A return back to my home via Thessaloniki and EasyJet.
Finishing a walk is both happy and sad; happy as I will soon be home with my wife, sad as I will not be seeing new horizons for a while.
Before catching my bus I wandered up to the old part of Kalampaka at the top of the hill. I listened to the end of a service at one of the churches, impressed that the Orthodox church sticks to its rituals, with bowing and crossing and doing priestly things behind the rood screen, rather than trying to change to be "relevant" in modern times. From what I understood from the only person in the congregation it was some kind of memorial for his dead mother but he seemed OK with my presence. To reach Thessaloniki from Kalampaka you change buses at Trikala. I panicked a little as we drove through and out the other side of Trikala (the lady in the seat beside me with nails painted orange crossing herself each time we passed a church) and I had yet to get off the bus. However the large bus station at Trikala is out of town. The bus station in Thessaloniki is likewise a long way from the centre and there were no signs or information on what to do next. There were plenty of signs for Larissa, Serbia and other distant places but nothing immediate on how to get into the centre of Thessaloniki with its hotels and waterfront. I persevered and found the local buses and their little ticket office outside, paid my 1 Euro for a ticket and caught the number 12 bus. I got off somewhere near the centre and booked a room at the Hotel El Greco where the helpful English speaking staff booked me a fixed fare taxi for the airport tomorrow.
I wandered along the sea front, with the white tower and its buskers, and the market with its meat and herb shops. After watching the sun set behind the shipyard cranes, industrial but atmospheric, I adjourned to the Ladadika area and enjoyed a good and imaginative meal (the bream was prepared with spinach and capers) at one of its many restaurants watching people go by.
Finishing a walk is both happy and sad; happy as I will soon be home with my wife, sad as I will not be seeing new horizons for a while.
Before catching my bus I wandered up to the old part of Kalampaka at the top of the hill. I listened to the end of a service at one of the churches, impressed that the Orthodox church sticks to its rituals, with bowing and crossing and doing priestly things behind the rood screen, rather than trying to change to be "relevant" in modern times. From what I understood from the only person in the congregation it was some kind of memorial for his dead mother but he seemed OK with my presence. To reach Thessaloniki from Kalampaka you change buses at Trikala. I panicked a little as we drove through and out the other side of Trikala (the lady in the seat beside me with nails painted orange crossing herself each time we passed a church) and I had yet to get off the bus. However the large bus station at Trikala is out of town. The bus station in Thessaloniki is likewise a long way from the centre and there were no signs or information on what to do next. There were plenty of signs for Larissa, Serbia and other distant places but nothing immediate on how to get into the centre of Thessaloniki with its hotels and waterfront. I persevered and found the local buses and their little ticket office outside, paid my 1 Euro for a ticket and caught the number 12 bus. I got off somewhere near the centre and booked a room at the Hotel El Greco where the helpful English speaking staff booked me a fixed fare taxi for the airport tomorrow.
I wandered along the sea front, with the white tower and its buskers, and the market with its meat and herb shops. After watching the sun set behind the shipyard cranes, industrial but atmospheric, I adjourned to the Ladadika area and enjoyed a good and imaginative meal (the bream was prepared with spinach and capers) at one of its many restaurants watching people go by.
Next day it was taxi, a small but busy airport, a full aeroplane, standing room only on the train from Manchester airport (at least for half the journey) and finally home, plenty of time to read my kindle about the siege of Krishnapur. The tedium was rewarded by the welcome from my wife.
I should be continuing the next section of my walk on the E4 sometime in April 2019, tackling the Pindos mountains. The mountains had a light dusting of snow as I left Kalampaka.
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| View from Thessaloniki seafront as the sun went down |
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