“The journey brings us back to ourselves.” ALBERT CAMUS Hello, sometimes I wish I were a traveler, come home from time to time, get missed a lot, rest and relax and hit the road again, settle in Tibet or Nepal, like the lawyer in the book of the wise man who sold his Ferrari, call the office from time to time and ask how things are going, I know it is very difficult, but I also have sadistic ideas on a different scale, such as saying “You can do it without me, I should use motivational sentences saying I trust you”, then turn off my phone and laugh evilly. Thank God, customs and traditions and obligations and all those other things remind me to stay calm. Anyway, let me take a break from my interesting dreams and start writing… Finally, the seemingly endless winter and spring months are over, the busy month of July has passed, even the courthouses have gone on judicial holiday, and finally the time has come for the holiday for which I have been preparing for a long time. First, I flew from Adana to Istanbul, and then on August 5, 2014, at 19:00, I departed from Istanbul and reached Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, via the Ipsala border gate at around 8:00 in the morning. I have been very curious about Thessaloniki, or rather Greece, for years. Since I’ve heard so many positive things about Greece so far, when I combined what I saw myself, I kept wondering if I visited this city when I was high. Even though it is the second largest city in Greece, Thessaloniki seemed very neglected to me. Is it because Greece is in serious economic trouble? Or is it the siesta culture that exists in all Mediterranean countries, but which we do not have, and I cannot understand why it does not exist, and which I admire very much? I don’t know, but I was very surprised to see that the buildings or hotels in the most central points of the second largest city of Greece, which has been a European Union country for about 40 years, are at least 10-15 or even 20 years old. By the way, I very much support the siesta culture. However, if we took a break in the summer heat at the most scorching moment of the day and continued our work when the weather gets a little cooler, the work would be more productive and there would be no irritability or the smell of sweat. Anyway, my basic opinion about Thessaloniki is that our country will never have an Izmir, Antalya or Mersin. That’s why let’s appreciate our country. When we think of Thessaloniki, the first place we visit is, of course, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s house. It was a special excitement for me to visit Atatürk’s house, even though a white painted building stood in place of the pink building in our primary school books. However, it should be noted that while they were trying to restore Ataturk’s house, they gradually moved away from the original, and I cannot help but convey the general dissatisfaction on this issue. That is, if they emptied our house, cleaned and maintained it, and placed Ataturk pictures in the corners, I thought that we could very well have an Ataturk museum in our house. Household items, beds, cupboards, etc. They left nothing behind, or rather, they eliminated the feeling of experience. Ataturk paintings and statues were placed in some parts of an empty house, creating an emotionless museum. For this reason, I am conveying to those who finalized the museum the similar observations of 46 people who visited the museum with me, so that maybe someone will get the message and make an effort to correct the mistake made. I had determined the places to see in Thessaloniki before setting off, but since the city was not too complicated, I explored the city by wandering around spontaneously without following my observations too much. By the way, I noticed that I always use my sentences in the singular. However, we completed the exploration of Thessaloniki with my holiday friend Süleyman and his navigation. I would like to thank him very much for his pleasant travel companionship. Since the city is not complicated, the main points to see are already visible to you as you walk. In this sense, you will definitely not have any problems or get lost in Thessaloniki. Especially when you wander around with the mentality of finding the promenade and the White Tower, you come across the city’s churches, mosques of the past and churches or museums of today. KOTONDA MOSQUE Kotonda Mosque, namely its museum, at the central point of the city, is a historical value with different architecture. It is impossible not to encounter it because it is on your way. Greeks belong to the Orthodox sect, and as far as I have observed, the influence of religion is very evident in life. For example, I came across many small church-shaped architectures on the roads in Greece. I don’t know if it was made for worship purposes or if it has another meaning. The most enjoyable part of city trips for me is the crowd and diversity of the markets in those cities. I recommend you to visit the Thessaloniki fish market and its surroundings. Your first reaction will probably be to say, well, their market is very similar to ours. Once you have finished the pork sold in the market, go to Mersin fish market and its surroundings. At the most central point of the city, there is Aristotle Square, where you can say that you have seen bigger ones. The square is a large area in the center of the city and I think it deserves a short photo and coffee break. The season is August and the climate is not unfamiliar when the geography is a neighboring coast. Although Mersin’s humidity is more dominant, Thessaloniki is a coastal city with a Mediterranean climate. There is nothing to hesitate about what to drink in this heat, almost all of Greece is fanatically fond of Frappe, or cold coffee. With our ability to keep up with the environment, we drank our famous frappes and ate our spinach pastries during our break. The kalimera “hello” word of the Greek waiter who came to take the order was very interesting, I liked it 🙂 . By the way, there doesn’t seem to be much difference between Greek cuisine and ours in terms of pastries, fish dishes and appetizers. You can notice this even briefly when you look at restaurant menus or pass by a restaurant. We adapted to the atmosphere and drank our Frappes. After enjoying the square and taking a photo break, we continued our city tour. Thanks to my holiday friend Süleyman, he also likes to travel around my mind and does not want to leave any corner unseen. At the midpoint of Thessaloniki’s coastline is the famous White Tower, which used to be a dungeon but is now used as a museum. For 3 Euros, you can visit the inside of the tower and go up. Above the tower, a 360-degree view of Thessaloniki welcomes you. Even though Thessaloniki is a little old and a little neglected, it doesn’t look bad from the White Tower. At least you get some relief from the summer heat and encounter a view worth seeing. We said goodbye to the White Tower and continued our wandering along the promenade from the summer heat. There are statues at intervals along the coastline. Of course, the most interesting ones are the Alexander the Great Statue and Thessaloniki umbrellas. We said Alexander the Great, no matter what, but thanks to them they informed us, it turns out that the Greeks were very worried about this issue. As you know, Greece’s northern neighbor is Macedonia, and Greece does not accept and recognize Macedonia as a country because of its name, because according to them, Macedonia is the name of the region covering all of Northern Greece, the center of which is Thessaloniki, and it is a part of their own culture and history, so they live in Thessaloniki. The name of a large hotel on the coastline is Macedonia Hotel. Anyway, we saw the Alexander the Great Statue on the coastline, we said hello, but we learned that the Alexander the Great Statue in Skopje, Macedonia was 5 times the size. Let’s see, whoever has the biggest statue of Alexander will have all the history, culture and civilization. What can we say, politics is a ridiculous and stupid thing, and the politicians’ perceptions of life in the neighbors are so much… Continuing along the coastline, you come across the famous umbrellas that are symbolic of Thessaloniki. They look beautiful under the sun against the sea. In the heat of August, the Thessaloniki beach is not cool and in the mood that things can’t go that way, we came across a shop that rents bicycles. My holiday friend and I rented a bike for ourselves for 3 Euros for 1 hour. The coastline is quite long, it’s a good thing we rented a bike, it would have been very difficult to travel the whole thing on foot in the hot weather. Since I realized that the Greeks were no different from us in terms of traffic, I did not dare to cycle around outside the coastline. Even though it was tiring, it was an enjoyable experience for me. I was in a different country and was visiting a city by bike. Umbrellas, one of the symbols of Thessaloniki. No problem, Thessaloniki is asked from us 🙂 Greece is similar to us in terms of food culture. In terms of prices, Euro is valid in Greece and you will not have any problems finding affordable restaurants in Thessaloniki, at least we did not. Additionally, the city is easy to get around and the main arteries are close to each other. Even though we only had to spare 6 hours of time, Thessaloniki did not seem foreign to me at all, the life habits and people on the opposite shore were not that different from our place, and of course raki and ouzo were and will remain brothers:) What we call tzatziki, Greek friends here call it “caciki” and Of course, the only thing separating the peoples should be the Aegean Sea, not hostile policies. These two people, who are actually like a kind of mutual cheat sheet due to politicians’ love of creating enemies against each other during election periods and their absurd political tactics, still do not know each other and are afraid of each other. Thessaloniki, a little bit of ours and a little bit unique to itself, with its cold frappe, spinach pastry, my Ancestor’s house, which I don’t normally drink over strong tea and Turkish coffee, even though I don’t know it on holiday; We are entrusted to the people of the world. I would like to thank my teacher friend Süleyman ALGAN, who was a companion during my trip to Thessaloniki and continued his support throughout the holiday. Mavimore Turizm is a travel agency registered with TÜRSAB. Document number: A-8307