I woke up today with the best feeling ever. The feeling you get when you're on holiday but this holiday hadn't been planned and the days hadn't been counted down for the last 2 months. This was more like, you're having a bad day at work on a Monday and someone pops up out of the blue and says you going on holiday tomorrow, have fun!
I felt like Ferris Bueller, what shall I do today then? The buffet breakfast was first on the cards. It had everything you could think of and all to the highest standard! I had a wee look around at the different food sections first. Cold meats and cheeses right, full English section standard, croissants and pastries excellent, toast and cereals ok, health food section probably not and sweet desert section, jackpot. I'm not normally a desert man but I had a plate from each section and when I got to the desserts I didn't want to leave after! They were amazing! The buffet was 5 star to any regular person but to a man that has been living off chocolate spread sandwiches and pasta based dinners, it was out of this world. The waiting staff witnessed something quite extraordinary that morning when it comes to eating. I pretty much out ate 9 maybe 10 groups. People would arrive, be pleasantly fed and then leave and I was still there conducting my own cheese tasting session. I wasn't being greedy, my body was still in cycling time and burning it all away! I also knew that today and tomorrow are going to be the last breakfasts I get for about 6 months so I naturally took advantage. Takeaway lunches are always a possibility when it comes to breakfast buffets but I stopped myself. I had done enough damage as it was and the hotel was just too nice for that.
After breakfast it was time to explore the town. I set out to buy myself a new camera and hope it doesn't turn out to be as poor as the previous. I wandered around the town for a while, Thessaloniki is the second most populated town in Greece behind Athens and it has a massive University so there were people and students everywhere. I loved the feel to the place, it was great to not have to worry about Nigel for once so I could relax and try and take in my opinion of Greece.
Firstly, everyone smokes. The streets are teeming with outside bars and seating areas which helps the smokers but I'm pretty sure you can get away with smoking inside as well or at least the first 2 tables in. That didn't bother me until you experience the "lady looking for something in the massive bag whilst waving the fiery spear around between her index and middle finger." You see it so often, she's spinning around with fag in hand and you've got to be like Neo from the Matrix to avoid a hole in the shirt or a burnt arm. This situation happened 3 times today!
The roads are mental also. There is a very slack traffic policing outfit in Thessaloniki which means people double park and sometimes triple park on major 4 lane streets. They just put the hazards on and go off and do what they need to do. Due to this, the traffic is mental and on top of that the people love a j-walk so how I didn't see an accident ill never know. Other than these two things I noticed that you could take as a negative then the rest to me we was brilliant. Lots of bars, great smells, great food, good shops and I managed to find a new camera that I'm very happy with.
As I sat playing around with it a man from Ghana approached me with bracelet in hand, here we go I thought, "Hello my friend, where you from?" A standard start to the conversation and I knew what was coming next. This guy then put the bracelet on me straight away though and then gave me the guilt trip after! Well played sir but you have just wasted a good bracelet on the cheapest man in the town. I gave him 40cents and even then he was lucky to get that as I had warned him he wasn't getting anything. "Not even 50 cents for water?" He said. "Water's free" I laughed, I should know, I would be bankrupt if I had to pay for all the water I've managed to get! He walked off seemingly quite gutted and I was actually rather happy with my second purchase of the day. (It has bright colours that i will make the most of before the dust and dirt attacks it and it becomes a diseased ring around my wrist)
I walked back to the hotel and sunbathed around the pool. There were 2 couples sat around the pool and one immediately goes into guess the nationality mode. I heard one girl talking, "Where in England are you from?" I asked, "near Guildford" she replied. (Nailed it! I knew it was a southern accent) Sarah and Mike were a lovely couple on their holiday and we talked for a few hours about various things but also why on general we think most people in England are less inclined to give the hospitality out that I have received on my ride. We blame the media for negative stories that keep people living in fear, not trusting anyone and with an all-round more negatively swayed view on foreign people and foreign situations. There you have it, issue solved!
It was a good chat and helped me to really appreciate where I was, what I was doing and take in what has happened. I left to go back to my room where I had a nice setup of Youth Cup football on tv, some Greek beers, a few crisps and sat in the sun on my balcony. I was going to soak this in as long as I possibly could!
A few hours past and it was around 9pm when I had a phone call from Apostolis. He was just down the road at a bar called the Beerstore with his wife and he wondered if I wanted to join him. As I was just on my way out anyway, I did. Our great conversation continued and I had food and some Cypriot beer and we sat outside talking till gone 12! The streets were still packed the place was still buzzing and I asked Apostolis "Don't you have work tomorrow?" "Yes, but this is Greece, this is what we do!" I'm pretty sure I was made for their way of life so Thessaloniki goes down just above Basel as places to return to when possible. (Sorry SCORT guys)
I headed back to the room and really did not want the night to end. The thought of leaving again tomorrow made my legs ache and I knew that was that now. From here on in, it's going to get very very tough!
Quick check of the Champions League results then night. A very nice, relaxing day.
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