I guess Greece has a lot to show. Well, we did not see it all. Maybe we should have go to Athens, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes, but every our neighbor goes there. We'll pass. We have been to Macedonia. Yes, the home land of Alexander the Great, of Aristoteles and could be of other great people, too.

Thessaloniki, we expected it to be ugly port in Macedonia, but it turned to be pleasant, interesting place. Second largest city in Greece, largest in Macedonia and its capital, is a busy, vibrant place. Interesting is a story how the city was named this way: Some Macedonian king named it after his wife Thessaloniki, who was the sister of Alexander the Great. And her father named her to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory (Greek Nike, pronounced Niki) over the Phocians, who were defeated with the help of Thessalian horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. If this is not interesting...?

On the far eastern part there is a peninsula, well, a mountain called Athos. Peninsula has no roads, it is off-limits to ordinary people, just monks. It is covered with old monasteries and Athos is a holy mountain. You need a permission from some Greek ministry to climb it, so we were told. We thought we could go there anyway, somehow. No luck this time.