Saloniki and environment

Travel guide of the greek large city and its periphery

On this page and following ones, Ingo Schmidt will report a trip to Greece in the area of Saloniki. During this trip, world famous sightseeings like the Akropolis of Thessaloniki are described but also secret and unknown places like the mountain village Paleochori. Ingo Schmidt either describes the sightseeings of his travel route and the encounters with the natives.

Introduction

Before the trip, my thoughts of Greece were limited to what most of people who have never been there may put in relation with this country: lively cities and ethnic villages, sand beaches and antique places, herds of goats, ailanteries of olives and a lot of sun. Thus the dictum was: to see a little from everything, and from the latter the most. But the special thing of out stay should be that our travel group that consisted on three women and two men from the Rhur would live in a little northern Greek mountain village, and even with family access. The meaning of this could be only perceived by our greek descent fellow trraveller Kosta. But first of all: by his own statement, the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is not a comedy but a documentary. However, this fact should result in a very special facet of our stay, as the foreign life is, as known, the best way to know each other, if one is in the thick of it. Either episode of the family live is build into the report in the suitable position.

However the real and traditional life of Greece takes place aside the touristical and stamped out paths in the vilages of the country. To live that is surely equally enriching and important to get a differed general impression of the country and the people as for example those that take lace in a modern large city like Saloniki is. These two opposites do require an insight into the touristically embossed coastal places and also into the middle centers of the backcountry. All these locations should be at least introduced as an example in the following travel report, and that also applies to the significant historical places that grant an insight into the long history and thus into the culture of the country.

The overseeable and well available areal, on which this travel report is based, offers the newcomers to Greece numerous possibilities to experience this country, its inhabitants and their culture in an individual way. Our big advantage was of course to have on one hand the accompaniment of Kosta, expert to the country and language, and on the other hand also his not small family in Paleochori with his aunt over seventy as the pivot. She lived together with us in the house and took touchingly care of us. All the other family members that, as the aunt, could speak a little german, lived in our environment and thus, they acted as an interactive illustrative material that made possible for us to dive below the surface of the aforesaid life aside of the touristical paths.

During the weeks before our journey we got well prepared for our task as guests with the help of the greeks of our trust, Takis and Jorgos. We controlled the inexpressible greek vocables for motorway and urchin, we learned to order ice and schnapps and also a limited basic treasury of words. Thus, nothing could go wrong. And with Takis, who was in Greece at the same time, we already made an appointment in Germany so that he could show us his home town Drama.

Of course, the vacationer decides by himself where to put the emphasis of his stay. The following pages could adopt the mere function of a code of practice that proved its value to us and containes a balanced programe of holiday and culture.