Greece

Party City

Of all the countries I have visited, Thessaloniki remains the busiest city I've ever seen. I expected a slower and calmer atmosphere reflecting the country's economy, but that was not the case. People started popping out around 8pm for the overcrowded restaurants, then toward the city center and bars.

I took a detour by the fruits and vegetables market at around midnight, where two booths remained open every weekend converting into a DJ cocktail bar. The DJ takes the place of the vendor surrounded by stalls of fruits and vegetables. Along the seaside, nightclubs on cruise ships embark clubbers in the deep of night. All of this happened during the month of October, and I almost couldn’t imagine the atmosphere during the summer holidays.

But it seemed that the country was, and is still in crisis.

August 2009

October 2010

Moments

Did you know...

- Modern Greece is only the centre of the Ancient Greek civilisation, which comprised Southern Italy, the coastal areas of Turkey and the Black Sea, as well as some colonies in North Africa, Southern France and Spain.

- Greek people have one of the lowest death rate for cancer in Europe.

millenium.- The Minoan civilisation, that appeared in Greece around 3650 B.C.E., predates the first Chinese civilisation by almost a

- The world-famous Belgian pralines Leonidas were named after the homonymous 5th-century B.C.E. king of Sparta.

- 85% of Greek people own their accommodation - the highest rate in the EU.

- 80% of Greece is mountainous and 50% is covered by forests. There are about 3000 islands, only a few hundreds of which are inhabited.

- Greece counts some 7,000 (limestone) caves, forming 24,000 km of underground galleries.