luckykaa

Writing this after returning; because I didn't bring a laptop on holiday with me.

So, in short, Anniversary trip to Thessaloniki, Greece! Where I went up a mountain, caught a nasty lurg, swam by a shipwreck, soaked in a thermal pool, ate in a rotating restaurant, sailed on a pirate ship, and acquired some gods and monsters. Still suffering from the lurg.

In Long...

Thursday:

Flew to Thessaloniki. An afternoon flight, which is always a nice time to fly. No particular issues. Landed. Taxi to hotel. Hotel is veery nice. And we'd splashed out on a junior suite, which was pretty sweet. It came with lounge access; where I took advantage of the complementary wine. Then we got room service because neither of us wanted to go out hunting for food. I had a glass of wine. I think that might have been my undoing.

Friday:

Visited by Bilious the oh-my-god of hangovers. And didn't sleep well. Fortunately it was a pretty easy day. A drive to Dion - Archaeological site - and Mount Olympus. And apparently some waterfalls that we didn't actually see due to some confusion. Dion was fairly interesting. Ancient city with various excavations. The directions weren't great though. Took a while to find the Sanctuary of Zeus. It was signposted but the only way to get there would have been to wade through a stream. Eventually found another route.

Next stop was Mount Olympus. We saw the mountain. Didn't want to do any trekking so admired the scenery. There was meant to be a visit to a gorge. That seems to have been skipped. Still a bit confused about what happened there.

In the evening we hunted food. There seems to be a dearth of mid-range places to eat! Turns out my eyes were bigger than my belly anyway...

Saturday: 

Hangover has turned into a cold. I think I the booze might have done a number on my immune system. Still, not feeling too bad.

It was my day to be a catfish! We went on a shipwreck tour. Long boat trip around the Thermaic gulf and we chatted to other travellers, all North Americans living in Europe. Once we got there. I jumped into the sea, and then decided.. Actually maybe a lifejacket might be useful for getting to shore. Just felt extremely tired as soon as I hit the water. Although really I would have preferred something else. A jacket was a little too floaty. Still, it made getting to shore a simply matter of leaning back and slowly floating.

I was surprised how few people were there. Last time we saw a shipwreck it was massively popular! Here there was only one yacht (ours) and a couple of small boats.Still had some distance to go along the beach to get to the wreck and that was not an easy journey. The beach was hot and rather painful on the feet. Shell grit is not a good surface. It's sharp and painful and gets unpleasantly hot. By the shore the gradient is too steep, and underwater it's too easy to sink into. The 100m walk took a ridiculously long time. Still, I arrived and had some fun swimming around the wreck. Saw some fishes and made a point of startling them. Nobody told them there'd be Neil's in the sea.

Our Captain Mikos was friendly but I don't think I'll ever experience a crew as nice as Ruben and Marta in Gran Canaria.

Sunday:

It's our anniversary!!! And we're seeing Hot springs and a waterfall.

The weather seemed to be a little sullen though. And cold is getting worse. Not ideal day for it. Still, determined to have an enjoyable day and there's not a lot of high energy activity planned. First stop was the hot springs. A choice of 3 pools. Two small pools and a "large pool". Turns out the large pool is essentially just a swimming pool; except filled with hot spring water. We spent some time there but it seemed unexciting. We moved to one of the small pools, which are a lot nicer. Very silty, so the water was opaque. Weather was getting grottier which was fine while we were relaxing in the pool. No qualms about getting wet and the pool was warm! The only trouble was getting out. We didn't want to leave!!! Alas we had to.

Went from there to a very nice restaurant, where I had wild boar!

After that we went to the waterfalls. Sadly by this point, Flick was getting very waterlogged and didn't really feel like traipsing around a waterfall in cold wet weather while wearing wet clothes. I ventured down myself. However, Flick did retreat and head to a cafe about 30m too soon. I did eventually persuade her to come so she could at least say she'd seen the falls.

We also did out first souvenir hunt. We acquired Hera, to go with our collection of deities.

Returned to hotel, fortunately most of the route was under shelter, but Flick was feeling very soggy at this point.

Evening plan was to go to the Rotating Restaurant. Weirdly difficult describing to taxi drivers where we wanted to go until I pulled up a picture. They apparently don't call it OTE tower in Greek. We arrived, and the lift was out of order. After a long wait, we eventually accepted that we'll have to go up the stairs. Not something we were in the mood for. Still, we made it. I was also a little upset that the restaurant didn't appear to be  rotating. Turns out it was, just very very slowly. Takes an hour to do a complete revolution. Had a bit of confusion over the bill. Settled that and headed home.

Monday:

Cold is getting worse. Fortunately we had planned on doing nothing. So I napped. Then we went for a chocolate massage. Established that chocolate massage oil does in fact taste of chocolate. After that I was feeling somewhat rejuvenated, and somewhat hungry. Found a nice cafe that did a selection of seafood and cheeses, where we were pestered by cats. I shared some steamed mussels with the cats. Next bit of souvenir hunting - We acquired Hades to add to the collection.

Was originally planning to explore the city today but didn't feel up to it. Instead I took advantage of the hotel's indoor pool. It turns out it's a dimly lit pool with ambient music (and rather annoyingly, notification pings because it was just connected to a phone via bluetooth) designed for relaxation. Very pleasant.

Wrapped up the day with a ride on the Arabella! A pirate ship! Well, a 1930s ship designed to look like a pirate ship and functioning primarily as a bar, while 80s hit played - an authentic pirate theme obviously important here - We did get to zip along the coast of the city as the sun set, and enjoyed cocktails, served in piratically themed drinking vessels.

Tuesday:

Flying home. Was not a lot to do at the airport and I made the foolish mistake of going through passport control too soon. Manchester decided to welcome us back with rain. Boo! On the plus side, the airport was pretty much empty. Waltzed straight though to passport control.

I have to say, despite a few things not quite going as hoped and fighting a cold, I did enjoy the trip. I just wish I'd seen more of the city. it's not a big tourist area. We could easily have managed it on Monday if I was feeling up to it but I wanted to relax. And I don't think that was a bad thing. We booked a nice hotel for a reason so I'm, pleased we took advantage of the amenities.

Went to lake Vouliagmeni. It's a water themed day.

We were a bit uncertain about getting there. Were our tickets valid all that way out? No idea. But decided to just wing it and see. Turns out they were.

The lake is a thermally heated mixture of sea water and spring water, making it slightly salty and keeps warm. Although in the summer that extra heating doesn't make a lot of difference. It's somewhere in the 20-25 degree region. I jumped in the water, and the fish swam out of the way. flickums was a little bit more nervous. Seems that the fish were bullying her by attacking her feet.

Spent a few hours there, chilling in and by the lake.

Next was the temple of Posiedon. This is a long way out of the city, so we took a tour. Tour was great! Guide really knew his stuff. Stopped at an ancient theatre, and broke a sandal. Fortunately the bus driver had some insulation tape.

We went on to the temple.

Am deliberately missing out an important detail at this point.

It's a fantastic temple. Pretty well preserved with excellent views. And one of the best sunsets, which we kind of failed to actually see happen for complicated reasons. I think that's just an excuse to go back.

Anyway we sat and admired the view and took photos both of and from the temple. Really nice day out.

Came back. Had cocktails. It was an exciting day.

Woke up at stupidly early o'clock because we're using a budget airline. There are no sensibly times flights to Athens. Still, got an Uber, managed to get through security reasonably quickly, had breakfast and flew into Athens.

A very long walk out of the airport, because budget airlines use the gates that are furthest away from the main terminal. Still, managed to get a metro to the city. Quite nice trains, and very cheap, and the station was a stones throw from the hotel. Checked in. Flumped.

Didn't really feel like napping so went to the rooftop pool. Nice but cold. Really hot day though so no complaints there. Walked into town through the Google's shortest route,. which involved going through a fairly tatty part of the city, but as soon as we saw a place with outdoor seating looking very much like we were abruptly in the overpiced tourist district.

We ate a hearty meal, then ate a lot of cheese because Flickums is cartoon-mouse.

Wandered through the tourist tat area. Warded off several attempts to give us a "free" flower. Then had a look at a tourist tat shop and had to fend off an overly pushy saleswoman. We just wanted to look!! We're not buying a figurine yet!

After that, it was time for the only thing we'd actually booked. A rooftop play - 4 man show. I think I was a bit too tired to really follow it but it seemed to be a bunch of stories loosely connected through a framing device of a time traveller or something. Despite not really following what the hell was going on or what the plot was I still rather enjoyed it.

Went for cocktails, Then to bed. Then an early wake-up the following morning because we had our road trip!

Olympia - the sire of the ancient Olympics - is a hour drive away, but was one of the main reasons for the visit - really should have gone when we were in Zakynthos since it's a lot closer. We were met by the driver, who seemed very helpful and seemed disappointed when we didn't let him open the door for us.

We took a brief stop at Corinth for a snap of the canal, then some hours later arrive. Went to the restaurant and had too much food , then on to the Olympia Archaeological site. Then it started raining! Fortunately, our very helpful guide found us and gave us umbrellas. We didn't think we needed them but the as the rain got worse we found out we really did.

So this is a UNESCO World Heritage site. These are always worth visiting because UNESCO doesn't give out World Heritage status willy nilly. It's an archaeological site so essentially foundations but with the information boards, geneally possible to have an impression of what these looked like 2000 years ago. Flickums left an offering to Hera which hopefully means that we'll be looked after if we try to find a golden fleece. We walked through the archway, and arrived at the ancient Stadium, where the ancients would run. I have now also run where they ran.

A few other sites of interest. Sadly the Temple of Zeus was roped off. Of course the statue has long since gone so this is close as I'll get to that particular wonder of the world.

By this point, Flick's feet were feeling a bit sore, and time was getting on so we had a quick look around the museum and headed back to Athens

Right, now I need some sleep.