Katerina, a friend of Mathilde's from her Erasmus days in Perugia, was getting married in Thessaloniki (in northern Greece). We decided to combine this event with our summer holidays, and make a bit of a road trip out of it, by going to Romania via. Bulgaria after the wedding. That's as much as there was to our plan - we basically only had our flight tickets to Thessaloniki and the return flight from Bucharest.
So, to get back to the Greek wedding... After a rather tiring flight (with a stopover in Milan), we finally arrived in Thessaloniki. We tried to do some sightseeing the day before the wedding, but it was quite a challenge - what with a temperature of nearly 40 degrees in the shade... We did manage to visit a couple of churches and walk along the seafront.
About lunchtime, some other friends from Perugia started arriving - so the afternoon was spent catching up on old times. We were quite a mixed group, with representatives from France (Mathilde, Milene and Sebastien), Spain (Ines and Paula), Greece (Maria), Italy (Giuseppe) and Finland (moi!) - so the conversation was quite multi-lingual! In the evening, Katerina organised a great Greek meal for us in a restaurant near our hotel, where we familiarised ourselves with the local cuisine and beverages...
On the Saturday, we had a little more time for sightseeing, and also a local guide (Maria), who took us to see the old city walls (with great views over the city), and a couple of churches, again.
In the evening, it was time for the wedding. It was a very grand affair indeed, with over 400 guests, with a great party at a very nice place in the foothills of Thessaloniki. Great food, drink and dancing (including some pretty interesting traditional Greek ones...), the works... Getting back to the hotel proved quite challenging, since it turned out that the guy who was supposed to take us had already left - and there were too many people to fit in the remaining car (although the enterprising and helpful unfortunate who had been selected for taxi service did try to get us all to fit...). So in the end I had to take a taxi back to the hotel (fortunately taxi prices in Greece are considerably more reasonable in Nice!).
On Sunday, everybody kept a pretty low profile. It was a day for misty-eyed farewells, as people took their flights back home. Except of course us - for us the journey was only beginning, as we boarded the bus for Komotini.
So, to get back to the Greek wedding... After a rather tiring flight (with a stopover in Milan), we finally arrived in Thessaloniki. We tried to do some sightseeing the day before the wedding, but it was quite a challenge - what with a temperature of nearly 40 degrees in the shade... We did manage to visit a couple of churches and walk along the seafront.
About lunchtime, some other friends from Perugia started arriving - so the afternoon was spent catching up on old times. We were quite a mixed group, with representatives from France (Mathilde, Milene and Sebastien), Spain (Ines and Paula), Greece (Maria), Italy (Giuseppe) and Finland (moi!) - so the conversation was quite multi-lingual! In the evening, Katerina organised a great Greek meal for us in a restaurant near our hotel, where we familiarised ourselves with the local cuisine and beverages...
On the Saturday, we had a little more time for sightseeing, and also a local guide (Maria), who took us to see the old city walls (with great views over the city), and a couple of churches, again.
In the evening, it was time for the wedding. It was a very grand affair indeed, with over 400 guests, with a great party at a very nice place in the foothills of Thessaloniki. Great food, drink and dancing (including some pretty interesting traditional Greek ones...), the works... Getting back to the hotel proved quite challenging, since it turned out that the guy who was supposed to take us had already left - and there were too many people to fit in the remaining car (although the enterprising and helpful unfortunate who had been selected for taxi service did try to get us all to fit...). So in the end I had to take a taxi back to the hotel (fortunately taxi prices in Greece are considerably more reasonable in Nice!).
On Sunday, everybody kept a pretty low profile. It was a day for misty-eyed farewells, as people took their flights back home. Except of course us - for us the journey was only beginning, as we boarded the bus for Komotini.
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