Meteora to Thessaloniki - a cheese feast of a day




Moving on day.

Joan can never sleep well on moving on days.  Up and bolt awake by 4am, she decided to compile all our different travel blogs in to one place.  We've reverted back to Blogger for this holiday as the main site we used for 5 years "Travelpod" disappeared last year but we managed to import files from there into another blog platform "OffExploring" however that was proving unreliable at the beginning of this holiday.  Unable in a rush to find our original blog from 2007, we created a new one.

However with a few spare hours to fill, we've managed to track down them all.

Costa Rica 2017:

https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-in-costa-rica

Iceland 2017

https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-in-iceland

Atacama desert 2016-17
Canada 2016
Easter Island and the Lakes 2015-16
Southern Patagonia and Malargue 2014-15
Monaco 2014
Valle Centrale 2013-14
Japan 2012

https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-on-tour

2011 Tenerife
2010-11 Peru
2009-10 Patagonia (Argentina& Chile)
2008 Some bits of canal holidays
2007-08 Chile Grande


http://joannieandkevin.blogspot.com/


So it was about 10.30 am when we said goodbye to our hosts (in German....naturlich).

This time we returned to Thessaloniki via Larisa and then ran up the coast on the motorway under Mount Olympus.  It's noticeable that on both routes - there and back - there has been considerable infrastructure investment with hilly sections on our road map replaced by substantial sections of tunnels.

Even taking our time, filling the car with diesel and returning it, we were in a taxi to the centre of Thessaloniki by 3 p.m.  Savas, our contact, was still at work but we were let in by the cleaner.  Our flat is on the eighth floor via the tiniest,oldest but fastest lift ever. The views over the bay were amazing.  Savas told us to go for a drink and he would meet us at 4 pm.



We chose a bar on the front and had grilled cheese sandwiches with our drinks.  He texted us at 3.45 pm and said the flat was cleaned so we went back and waited for him - nearly three hours!!

Joan gave up and went shopping to a nearby supermarket for breakfast food.  During this time he arrived.  In truth he was very helpful and kind but said he had lost his passport and needed to go to Turkey the next day. Random! He gave us lots of recommendations of where to eat and drink - and also where not to!

 According to the guidebooks, the locals eat late but we were flagging and went out in search of food.  The flat we are staying in is right in the heart of the shopping and eating quarter. It was teaming with people shouting and kissing and man hugs all round.  Most restaurants did some veggie, but we settled on Mia Feta - a shop specialising in cheese with three or four dining tables outside on the pavement.  Hungry, we ordered appetisers and mains which came in random order and were huge.




We ate the aubergine involtini, the smoked feta tart,  the mushroom risotto and ravioli - all we delicious and salty but by the time we left, we could feel the cheese coagulating in our veins!  We realised we had had cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

https://www.facebook.com/miafetafetabar/
Back at the flat, we watched the brightly lit tourist boats in the Aegean Sea and tracked the arrivals and departures of planes from the local airport with the FlightRadar24 app.  At 11.30 it was still 30 degrees Celsius.





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