We decided to go for a little day trip this weekend. First stop on the list: Pella, then continue on to Edessa. Both of these cities are north west of Thessaloniki. I had heard about Edessa from other American students here that went and it sounded awesome so I really wanted to go. I didn't know anything about Pella, but the girls I was going with really wanted to go so we did. What an adventure we had....
So we take a bus (like a greyhound) at 10:30 a.m. out to Pella. The bus driver pulls up to this sad looking bus stop bench in the middle of no-where and yells out "Pella!" So, we get off the bus. We're looking around like, "Oh my god, where are we?" (The first photo is where we got dropped off.) But there is a sign for the museum we came to see pointing down a long road. We start walking. 15 minutes later, we've arrived at the museum! It's tiny, and we go in. The museum has 3 rooms, and most of the display cases were empty with signs in Greek that we couldn't read.
The cool part about it though, in my opinion, are the ruins outside. This is part of the museum and we do this after the inside. It was GORGEOUS outside! Sunny and 70 with light to no breeze. We walked around the ruins. It was an ancient town, the cultural hotspot and capital of ancient Macedonia. There were old, crumbling columns still standing. Some steps that they had partially re-built for the sake of the viewers. There were also the mosiacs on the floor inside the rooms-and in the museum they had the decorated part of the mosiacs hanging up.
A mosiac is a floor with pictures, made out of different colored stones. The famous one that my friend wanted to see is this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pella_Lion_Hunt_Mosaic.jpg
It was quite stunning to see in person! It was perserved extremely well! The colors were very vibrant and the outlines of the hunters and the lion were very distinct. Probably the nicest one I've seen so far (I saw multiple mosiacs in different museums so far).
So, after the 2 hours we spent wandering around the ancient sites, we decided it was time to hop a bus and go out to Edessa, the town I really wanted to see. When we left Thessaloniki, the guy at the bus station told us that a bus goes out to Edessa every hour, 10:30, 11:30, etc.... So we ASSUMED that if we were dropped off around 11:15, a bus would come every hour around then.
I'm pretty sure most of you can tell where this story is headed by now.
We started walking down the road around 1 p.m. and we saw a bus drive up and leave while we were still a few meters back. Oh well, we'll just sit at the bus stop and eat our snacks for a bit until the next bus! None of us had really eaten at this point, and we were excited to get to Edessa and grab some lunch.
So we sat at the bus stop. I should mention at this point that where we were sitting was basically a hotbox. There was a bench inside a plastic box with a door-hole at the end. I already mentioned it was gorgeous outside... OUTSIDE. Not in the hotbox. Bad idea. There was another bench to the left of the hotbox, but there were two Chinese tourists sitting on it already, there was no more room.
After about 45 minutes, a bus going the opposite direction of what we wanted came by. The 2 Chinese guys got on and the bus driver came out looking at us saying "Thessaloniki?" "No! No Thessaloniki, thank you."
"Thessaloniki?"
"Oxi!! (no)"
"Thessasloniki!"
"OXI"
He was rather upset that we weren't going to Thessaloniki apparently. They eventually drove away and we sat on the other bench, thinking that OUR bus MUST be coming soon. We did see a bus going the direction we wanted, and it kept on driving. He didn't pull up to the Pella stop at all. So what could we do? We kept sitting there.
2 and a half hours later...
A bus finally pulls up to our stop that is going to Edessa. We get on and take a nap for the rest of the ride. Sitting in the sun that long makes me sleepy. So we eventually got to Edessa. At nearly 5 p.m. and we only have 3 hours until the last bus leaves for Thessaloniki. We get some snacks and walk to our destination: The Waterfalls. They were amazing! It was so nice outside at that point, nice and cool but with the sun low in the sky.
There are 3 waterfalls, the "twin waterfalls" and the "Great waterfall". We also got to go inside a little cave behind the waterfall, which was cool. We also ran into some other Americans there, from Chicago. It was a nice couple and the woman was doing some teaching in Thessaloniki. Small world.
(Side story: I've been telling people here that I'm from Chicago because it is the ONLY other city besides New York and L.A. that any Greek people know. Although, it's pretty bad when you tell an American you're from Wisconsin and they say, "Where in Canada is that?")
Well it was absolutely beautiful. It was a nice change from the city living. Pella was silent! And Edessa was a cute little town, and by the waterfalls it smelled soooooo good and the sounds of the water were very pretty. I really needed that after living in Salonica for so long. I kinda forgot that I really like that about home-trees and water... Good smells and quiet sounds! Yes, we have the sea here which is where I like to go and walk by myself and have some deep thoughts, but it's not the same when the city is all around you.
We walked around for a while and ended up taking the 7 o'clock bus back home. It was only about an hour and a half drive back to the city. The bus driver also played very good music all the way home! Cities 97 kind of music that I like. Once back in Thessaloniki, we went straight to our favorite taverna for some good food and free wine. We were rather exhausted at this point and asked for our check at about 11 p.m. and our server, Christos just looked at us and smiled. He sent more wine over instead of a bill. We love those people... they know us pretty well by now. And leaving at 11 is UNHEARD of. I am telling you, these people like to be out LATE. We left at midnight which was a tad bit more acceptable to Christos.
I LOVE this city, it is so much fun! I try to be like a Greek and stay out all night, but I'm just not used to it. I have yet to go out clubbing all night, that's not really my thing but I guess I have to give it a try here at some point.
It was nice to get away for a little bit to a nice quiet place. It really did remind me of home! Especially the middle-of-no-where, that definitely reminded Megan of home (who grew up in middle-of-no-where Wisconsin).
My roommate and I have been looking at our remaining weekends here and I am really going to be busy until June... we are trying to get in all our traveling since our time here is already half over :( Athens next weekend, then spring break, and then Istanbul, then hopefully Delphi (and other places in the Peloponnese), then maybe Santorini (which my sweetheart is trying to get out here for)... too much to do and not enough time to do it!! But if you're reading this Marc, Ali really wants to go to Santorini as well so if you don't come then we're going to have a romantic weekend there!! lol
Thanks for reading my long blog. If anyone wants to hear the funniest part of the middle-of-no-where Pella story, hit me up on FACEBOOK :)
Here's a video of the waterfalls:
No comments:
Post a Comment