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Cafes And Culture: Five Days In Thessaloniki

July 23, 2021 /

How typically Greek it is of our host to thoughtfully provide stocks of decent coffee and proper filters for an apartment where the coffee machine is broken and doesn’t work. You have to love the Greeks! 

Our other quirk here is a shower which, when placed in its holder, slowly drops down so as to shower the back wall instead of your body. Thus, to get my head in the water, it’s necessary to hold the shower head in its holder with one hand whilst approaching the water face up. I can’t help but think that I must be the spitting image of a naked Liam Gallagher coming to the mic to tell Sally she can wait. Good luck with getting that image out of your head, on with the travel blog….

  • Thessaloniki seafront
  • Alexander the Great

There are so many different aspects to this wonderful city that at first it’s hard to get your head round which are its most influential characteristics. As if a six kilometre seafront promenade and ancient Ottoman and Roman remains aren’t enough, then add a large industrial port, a hilltop fort, extensive city walls, iconic towers and an old town with steep cobbled streets and bustling tavernas. Then throw in a mountain backdrop, the nightlife of the Ladadika district and classy tree lined boulevards radiating from majestic squares and you have a real clash of styles.

And then you might want to suck up the fact that Thessaloniki reputedly has more bars per capita than any other European city, and you see that five days here may not be enough. Or, if you’re too indulgent, maybe too much!

The differing aspects and the presence of Parisien style tree lined boulevards are not by chance. In 1917 Thessaloniki suffered a huge fire which ravaged the city centre and razed much of it to the ground, after which the centre was redesigned and rebuilt by a team of architects with a heavy French influence.

Aristotelous Square

In spite of the fire, not to mention the multiple earthquakes which have struck the city throughout its history right up to 1979, a good deal of the Ottoman city walls remain, striking proudly between the high rises and streets and linking the original defence towers which also still remain. One of those, the White Tower, stands assertively at the seafront as if defying all that can be thrown in its direction. It is these days the symbolic icon of the city, representing peace and inclusivity, having been whitewashed, both physically and metaphorically, by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, as a way of shedding its history as a prison and place of execution. It was before then known as The Blood Tower.

The White Tower

Elsewhere another ancient tower, the Rotunda, dominates a central square and has an interior reminiscent of The Pantheon in Rome. From the Rotunda, the walls climb up towards the Eptapyrgio, the ancient fort, later a prison, which in turn looks down on the city from the top of the hill. The remains of a Roman agora stretch between two main streets, beside which the Bey Hamam, the first and largest hamam built in these parts by the Ottomans, now houses an interesting museum dedicated to the post-fire rebuilding project.

The Rotunda

Next to the Rotunda is the city’s one remaining minaret – there were hundreds during the period of Ottoman rule, though other examples of Ottoman and Byzantine architecture and artwork are plentiful throughout Thessaloniki. 

Several huge churches stand boldly amidst the history: Agios Dimitrios, Agia Sofia and Agios Pavlos, close by our apartment, are among the most spectacular. 

But Thessaloniki is still troubled by a piece of darkest history. After fleeing the first Balkan Wars and many other places of persecution, so many Jews settled here that the city earned the nickname “Mother Of Israel” and, at its peak, the Jewish community was so strong in number that Thessaloniki was the only European city ever to have a Jewish majority. Still with a strong Jewish presence  at the onset of WW2, it was the first Greek city to fall to the Nazis. Almost 50,000 Jews were herded on to cattle trains here, on which they endured what must have been a tortuously long journey, to be sent to their death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Just a handful of the 50,000 were to survive.

Holocaust memorial

Having previously stood by those gates at Birkenau at what was the other end of that terrible journey, to stand here now by this rail track is more than a little haunting. The railway station building still stands, now a freight only depot, next to the harbour, sporting some thought provoking images of those victims amongst its extensive street art……..

Frappe is simply part of being in Greece. When it’s too late for breakfast, too hot for a coffee and too early for beer, a cold milky frappe is just the right drink. It turns out that Thessaloniki lays claim to the invention of frappe, at its 1957 trade fair, though there are probably other places with similar claims.

It’s not difficult to find a frappe here, or a beer, or any other refreshment for that matter: the city is simply full of cafes, bars and restaurants at every turn, and so many of them are teeming with customers. In fact our broken coffee machine turns out to be a blessing, as the busy cafe around the corner is just a brilliant place to start each day. One of those cafes where the owner treats you as long lost friends on only a second visit, and where you can sit for 20 minutes and the whole world comes and goes.

With so many different areas of the city, and the multitude of bars and eateries in every district, it’s impossible to get everywhere, but what we can say is this. Restaurants on the seafront have great views and may well have good food but are international rather than authentic Greek and are considerably more expensive than other areas. The Ladadika area, mostly converted oil stores close to the port, is filled with trendy places and is more popular with the young, though with plenty going for it (especially Whope, the coolest bar in town and the best draught Mythos so far). 

Ano Poli

Between Ladadika and the market area there lies a series of walkways filled with many decent restaurants, but possibly our favourite area is Ano Poli (Upper Town), particularly Papadopoulou street, where there is a cluster of seriously authentic tavernas filled with locals and serving good Greek fare at very decent prices. You can do a couple of beers each, half a litre of wine and two courses each and still get change out of 30 euros.

These tavernas fill up nightly. If you get here at 7.30, you’ll most likely eat alone. Arrive at 8 and you will have a choice of the best tables; at 8.30 there will be just the cramped tables left, and by 9 you won’t get a table at all!

  • Jewish baths
  • Bey Hamam

Our time in this city has been lively and interesting and we both feel we have fallen just a little bit in love with Thessaloniki. There is a character here which is so welcoming and calming that it is very easy to slip in to its arms. We’ve walked over 40 miles in our first four days yet feel rested and welcomed by its wonderfully busy cafe/restaurant scene. 

Byzantine art

Despite COVID and despite economic collapses, today’s Thessaloniki seems vibrant, lively and thriving, its nightlife convivial and its evenings buzzing. With a past linking Alexander The Great, the Roman Empire, Byzantine, Ottoman and Greek cultures, earthquakes, great fires and the holocaust, Thessaloniki’s modern day maxim rings so true…

“Thessaloniki…..many stories, one heart”.

  • From our balcony
  • Arch of Triumph

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