We moved into our apartment last Wednesday and we've been in it almost a week. The move was a piece of cake. We wheeled our suitcases out to the curb, stuffed everything in a cab, paid 5€ for the friendly ride, and were in our new place soon after. The place has some nice mid-century/1960s style. It seems like the vast majority of Greek city housing was built in this era. It's just a matter of how much renovation the places have undergone over the decades. On top of some eye-candy mid-century flair, we have a non-human dishwasher! We haven't had one in over two years, so that's a treat. And we can go up on the roof of the building and through the antennas of the nearby buildings, we see the sun set over the sea in the distance.
It's great to have a furnished place. We have a fully stocked kitchen! Our landlady seems to have accumulated lots of odd kitchen stuff in multiples and saved all the castoffs for this apartment. Fortunately, she's got interesting castoffs. Crazy stuff like a Romertopf(!), multiple mechanized juicers, a food processor, and two gizmos for making Greek frappés, etc., etc. We spent a half-day sorting through all of the kitchen cabinets to find the stuff we will use and storing the rest in high up cabinets (e.g., fondue set, cookie dough extruder, electric knife, a waffelflink---enjoy googling it). If we ever get bored or give up on learning Greek, we can find plenty of ways to spend our time in our own kitchen.
A couple of culture notes. First, Greek apartments seem to have incredible amounts of cabinetry and clever built in storage. It's mind boggling how many cabinets and drawers are in this place. That's true of almost every apartment we've stayed in in Greece. Second, Greeks seem to worry that they'll have to host, say, 50 people for coffee at a moment's notice. The number of coffee mugs, Greek coffee/espresso cups, and related stuff in each apartment we've stayed in is amazing. Yet somehow, I swear that on every block in Thessaloniki there are multiple coffee shops, busy at any hour, usually right next to each other. And a visual scan of the street will show paper coffee cups in the hands of about 1/3 of people at any hour. Oftentimes one person has a caddy with 3-4 cups. Who is making coffee at home?! Not us. We've gotten hooked on a Greek café and since it's about 1.50€ a cup, we are letting the experts make the delicious freddo cappuccinos for us. We usually have decaf, which is robust and sweet---something we haven't experienced in the States.
We're right above the Roman-built Galerius Arch, as well as a beautiful church built in the 1500s. We see these from our front balcony every day. And literally right below us is a top notch seafood restaurant called Lola's. Occasionally a musician plays saxophone on the street corner and we've lately heard smooth sax renditions of George Michael's "Careless Whisper," the theme to Titanic, and the ilk. And a branch of our favorite coffee shop is a short walk away.
Our landlady has been using this apartment as a crash pad, and apparently she has already spread the word that some Xeni (foreigners) were renting her apartment for at least 6 months. After eating at Lola's in our first couple of days, Sam went inside to pay. Our Greek doesn't exactly say "we're locals," so when the staff inside asked where we are from and Sam said (in Greek) we are Americans newly housed just above the restaurant, they all rushed out of the kitchen with big friendly smiles, introducing themselves (and they knew how long our lease was!). The meal was delicious---their excitement and warm welcome were the icing on the cake....er, fish! Now when chef Lola or sous chef Nikos see us take out the garbage, they wave and smile. As a side note, we actually ate at Lola's two years ago when we were last in Thessaloniki. Little did we know that we'd be living above the restaurant one day! Back then, we really enjoyed the fact that Thessaloniki has the feeling of a big village; we already had a very big shine for the place. It's even nicer living here and exploring more nooks and crannies at a slower pace. Our new neighborhood seems to be an excellent place to spend the next 6 months or more.
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| Our new rooftop view of the Thermaic Gulf over a sea of antennas |
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| Sam with all of our belongings in the hallway of our new place |
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| Seating for Lola's seafood restaurant and 16th century church, below our place |
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| If you look closely you'll see Sam (in blue sweater) waiting to cross the street with our coffees |
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| One of these apartment buzzers is clearly for foreigners (upper right) |