First days in my new home

downtown Thessaloniki

As most of you know, all summer long I have been planning and preparing for my trip to Thessaloniki Greece with one of my greatest friends Anna.  And now, we are finally here.  After a 10 hour flight to Istanbul, hour and fifteen minute flight to Thessaloniki, 2 lost suitcases, and a pillow left in the cab, Anna and I have made it to the Metropolitan Hotel in the heart of Thessaloniki.  As soon as we got to our rooms we passed out and slept for 4 hours.  Thessaloniki is 7 hours ahead so although it was around 9am when we landed, it felt like 2am.  When we woke up we walked 20 min to the center of the city and explored. We ate lunch at a cute restaurant overlooking the water, but learned very quickly that 9 euros was an expensive lunch, and tomorrow we will get a 1.50 euro sandwich instead...gotta stay on a budget! 

never tasted olive oil so good

first real greek meal - smoked salmon club
with cream cheese, tomato and cucumber

lunch for two with a view

I've never before been so jet lagged. Took me 3 hours to fall asleep, and once I did I think I woke back up every 30 min...definitely never hit the REM cycle. Anna didn't have much better luck. When our alarm went off at 7:30 we both looked at each other in pain from the beds, we were already sore. It's going to take a while to get used to not sleeping with 3 mattress pads. Next stop is Crete but not before we go on a run along the coast and grab some breakfast back at the hotel!

view during our run in downtown thessaloniki.
the white tower has been adopted as the symbol of the city.
during the ottoman rule it was a notorious prison and scene of mass executions.

 

we took full advantage of our
free breakfast and packed
lunch for the day!

in front the metropolitan hotel -
the manager was so friendly and
accommodating to us we deemed it a
must to get her something from crete
(which happens to be where she is from)

who would have thought
these meant first class