This last weekend was the Orthodox Greek start to Lent and a MAJOR protest event throughout Greece. We were supposed to go to Crete for the long weekend (Saturday-Monday), but the protests shut down the country as a whole (including school) and we couldn't fly out. Instead, we had Friday-Monday off and some time to just relax.
On Friday (February 28) the protests occurred. We stayed inside since the protests were very extensive. For the most part, they were peaceful in Thessaloniki. However, they became pretty violent in Athens. The protests were over a deadly train accident that had happened in Greece two years ago.
There is only one train route here in Greece (they aren't quite up to speed with train travel like the rest of Europe). The train goes from Thessaloniki to Athens and back again. Two years ago, the train was doing its usual route. However, Greek governmental officials had neglected to update the train per inspector suggestion. So, the train encountered mechanical problems and derailed. Now, if that isn't awful enough, the train was carrying chemicals that were illegal to transport with people on board, so when the train derailed, it caught on fire, and burned quickly with the people stuck inside. 57 people (mostly young adults between the ages of 18-35) were killed in the crash.
This angered the Greeks initially since they knew the train had not been maintained like it should have been. However, this year, the issue with the Greek government having chemicals transported with people on the train was discovered-and in the most horrific way. The government had stated that many bodies could not be found in the wreckage. This was not true. It turns out that the government had taken bodies that had traces of the chemicals on them and hid them or chopped them up so that no one would know they had had the chemicals on board. A Greek judge found this out through an investigative tip, looked into it, and found it to be true. She began a champaign to prosecute those in the government responsible. Soon after, her son was found murdered.
Obviously, all of this is incredibly upsetting to anyone, and the deception is awful. So, Greeks took to the streets on February 28 (the two year anniversary of the crash) to demand transparency from the government and a plan to ensure something like that would never happen again. Everyone was involved, from the pilots and airport workers, to teachers, to store owners, to doctors. Greece effectively shut down for the day while the Greeks worked for change.
Since we couldn't go to Crete anymore, we observed the protests from afar (via drone footage on the social medias of our Greek friends) and planned a Sunday trip to Kavala (a city a few hours away from Thessaloniki with some great history).
News coverage of the protests in downtown Thessaloniki. We live about one miles from this spot.
On Sunday, we rented a car to go to Kavala. Kavala is built on the hillside along the coast of the Aegean Sea. It is NOT an easy city to navigate by car (due to the streets being incredibly steep and very narrow). Kavala is considered a cultural crossroads between the east (Turkey and Bulgaria) and the west (Greece and Egypt). It is an interesting city that contains what seems like a random grouping of things from the past: a castle, a statue of Mohamed Ali (the Egyptian Ruler, not the boxer), a tobacco warehouse, a fishing and trading sea port, and beaches.
The view of Kavala's old wall from our parking spot.
After we parked the car, our first stop was to walk up Kavala's huge hills to the castle. It was built in the 15th century and mainly was used as a military fortress. We mostly loved the views we had from it!
Kavala Castle
Me standing on part of the wall around the castle.
The view of Kavala from the castle.
Us on the very top of the castle!
While we were at the castle and walking around the cute, very narrow streets, it started to rain pretty hard. So, we dashed to our car and drove to our second spot of the day: an archeological site about 30 minutes away from Kavala.
We met a super kind museum guide at this archeological site. He was really nice and let me practice my Greek with him a bit, and then he gave us FREE TICKETS to the museum and site! What amazing luck! This archeological site has no particular amazing significance in Greek history, other than that it is one of the many places Saint Paul was imprisoned while traveling throughout Greece to spread Christianity. It is just a great place to see what Greece was like long ago.
The ancient theater. They still do plays here sometimes!
The archeological site from the edge. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to see in the picture since it rained the whole time were were there.
Taking a really wet selfie.
Monday was Clean Monday: the beginning of Lent for the Greek Orthodox. It is traditional on this day to go to church and fly kites. We didn't have kite to fly, but we did check out the kites on the promenade. There were so many that they looked like birds!
The kites on the promenade.
Finally, and completely unrelated to everything else, are the two signs below. I took the pictures of them on our way to Kavala, and I thought they were interesting enough to share.
This is a sign showing that Kavala is only 460km away from Istanbul. Greeks refuse to recognize Istanbul as Istanbul. It is Constantinople forever to them. The Greeks get along with Turkey about as well as North Korea gets along with South Korea. They are constantly on the brink of a war.
Should we turn left or right to get back to Thessaloniki? Oh it doesn't matter...😂
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