible times.
- At one point, before WWII, Thessaloniki had a very large Jewish population that lived in harmony and thrived here with the Christian Greeks.
- It is the only European city, where at one point, Jews were the majority.
- It is a huge hub of trade, even still today.
- It is Greece's second largest city.
- It was the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia.
- There was a huge fire in 1917 that left over 72,500 people homeless.
- The metro was started in 2006, and is still not completed due to archeological finds. Maybe it will be done this November?
This is the White Tower.
Here is one of the staircases inside. It has six floors. The ceiling was pretty low, about 5' 5".
Panoramas from the top of the White Tower.
From the White Tower, we explored some shops and made our way to the Church of Saint Demetrius. Saint Demetrius is the patron saint of Thessaloniki. Saint Demetrius was a rich son of a military commander and lived in Thessaloniki. He was secretly baptized as a child to be Christian (this was forbidden at the time). When his father died, he was ordered by the next commander to round up and kill Christians. When he refused, they killed him. He is an Orthodox saint because of his bravery.
The church was officially built in 324 AD. It went through many renovations and changed throughout the years. However, pieces of many of the different part of the church from 324, 413, 634, 1498, 1912, and 1948 renovations remain.
The outside of the Church of Saint Demetrius.
This is Saint Demetrius's grave.
This is the beautiful alter of the Orthodox church.
The older versions of the church were under the current church. This is just part of the old columns. There were also inscriptions, baths, alters, and statues.
We ended our historical exploration of Thessaloniki by passing by Aristotelous Square, having a traditional lunch of Gyros and Matsuoka, and taking the bus back home.
This is Aristotelous Square.
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