Thessaloniki, the Greeks, Greek logic & 25 MAPTIOY

I’ve made a few photos of the city to give you an impression of what it looks like. It has a lot of historical and cultural things as you will see. Kamara, where the arch is, is the student area where there are a lot of relatively cheap cafes. We also spend quite some time on Tsimiski street; the shopping street and at the seaside where there are many nice places but those are rather expensive. Back to base is a club at the seaside where the entrance is free but a drink costs 8-10 euros! Insane! I haven’t been there yet so I cannot tell if it’s worth your money. But what most students do is get out of the club to buy a drink at the kiosk and then go back in, since the entrance is free anywayz.

And then I would like to mention some things about Greece, its people and its logic.

In Greece sunglasses should be worn at all times; even when it’s raining and there is not a single ray of sunlight. And the bigger the glasses, the better.
It is rare to be able to see the real skin of women; many of them seem to use one box of powder each time to put on their face.
Furthermore, it is really really incredibly sexy to just walk around in your legging.

In Greece you are not allowed to flush your paper. That’s ok, most toilets have rather good bins to throw the paper in. What is worse is that most toilets do not have a lock on it, so you will sit on the toilet trying to prevent someone from coming by holding your foot or hand against the door. And the worst are the not-so-women-friendly wholes in the floor! People who have been in France or Italy probably know these toilets, but I had never seen them before! And they even have these toilets in the main library!

Furthermore, if you are in a Greek building don’t assume that the first floor is on the first floor. It might pretty well be that the first floor is on the second floor, because they sometimes count semi-floors

And if you’re driving on a rotunda you have to give the people that want to get on the rotunda right of way. How efficient is that…

When the Greeks say ne (which means yes) they shake their head
When they say ochi (no) they nod their head

Showing the palm of your hand, the way we do in Holland mainly in traffic to thank for getting right of way or to greet someone in the streets, is really offending and rude here

There aint no places for cars to park, therefore everyone parks their car on the pavement

The 25th of March is Independence Day in Greece. Some … years ago they freed themselves from the Turks. The evening before there was a football match between the two countries and the result: 4-1 for Turkey. Nice beginning of Independence Day ;) Sunday morning we go out of bed early to see the parade. It was kinda different than we had expected though. At first there were groups of people wearing the Greek traditional clothes, but after that there were groups of what seemed to be high school children and there was no music! Later also life guards and soldiers passed by. Then we took a look at the traditional dances that were being performed in front of the Alexander the Great statue. And then we went on a boat for a drink and very short trip.