First day/night in Greece

I don’t expect all nights are going to be like my first one in Thessaloniki because if that’s the case, I’ll need to take a vacation immediately upon my return to Seattle 🙂

Wow! The welcoming was amazing.

Kostas picked me up from the airport and we headed towards Thessaloniki while listening to Radio Republic. One of the most popular radio producers and personalities in Thessaloniki, Stefanos Tsitsopoulos (also editor of Soul), was on (whom we happen to know 🙂 Well, he announced my arrival to Greece over the air, said few things about where I am and what I do, and even dedicated a song to me 🙂 Many thanks to Stefanos; that was a nice surprise 🙂

After dropping off the car in favor of Kostas’ Vespa, we went to find our friends Panagiotis and Athanasia. I hadn’t seen their beautiful baby daughter before 🙂 Of course, there was lots of food involved (which I expect to be a common theme while in Greece 🙂

  

  

After dropping off our stuff at a hotel, I met with my great great friend Katerina, whom I love dearly!!! She’s amazing!!! We spent some time alone at one of the coffee places down by the sea, before we were joined by Natasa and Kostas again. Then, it was time for .ES (a new bar & restaurant) where Kostas’ photographs were in display. We must have stayed there 3 hours or so… chatting, laughing, and drinking 🙂

(photograph quality drops from now on… iPhone rather than proper camera but, still… there are some amazing shots/frames… the ones that Kostas took 🙂

Then on to the streets of Thessaloniki and the various bars… art, meeting people, more drinking. Kostas and Nikos (his assistant) seemed to know EVERYONE. Even at 3am the streets were full of people… amazing vibe, music everywhere. Oh… I soooooo miss this aspect of Greece.

 

At 4am we found ourselves at a club, dancing… totally packed with people 🙂 We stayed there for about 30mins before heading for some food again 🙂

I am now in Xanthi, spending time with my family and eating mother- and grandmother-cooked food 🙂