Thessaloniki

The journey from Macedonia to Greece began in interesting fashion - after walking across the border I found that the taxis that I had been hoping would be waiting on the Greek side weren't there.  I managed to book a taxi from a restaurant, so it looked like things were working out well.  So, 10 minutes later I find myself sat in a taxi heading towards Florina, the town in Greece nearest to the border crossing point, and somewhere that I could then catch the bus to Thessaloniki from. The journey didn't take long - even though according to my guide it should take about 20 minutes.  He was driving at crazy speeds, overtaking everyone, so I was trying to figure out whether this was the way people drove in Greece, or perhaps i'd interrupted his afternoon at home watching the football on tv or something.  All I know was that it was probably the fastest taxi journey i've ever had.  It was only when we pulled into Florina bus station and parked blocking the Thessaloniki bus that was about to leave that I remembered the hour time difference between Macedonia and Greece, and realised that the reason he was driving like that was in order for me to catch the last bus to Thessaloniki for that day!

The next day I explored the city on foot, starting off with the view from the White Tower on the waterfront.







The view from the castle looking over the city...