A Visitor from Finland - part 2

The second day started with me not having almost any voice, which was rather funny! The more I talked, the better my voice became, tho. The day was mostly spend walking around the city and visiting stores, as well as a cafe. 

We both agreed how funny it's that the rules of EU are followed so differently in different countries, mainly concentrating on Finland and Greece. Let's start with smoking, in EU it is forbidden to smoke inside. In Finland people, who try to smoke at a cafe or restaurant are most likely thrown out if they don't stop smoking. And in Greece people smoke happily inside next to a sigh that says smoking inside is forbidden, even the waiters smoke inside. The next thing is about selling meat, in Greece it is sold on streets and in Finland you need to have all special fridges etc. for selling it. There are even some restaurants needing to quit the business because they don't have enough capital to buy new equipment for storing meat, while in Greece they don't even consider using such equipment. I believe it's somewhat unfair!

And then back to the topic. After we finished shopping, not that I would have bought anything, we visited two more churches. One of them is called Aghias Sofias but ,unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it. I took many pictures of the other church, which name is unknown to me. However, it's funny how newer buildings have been built right next to the church - the walls are actually shared by those buildings. 

The day ended with eating dinner at a nice restaurant, recommended by the hotel. A funny thing is the restaurant didn't have an English menu, and the waiter asked another customer to tell about the menu in English. haha. We ate a Greek salad (which I forgot to photograph), a stake and ice cream as a dessert. We considered it as a late 'Father's Day' dinner, as I wasn't in Finland celebrating Father's Day on the second Sunday in November. 

That concludes my dad's trip to Thessaloniki. It was great to have him here and show my 'second hometown' to him. It was something I shared only with him, so I shall remember these days as father-daughter moments. :)

Ending with a view from my balcony!

A Visitor from Finland - part 1

The White Tower

In the evening of November 15th I headed to the airport by a bus. It was good to check how long it would take to go there, considering my trip to Athens. Anyway, I went to the airport to meet my dad, who traveled to spend some time with me in Thessaloniki. We didn't do much on the first day, as his flight arrived rather late in the evening. 

Some cute cats!

On the next day all the stores were closed, as it was Sunday, so we had to find some other things to do. The weather was somewhat nice; the sun wasn't shining, but it wasn't raining either. That's why we decided to walk a bit and go to the White Tower, which this city is known for. 

After the tower we headed to the Olympics Museum, which wasn't as easy to find as it's seen on the map. We did find it in the end, and walked through the place. I don't think I had been to such a museum before so it was interesting to see, tho it was mainly concentrated on summer Olympics and the success of the Greeks. haha. 

Our next stop was supposed to be a cafe close to the museum, but then I realized we were somewhat close to Ano Poli, so that's where we headed next. I just love to climb the hill - or not! I must say the view from there is very nice, however, it could have been better if there weren't so many clouds on the sky.

We found a nice cafe/bar there, where we decided to drink and eat something small. I had a mint tea, which didn't taste like mint in my opinion. Both of us took 'club sandwiches', but we had no idea there would be 4 pieces of them on a plate as well as fries. There our plan of eating at a nice restaurant in the evening went to the trash, as these plates were so filling. 

Later in the evening we went on a walk and decided to visit this one church. I'm not completely sure of its name, but anyway it was beautiful inside. It's always funny to compare Catholic churches, which are always super decorated, with churches in Finland (most of the Finns are Evangelical Lutheran, btw.), which aren't much decorated at all. 

The second day shall get a post of its own. :)