Thessaloniki

We spent two nights in Thessaloniki (the second biggest town in Greece at 1 mil.) and almost all our group liked it much more than Athens. It was cleaner, less congested, and had a nice waterfront/nightlife. Here are some photos from a night out.


Aristotle Square

Aristotle was Alexander the Great's tutor



There was some Miss World pageant and I was stalking the contestants

The White Tower (also called Tower of Blood, since it used to be a prison and decapitated heads were hung up on it during the Ottoman Empire). Thessaloniki had a lot of cool preserved architecture, like the Arch of Galerius (who was the Emperor before Constantine), which was constructed right around 300 a.d. Galerius used to persecute Christians, and when Constantine legalized Christianity, he turned some of Galerius' stuff into churches. We toured the Hagia Demetrios, which is one of the oldest remaining churches.

Alexander the Great- good or bad, he was kind of a big deal in history. Thessaloniki is named after his sister. Nike means victory, and the region is Thessaly.

They turned old Greek boats into floating bars.

We met a pug there too, named Hercules. He wasn't nearly as cute as Burly, but cool name.