An Escape to Take the Waters

We’ve had a somewhat taxing couple of weeks… We had a multi-week internet outage at home (finally solved!). We were close to renewing our rental place for another 6 months but just found out our landlady wants to substantially raise our rent in May which has led us to wonder if we should relocate to another part of Greece; but it’s a tough rental market all over as we’ve come to discover. And, here in late winter Greece, we’re feeling cooped up because COVID cases remain stubbornly high. We’ve been anticipating that cases would plummet, like in the US, but it seems that Omicron subvariants in Europe are keeping the cases high here (and unfortunately it will likely make a ripple in the US soon). We’d hoped to plan a trip to Crete around now but flying seems too risky right now. So instead of flying, we decided to rent a car to get out of the city noise and bustle for a few days to unwind from our very, very hectic retired life.

We’d intended to go to Kerkini lake to see some of the migratory birds and nature there. But while Sam tried to book our lodging, someone else booked it right at the same time. Doh! It’s not an area with lots of inns so after a few moments of annoyance, we pivoted to another area that friends recommended which is close to the border with North Macedonia (if you ever want to raise a Greek’s blood pressure, ask him/her about that name!). We had a nice time in this northern corner of Greece. We spent a couple nights in Pozar, famous for its hot springs. We got to partake in a teensy outdoor thermal pool—enjoyably pummeled by a hot waterfall—and we also rented a private indoor pool for some more soothing, hot mineral water. It’s a lovely town. The whole place smells pleasantly of wood smoke from chimneys at a mind boggling number of tavernas for such a tiny town. There are vast fruit orchards in this area and the peach, cherry, and apple trees are just starting to bloom. It was joyful to see popping fruit blossoms with snow capped mountains looming over them. We also went to nearby towns of Edessa, known for its in-town waterfalls, Naoussa, famed for its vineyards, and Pella, the capital of ancient Macedon and Alexander the Great’s birthplace. The ruins of the ancient capital leave much to the imagination but there’s a nice museum with artifacts from the excavations.

And now we’re back in Thessaloniki. This Thursday is called Smoky Thursday here and it’s basically the Mardi Gras of Greece. Here, everyone will be outside grilling meats before Lent begins and diets change to their version of "fasting" (or not). It’s been a long time since they’ve been able to celebrate this day. The government is still limiting what can be done but last year’s Smoky Thursday was during a lockdown so we’re sure it’ll be a spectacle this year. This year, Smoky Thursday also happens to fall on the 28th anniversary of our first date! Maybe we can imagine that all the smokiness is to help us celebrate.