Thrace and Komotini

After the wedding festivities, we took the bus with Maria to Thrace, situated to the east of Thessaloniki, bordering Bulgaria and Turkey. It's a pretty interesting region, with plenty of Turkish influence (Muslim villages, mosques...).

Our destination for the next few days was Komotini, were we spent a few great days with Maria's family. My stomach especially has very pleasant memories from those few days - thanks to the delicacies of Maria's mother (and her dad's tsippuro is pretty darn good too!).



Again, we didn't get around to doing a lot of sight-seeing, because Komotini was even hotter than Thessaloniki. At its hottest, I think, the temperature was about 42 degrees (in the shade!). So we spent quite a lot of time on the beach instead, which was fine by us - it was nice to be able to relax for a bit since we would have some busy days ahead of us. The evenings we spent mostly in bars with Maria and friends of hers. Which is of course the best way to get to know a country - getting drunk with the locals :-).



We did get to do some sightseeing as well. On Monday, (in the evening, after it had cooled down!) we went to Xanthi (with me driving, which was almost as much "fun" as in Romania!), an old well-preserved Thracian city. Very pleasant indeed, with a nicely consistent old town, with well preserved buildings. The plan was also to visit Maroneia, a famous archaeological site, but unfortunately, it was closed.

But anyway, we spent a great few days in this refreshingly non-touristy part of Greece, with some great people!