Roadtrip to Thessaloniki

Beware, this post is pretty photo indulgent.

The roadtrip has been and gone in a blink of an eye. It’s sad it can’t last much longer but we still manage to squeeze so much into it that it feels like a weeks worth of exploring!

The Ferry

Unlike last time, the ferry was pretty uneventful (see here for last ferry experience)

We departed at 7am and spent an hour drinking coffee and watching the sun slowly appear, I could not have been more relaxed.

Edessa

After around a 3 hour journey, stopping once or twice along the way for toilet breaks and a couple of snacks, we finally arrived in Edessa. This wasn’t our final location however it was such an amazing place to stop. Edessa is known for its waterfalls and they really did not disappoint.

It took us about 30 minutes of walking around in circles to actually find them and once we actually saw them we were left wondering how we’d actually missed them. The sound of rushing water is absolutely unmissable and this one in particular was probably the loudest and fastest running waterfall I’ve ever heard/seen.

The water was flowing so aggressively that there were a few occasions I felt like I was losing my feet. I will now watch movies where they get thrown off a waterfall and roll my eyes because ain’t nobody surviving that!

After taking a few snaps in front of the waterfall, we headed behind it to see inside the caves. Before I’d even realised what we were doing, my boyfriend had paid a euro for us to go inside and look around. I’m a bit wary of being inside caves, I’m not claustrophobic but I don’t necessarily like the idea of them. After a quick look around, some photos and pretending to be Gollum for a bit, I had to get out. People then started to show up which made it seem even more intense inside and at that I felt uneasy.

The town of Edessa is very quaint in itself, there’s a lot of man made rivers and streams all around the streets and lots of coffee shops with views. We didn’t stay long so after a quick Pita Gyros, we moved on to our next destination.

Loutra Pozar

After a pitAstop in Edessa, we headed more north towards Bulgaria where we stopped in a place called Loutra Pozar. My boyfriend had been talking about this place for a while as they have hot springs and an outdoor pool. When we arrived, we were greeted with a slightly glorified jacuzzi which was full to the absolute brim with people. It was no more than 10 metres long and 3 metres wide. It was so packed we decided it wasn’t worth climbing in and opted to take some photos of nature instead.

The rivers were really warm however, and it was amazing to feel when it was about 5°C outside!

Unfortunately, we had taken about a 2 hour detour to get here and the results were just not what we expected. Despite that, I still had plenty of tunes on my Spotify playlist to keep us going! (see here for my Roadtrip Essentials post)

Thessaloniki

Eventually, after more time on the road, we could see the signs to Thessaloniki (‘Salonica’ to the locals). The traffic was chaotic and we somehow kept managing to be in the bus lane. I’m pretty sure we almost ran someone over and there was absolutely no order on the roads! It took us around an hour to find the hotel, despite us being about 200m away from it on several occasions.

We went out for food almost instantly as the four of us were absolutely starving and aggrivated. I taught the Greek Lads dad the word ‘Hangry’ and he has not stopped using it since.

We found a little grill house serving the normal Greek dishes. I opted for Chicken Kontosouvli, it’s one of my favourite foods.

Kontosouvli is usually pork and slow cooked on a spit (large metal rod). It is then taken off the spit and served with chips. The meat, if cooked properly is so tender and soft inside but deliciously crispy on the outside. It is absolutely divine and the photo does not give it justice!

We woke up early, feeling rested and much better than the day before. I was so ready to tackle the day, opened the curtains to be greeted with snowy climes.

Here’s the view from Breakfast!

We did have a sprinkling of snow… Okay I say a sprinkling, it was a full on blizzard from morning to night. Although it didn’t settle on the roads or pavements, we were left with a lot of ‘slush’ which meant everywhere you walked, it was slippery. Determined to not let it ruin our day, we ventured out to find the ‘White Tower’

It stands at a whopping 75ft tall and although it wasn’t possible to visit the interior that particular day, the outside was pretty impressive.

As you can see by the picture above, it wasn’t long until we decided to find somewhere warm and dry. It was pretty baltic and the coffee was calling me.

We took a walk along the waterside and were spoiled for choice. There was a never ending row of coffee shops/bars/tavernas ranging from modern to traditional. After some walking, we spotted a place with an upstairs, onlooking the busy road and sea below.

The coffee was obviously good quality and it came with a little chocolate mousse. Rightly so when it was 4€ each for a cappuccino. I wasn’t best pleased with the plastic disposable spoons which came already inserted in the mousse though!

For lunch I had Chicken Souvlaki which I completely forgot to take a picture of and then went to the bakery to get some famous Terkenlis. It’s a sort of sweet bread filled with chocolate and coated in chocolate/nuts and pretty well known in Greece.

After a large nap which took me forever to get out of, we dressed up ready to go to a traditional taverna, eat to our hearts content and listen to live Greek music.

The food was great, the music was great and the wine was the greatest.

We shared a huge mountain of mixed grill, potatoes, calamari, some unknown cheesy potato dish which was delicious. All food came quickly and was eaten just as quick. I’m not sure how much wine I drank but it’s always dangerous sitting opposite the Greek lads Dad as he believes your glass should never be empty.

Quite often in Greece, people walk round handing out roses. They trick you into thinking they’re free and as soon as you touch them they tell you a price. It’s a bit of a con however the Greek lads dad decided to buy one for the ladies which was pretty sweet of him.

After waking up surprisingly okay, it was time to get up and go. The wind was pretty bad in Corfu which meant that the ferries were possibly going to get cancelled or delayed so we decided to get back in good time. We stopped for a coffee on our 3 and a half journey and accidentally timed it with 3 coach loads of teenagers on a school trip from Albania. Thankfully we managed to get our coffees pretty quickly!

The Ferry was an absolute disaster and I’m surprised I didn’t vomit. I’ve never seen it rock so violently in my life! It did settle after a while and I managed to take a photo of some gorgeous views before and after we set off.

If you got to the end of this, congratulations! I did say it would be photo indulgent though with a video or two thrown into the mix.

Greek word of the day:

Greek: χιόνι

Chioni (hee-oh-ni)

English: Snow

Let me know in the comments if you’ve been to any of these places. Tell me what you think!

Jess xx