Day 1.

After a plentiful dinner in the tavern Krasodikio in the center of Thessaloniki, after a rest at the hotel, I, with the first rays of the sun, went to pick up the car from the parking lot. The fresh morning city was heated after a cold night. 20 April. In the daytime - 25 degrees, at night - 13. On the streets there are very few pedestrians, life in the city is just beginning.

Thessaloniki is an ancient city. Here and there there are fenced ruins, about the same as in Rome.

I was going to pick up the car from the parking lot. It was a bit restless for it, because the parking lot was arranged in words, and I had only a business card of his private parking. But everything is in order. My machine was already at the gate, waiting for me. The parking man was different, but when he saw me, he immediately went and asked - "Polo"? Was "Poleo?" ... I was stupid for a split second while my brain converted words into images. Finally, I nodded, and he waved his hand toward the car and lost interest in me. The keys were in the castle.

The mood got better. The sun was baking, the world around was full of bright colors. Taking his wife from the hotel and making a pen paid for two weeks hotel we went to inspect Thessaloniki and solve the current task.

By the way, about the name of the city. We say Thessaloniki. In English, Thessalonoki. It would be necessary to understand. Thessaloniki (Greek Θεσσαλονίκη).
There is a story that the Macedonian king Phillip II, the father of Alexander of Macedon, had a daughter named Thessalonica. The fusion of the two words of Thessaly and Nick. In honor of the victory of the Macedonians and Thessalians over Phocis.
And the Macedonian king Cassander, having married Thessalonica, also named the city founded by him.

This, of course, is legend, and not the fact that it was exactly so, but everything can be. And in general, Thessaloniki, the city is big. More than a million people, a large port, an airport, a large university.
First of all, we decided to go to the highest point of the city, that would look around and make a panorama of the city. My loyal navigator (according to the tradition of our travels, the navigator is always called Basov, greetings from Alisa Selezneva) called me a street and I scored it in the navigator.
Quite quickly we drove through the major streets and, at the request of the navigator, turned left, turned onto a narrow street. A winding began along the grid of tiny little streets, there was no good movement on them. The road led higher and higher. At some point the city was below us and the sea opened.

And because of the sea towering snow-covered peaks of Olympus.

he picture was so bright that I parked and got out of the car, take some photos. While I clicked the bolt, there was a rumbling of the engine and a garbage truck appeared behind the turn. Behind, on the step, stood two human figures in masks. Cleaners. Garbage truck drove past me and began to descend on a very steep and narrow descent. A car was parked in front of him. It was clear that a purely garbage truck does not pass into the gap between the car and the wall. But, apparently, the driver of the garbage truck had a different opinion. Quietly he made his way past the parked car. At some point, their sides touched the garbage truck, as in the Harry Potter movie, but still scratching the side of someone else's car, he squeezed past. I picked up the camera and started shooting. The figures in masks, they wrapped their heads and one of them even took off the mask. A woman was hiding under her. Judging by her reaction, she took off the mask in order to look better in the photo.

And we still stood a little and went on ...