Thessaloniki: Spirals

 Our summer was a bit different this year. The return to Greece for summer, after a while, provided us with a review of how we did summer. One thing that came up was the hope to have a 'road trip' feel to this particular summer and let things take care of themselves. We gave our girls a two week window and asked them to identify a place they'd like to go. When they finally sat down to look at photos (Google to the rescue) they decided - to daddy's delight - that Slovenia was 'on the list'.  And so we began a process of trying to find a reasonably priced way through central Europe before heading north and finishing up in Sweden (with Pappou and Moca). A pretty exhaustive research on potential flights, trains, cars, buses, etc. came up with a really cheap ticket from Thessaloniki to Zagreb. So it was only natural that both those spots would not comprise important connections on the trip. 

But Thessaloniki isn't just simply a stopping point. It's a point of family history. It's connections not merely in terms of changing modes of transportation, but also in finding one's friends and memories. And so Thessaloniki brought with it an opportunity to visit our good friend Gilly (some would call her a little sister!) and daddy's college roommate Aki (who was in the area for the summer). So rather than a off-the-train and on-the-plane change over, this portion of our summer turned into a two night - three day visit to Thessaloniki to see Gilly and her husband (as well as a day trip to visit all those places that giagia had mentioned in her journal) followed by a two-night stay in Vrasna (about an hour's drive west from the city) to visit Aki and his family (sister, mom and brother-in-law) and do the "Greek thing" including amazing conversation, incredible food and memories galore!

So there, somewhere between college stories and notes from giagia's journal, we were able to retrace our family's steps through downtown Thessaloniki (right down to the point where the hosts are done with us) and make our way across Macedonia to the beach. Life was good. Re-connections were strong. We love our friends, and family, and everything in between.