A Journey To Thessaloniki By Train.

A Journey from Nafplio to Thessaloniki by Train, 2006. This is an extract from my diary and describes a journey we (Alison and Barry Mitchell) made by train from Nafplio in the Peloponnesus to Thessaloniki. It perhaps wasn’t the most successful trip we ever had so I sound a bit grumpy at times. However, that’s how it was – I haven’t edited the diary entry in any way. Fri 10 February 06 We got up at 7.30 am and got ready, then walked down to the bus station. We had time for a quick spinach pie before boarding the bus, but unfortunately not for the cappuccino which we also bought. The bus journey to Athens was uneventful and we got a taxi from Kiffisou station to Larissa station. Just before the bus got into the station I noticed that you can see the Parthenon from the bus, which I have never noticed before. What we were calling Larissa station (Larisi actually) is really Kentrikos Station, Larissa station being the underground station which is right beside it (literally three yards away). The taxi driver asked us if we wanted the train to Thessaloniki, which we said we did. He spoke no English, but asked us where we were from and interested to hear that we were from Nafplio, as he was from Argos. The trip from Kiffisou to Kentrikos cost eur8, which is probably only mildly extortionate. (But he kindly rounded it up to eur10 for us!). We arrived at Kentrikos Station and went in. It was very busy. Our first job was to find out if the train we expected to get at about 1.30 was leaving. The answer was Ochi, there was no train leaving until 4.20. So the timetable published on the internet was on this occasion not correct. I don’t know why we were surprised about this. I joined the ticket queue and asked for two 1st class tickets in Greek. This was one of those occasions where reply was long and incomprehensible. I thought perhaps that he was saying that there was not first class. I got the tickets anyway. So we had a lot of time to kill before 4.20. It was about 12.00. Alison had the idea of taking the underground to Syntagma Square and having a coffee or our lunch there. This seemed to me like an excellent idea, so we had our first trip on the Athens underground. And how impressive it is – clean and efficient and even has a Victoria St Station! It was only four stops to S Square and it was interesting to come at that interesting station, surely the best (or at least, most interesting) underground station in the world. My favourite bit is the grave from the classical period (one can imagine the conversation – “Seen any good plays lately”?). We emerged into Sy. Sq. and headed for The Ethnikon, our favourite watering hole. It was just about warm enough, or not cold enough, to sit outside. As we had a coffee a demonstration paraded around the square, complete with megaphones and banners. I don’t know what the demonstration was about. After that we headed up to Plaka and had a nice lunch in an estiatorio. Back to The Ethnikon for a coffee and then we headed back to Larissa station on the underground. We bought a few snacky things from a periptero beside that station and then headed on to the

platform. We waited in the first class passenger’s waiting room until the train arrived. When it did, a somewhat chaotic scene took place, as people tried to find their correct carriage. The carriages were not numbered, which was causing the problem. Apparently everyone is allocated a seat, just like on the buses. I showed my ticket to a guard and he told us to get on carriage 8 at the front of the train, which was the only first class carriage. So we had got first class tickets after all. We got on, but someone was in our seats so we sat in free seats. The train was very busy, and I suspect people were not sticking to the system. Soon a Japanese man came along and took Alison’s seat, so I gave her my seat went and found a seat about 10 rows away. It was not long out of Athens until we started seeing quite a lot of snow, and not just on the mountains. But it soon got dark, and our desire to see something of Northern Greece was frustrated. As we approached Thessaloniki there was thick snow on the ground, and when we got off the train the platform was icy. We made our way out of the station (a soulless and utilitarian 70s-style building) and got a taxi to The Makedonia Palace. We were sharing the taxi with two other passengers and the taxi driver discussed the problems caused by the bad weather with them (we think). We arrived at the hotel at 11.30pm and went down to the bar for a coffee. Our room was quite nice, and as we were on the 7th floor facing the harbour we had quite a good view. Alison was dying for a cup of hot chocolate and so we went downstairs to where 2 of the lounge/bars were. One of them wasn’t open so we went to the other – however, they had turned the coffee machine off, so no hot choc! We went up to the 9th floor to the 3rd bar, but it was very smoky, so decided not to stay there (& therefore didn’t find out whether they had hot choc!). In the end we ordered two hot chocolates and bottle of water and some biscuits from room service – (6 mini cookies) – eur16.90 but very satisfied – eventually. The waitress in the 1st bar tried to persuade us to have an alcoholic drink instead, but we were strong. Sat 11 Feb 06 We woke up at 8.00am. We had breakfast at the hotel and then went out onto the sea front. It was quite cold. We walked down the sea front towards the famous White Tower, passing along the way a huge statue of Alexander the Great. He is on a horse, sword in hand. This statue bears out the observation of Edward Gibbon that mankind bestows more admiration on its destroyers that on its benefactors. I have had more pleasure looking at the statue of Hippocrates in Kos town or the statue of Sappho at Mytilene. The effect of the Alexander statue is stiff and uninspiring. At least the monument serves the useful function of providing a skateboard area of Thessaloniki’s teenagers. As the White Tower was open we went in and went up to the top, where there are excellent views of Thessaloniki. The building is also impressive, but obviously under-used at the moment. There are plans to use it as a museum, I believe. After that we walked down to the end of the sea front as far the passenger terminal for ships. It is a very long sea front.

We walked back through the city centre, which was busy. We saw a shop selling its own soaps etc. and went in out of interest, given our plans for our own business. When I say we went in, I should say we were dragged in by the shopkeeper who virtually dragged us in off the street and went on to give us an enthusiastic description of his product range. The products looked good, but we thought the shop was a bit cluttered. We bought some milk soap, which we later compared to Korres milk soap. From there we walked up to The Archaelogical Museum and The Byzantine Museum, which are very close together. I had hoped to see the remains of Philip of Macedonia’s tomb, which I had read were in the museum. When we found the Arch. Museum it looked very much like a building site. We went in to find that there was only one exhibition on, an exhibition about ancient gold. This was a bit disappointing. The exhibition was very interesting, and the craftsmanship of the items was very impressive. There was also information on the inhuman treatment of ancient gold miners, the slaves who toiled to make these vain baubles of man’s vanity possible. However, there was one truly amazing item on display, which is the Derveni Krater. This comes from a grave c.330BC. The craftsmanship of this item is truly amazing, and the theme is the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne. The detail is incredible and the standard of the design is exemplary. The krater is in a virtually perfect state. The material is also notable, since it looks like it is gold-plated but there is no gold at all in the piece. In the same grave was a parchment which is the only example of a parchment being preserved in Greece. This parchment was preserved because it was charred. The text is a philosophical work. Whoever was buried in the Derveni grave, their taste and interests were worthy of a Renaissance prince. After that we went across to The Byzantine Museum, which we had to look at quickly since it was less than an hour to closing time. The museums close at 3pm. I didn’t think this museum was quite as impressive as its counterpart in Athens. There is one room devoted to the private collection of a Greek chemist, and there are a couple of wellpainted icons there with beautifully painted faces of the The Virgin. One has a kind of monochrome face – very unusual. But there is also some not very good stuff there. In another room are some large icons, which are impressive. After the Byzantine Museum we decided to walk up to the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda. By this stage we were forming a not very favourable impression of Thessaloniki. It is obviously a culturally very active place, but the buildings are undistinguished, if not downright ugly. On our way up to The Arch we saw a modern arch and a fountain which looked like a 70s-type building. There was also a water feature there, but with no water switched on. As we walked up towards the hill we could not help but be reminded on that phase of British town development of which The Bullring is the peak. The apartment buildings of Nafplio, if uniform, at least do not have the grey untilitarian ugliness that is found in Salonica. At the top of the hill we came to the University campus, another modern development that would not have looked out of place in Sheffield. I commented that Salonica was the Greek equivalent of Liverpool and Alison agreed.

We took some photos of the Arch of Galerius and the Rotunda and walked down through the city centre to the seafront. We took some photos of the impressive umbrella sculpture and then went back to the hotel. It was cold and we were tired as we had been walking around for quite a long time. A cold wind had appeared during the day. We had a coffee in the hotel and then went up to our room. The winter Olympics was on Eurosport so we watched that for a while. We had a very nice meal in the hotel which cost a whopping eur98, but was perhaps worth it. We decided not to stay another day in Salonica. Apart from anything else, the next day would be Sunday, which would be very quiet. We asked the hotel to find out train times back to Athens in the morning, which they did. The Makedonia Palace is not nearly as nice as The Athens Plaza (both are part of the Grecotel chain). The appearance from the back is of vast cube typical of a 70s mass tourism hotel, though they have made the rooms quite nice. It is a bit faded too. Sun 12 Feb 06 We got up at 7.30 and turned on the TV to see that there had been a case of bird flu near Salonica. There had also been some swans in Sicily that looked as if they had died of bird flu (though maybe they had been rubbed out by The Mob). We paid the bill – eur590 (!!) and headed off to the train station. Unusually, we had not spent any money outside the hotel on this trip, apart from museum entrances. As we had some time we decided to walk to the train station. It was very cold. The walk only confirmed our impression of Salonica is the Greek Liverpool. Our train was at 10.20, and we were getting slightly anxious because we not found the station by 9.50. But we found it all right and made our way to the train, which was on the platform. This was where the fun began. We showed our tickets to the guard who told us that needed to go to the ticket issue desk and get seat numbers. I did so, but was told by the person there (a very nice woman) that the train was full, and so was the train after that. But she could get us on the 12.43, but only 2nd class and with seats as far as Larissa. So I accepted those tickets. However, we decided we would try to beat the system and get on our 10.20 train. We wouldn’t mind standing if all the seats were booked. The trains were so busy because it was a Greek holiday, which we were not aware of. We got on the train but were soon told that we were on an Express Train and, to stay on, we would have to pay an extra eur80. Or we could get off at Katerina and get on the next train. We decided to get off at Katerina and waited there for the next train. But when the next rain arrived it was the same story and we were told to get off at Larissa and get the next train, which was the 12.43 and so the train we had tickets for. The station was very busy and it was clear that there was not much chance of us getting a seat. And so it proved. We stood in the corridor all the way to Athens. A pity we were not able to see any of this part of Greece. I saw a few glimpses of the countryside, and

there were some spectacular views of snow-capped mountains. The journey back was uneventful and we arrived back home just before 10pm. We decided not to travel by train again, as coach seems much better. Based on one journey at a busy time I can say that travelling by train in Greece is remarkably similar to travelling by train in England. The chaotic seat booking system that everyone ignores, the overcrowding. Though the Greek trains were fairly punctual. And so I achieved my ambition to visit Thessaloniki. I don’t think I shall be rushing back, though the experience was an interesting one. Barry Mitchell