Traveling with Chookie: The Past Two Months: Greece Part 1 [Thessaloniki, Meteora]

Hey, all! I know I’m behind so please bare with me! After this and my next post about Amsterdam (unless I find it is too hard to write about it without sharing too much with my parents…), I’ll be fully caught up. Anyways, I know how depressing my description of Bulgaria was, so hopefully my description of Greece will brighten your mood a bit.

Our trip to Greece began with a very sketchy train ride (my first real train ride ever!) from Sofia, Bulgaria to Thessaloniki, Greece. It was a long, boring and cold six hours but I finally saw Ferris Buhler’s Day Off for the first time, as well as watched The Parent Trap for the 16^th time. When we finally arrived, it was raining and cold, but I was super stoked to be in Greece. We got to our hotel around 11:30pm (November 24^th), we were assigned our rooms, and then all went right to sleep. The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel at around 9am, and let me tell you—the yogurt was LIFE CHANGING. Chobani got nothin’ on real Greek yogurt. I no longer want 0% fat bullshit; give me the whole 100%, baby. Anyways, we spent out first day in Thessaloniki (or to the Jews: Salonika) learning about the Jews who used to populate the city, and their history over the years. [For anyone curious as to what life was like for the Jews in Salonika over the years, check out this wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Thessaloniki] At 10am, our tour guide, Hella, brought us to the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki where we got to see a visual timeline of the history of the Jews there, as well as photo exhibits and artifacts on display. One artifact stood out the most for me: it was a piece of a striped shirt with the “Jude” star sewn on. On this piece of fabric was printed: “I managed to get a hold of a pencil and some scraps of paper. I started to draw some various types among the women prisoners. Young girls, who had friends among the male inmates and who used to get gifts of food, asked me to draw their portrait. The payment—a piece of bread. I also did drawings of women wearing some pyjamas at the Stutthof Concentration Camp. They were drawn in pencil on poor quality paper, which I received from a girl who worked on registering the prisoners. These drawings I hid in my clothes for the five months we spent in the labor camp.” This was written by one of the few survivors from Thessaloniki. Almost the entire Jewish population of Thessaloniki was killed during the holocaust—50,000 people.

Our next stop was the “Monastirlis Synagogue, which was built in 1927-28 by Jews originating from Monastir (former Yugoslavia) and was dedicated by the Chief Rabbi of Thessalonica in 1927. It was saved during the war after being requisitioned by the Red Cross. In June 1978 the earthquake that shook the city caused extensive damage to the building and its services were suspended until the delicate task of its restoration was completed, with funds provided by the Greek Government that considered it as one of the historical monuments of Thessalonica,” (description by Peter Geffen). The synagogue was very beautiful, and very new looking. Hella gave us a detailed description of the synagogue and then, of course, we all sang a ladino song because Peter lives for breaking out in song when it is clearly uncomfortable for everyone else. We then visited another synagogue called Yad Lezikaron, which was opened in 1984 in honor of those killed in the Holocaust. The Synagogue is located in the Market area of Thessalonica still known as the Modiano Market after the wealthy Jewish family that originally owned it in the early 1900’s. Our last stop of the day was a Holocaust Memorial commemorating the 50,000 Jews from Thessaloniki killed in the Holocaust. After we learned about the memorial we went to the old train station in which the 50,000 Jews were deported to the death camps. We were told that the journey these Jews took in the train was the longest out of any of the other Jews who traveled to the camps from all over Europe. These Jews suffered a full eight days in the train cars without any food and water, and upon arrival to the camps, at least two or three people were already dead in each car due to starvation and disease—such a horrible thing to think about. We walked down the railroad tracks and it reminded me of being in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Walking down those tracks in silence made me really emotional as I imagined all the innocent people who were torn away from their lives in Greece and taken to face their deaths by the hands of the Nazis.

After a long and eventful day, we were given free time to explore the city nightlife and cuisine. My friend’s brother went on Kivunim two years prior and suggested a fabulous restaurant in an awesome area of the city. The area was vibrant and full of beautiful Greek people. Everyone was ridiculously good looking, and all I wanted was to be swept off my feet by a young Greek hottie like Lena was in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. A girl can dream, ammiright? Anyways, the food was so delicious, very authentic and all local! I loved it. After dinner, a bunch of my friends and I went to a cool bar in the area and had a really great time. Day one in Greece was so awesome and it set the stage for what I knew would be an adventurous, educational and overall surreal next week.

The next morning, after a nice dosage of burnt toast to cure the horrible hangover I was experiencing (go carbon!), we packed our bags and loaded the busses and by 9:30am, we were on our way to Meteora, aka the most magnificent place in the world. After a long, windy and extremely nauseating three-hour drive we finally made it to Meteora. I do not exaggerate when I say that this place was truly magical. Located in the city of Kalambaka is The Meteora, which means “suspended rocks,” “suspended in the air” or “in the heavens above.” The Meteora are massive rock formations that are hundreds and hundreds of feet tall—so tall, they are literally in the clouds. These rocks are a special kind of rock only found underwater, which means once upon a time, the entire area was underwater. Scientists have even discovered thousands of fossils of fish and snails in the area. The incredible rock formations are home to many monasteries including the Varlaam Monastery, which we visited. It was absolutely breathtaking; I felt as if I were in the clouds and on top of the world. I can’t exactly describe the feelings that overcame me upon climbing the 175 steps to the top of the monastery but I felt very fresh and free. It was so beyond beautiful. After we visited the monastery, we got spanakopita for lunch, an authentic Greek food, which consists of pastry dough filled with spinach and cheese, then traveled on the bus for close to six hours towards our next stop: Delphi.

To be continued...