Jogging Tour (Thessaloniki to Rome)

So when we woke up and tiptoed through the apartment trying not to wake our Mr. Mouse, we packed and my man of a husband ran through the rain and caught us a taxi. We took the train to Thessaloniki, which if you googled it you’d see it’s a city on a bay that also has an airport in Greece. So there was an accident on the tracks (not sure of the details), and our WHOLE train had to get off and take 4 greyhound busses to a stop about an hour along the trek to get back on the train for 3 more hours.

Everyone was a little antsy, but luckily we found an English speaking young woman to take us under her wing and make sure we were walking and sitting where we were supposed to be. A few other Greeks caught on and whenever announcements were made they would lean in and explain in broken English. It was quite sweet. We felt very taken care of during this trip. We were 3 to 4 hours late for our next host, and he wasn’t pumped, but when we explained what happened he was super sympathetic and helpful. That night we had some local Greek food (DELICIOUS and fumbled around in a tired stupor until we fell asleep). The next morning we woke up and decided to jog our way through town. Double reason: We’ve been doing nothing but eating and drinking so we need to exercise, and we also don’t have all day before we need to get to the airport, so jogging helps us do that quickly. Here’s our jogging tour through photos...

We got back to the apartment, straightened up, then packed up all our luggage. We hadn’t been everywhere, so we thought we would take our two huge pieces of luggage and double back packs and walk along the beach. Maybe this wasn’t the most comfortable walk, but it sure was beautiful. It was also hilarious at times. We got a lotta great looks. Then my favorite was when a young man on a bicycle rode up to us and said, “Are you lost with a lot of luggage!?” He was very worried. Why would two foreign people be walking along the beach with a lot of luggage? Maybe we wanna check out the beach one last time before we go sit in another taxi or another airport? hehe...people are nice and we are super grateful. It’s so wonderful to see how people take care of each other in this word. We’re loving it.

We finally decided it was time to grab a meal and a taxi. We stopped at To DayLicious 

(a coffee and HOT DOG joint, yes you read that right), then had a great taxi driver take us to the airport. We chilled a little bit before they would let us check in and....before I tell you the next part...let me tell you, normally I cry a lot...but it’s almost always for things that make me emotionally, uncontrollably happy. But it takes me a while to cry about things that frustrate me and Ryan Air charges you 70 Euro if you don’t check in online at least 2 hours before the flight...per person. We strode to the desk, pleading that we have never flown RyanAir before so we didn’t know about this rule, could they make an exception. Straight-faced man behind the counter said, “It’s in the terms and conditions, shall I continue with the printing of the boarding passes?” WELL WE NEED TO GO TO ROME MR MAN WHO DOESN’T HAVE FEELINGS....goodness....tears start just free flowing down my cheeks and I just put my head down while my hubby pays the fee that doesn’t make sense while wrapping me under his arm. Because I didn’t hit “submit” on the online check in the day before, our new family is out 140 Euro. WHAM, that’s a big punch in the stomach. We then used their “free” wifi to make sure we were checked into our next flight out of Rome. 

So to all those who plan to take RyanAir in the future (which you actually should because it’s really cheap and can get you almost anywhere in Europe), just make sure you check in online before you go to the airport...bleh.

We played UNO...then flew a couple hours to Rome, then showed up at our next apartment after a few wrong bus stops, met our new host Giuliano-a just hilarious, crazy-fun Italian actor. This guy is so welcoming and makes you feel like roommates right away instead of guests. We left to go get our first dose of pizza (mozzarella and anchovies-accidentally but my dad will be happy). We also had a tiny little glass of limoncello (check the picture: it was delicious). 

THIS WAS THE BEST PIZZA EITHER OF US HAD HAD IN OUR LIVES-everyone knows we all like to eat pizza and we all like to say some place has the best pizza...this mozzarella MELTS in your mouth, the sauce was just the perfect amount and I have NEVER had anchovies on pizza, but this was delectable. The whole thing was mouthwatering and I’m glad they invented it. We headed back to thank Giuliano for the recommendation and he had remembered it was our honeymoon...he popped open a bottle of wine for us and moved his record player into our room with some “wedding music”. 

We embraced the tunes from the 50s and fell asleep happy...sooooo pumped to see Rome the next day.