Nasty Magazines from Greece

You like that, bitch? The unintentionally funny cover of a pulp erotic novel I saw at a kiosk in Thessaloniki. I wonder why the publishers choose an innocent, cute hedgehog as their mascot?

Greek Nationalism in Thessaloniki

Beautiful Thessaloniki! Here is a small collection of random shots from my visit to this city last year. I stayed for one night at this cheap hotel, only to move out immediately after discovering that it was mostly used for prostitution.

A couple in traditional Pontiac costumes pose in a rally to remember the "Pontic Genocie", a collection of massacres and Christian-Moslem clashes at the last years of the Ottoman Empire. Was this an actual genocide like the Armenian one? Or was it a bloody, guerilla civil war between two different ethnicities inhabiting the same place? Perhaps historians can know better.

A gallant statue of Alexander the Great dominates the waterfront of Thessaloniki, a city which actually didn't exist when he was alive.

Ok, so these three pictures might be a bit drab but believe me, Thessaloniki is still a beautiful place to visit.

The Hagia Theodora

Unless I am mistaken, this is the church of Hagia Theodora, at the center of Thessaloniki.

Buildings Seen From the Train

Historic Ottoman buildings and ultra-strange houses line the sides of the railroad that leads from Istanbul to Thessaloniki.

Salonica, Old and New

When you are in Thessaloniki, the most popular meeting spot is "by the Kamara..." This structure is part of the massive palace complex of the Roman Emperor Galerius that also includes the famous Rotunda and numerous ruins around Egnatia Avenue. It was erected near the year 300 to mark the Emperor's victory against the Persians, and the capture of Ctesiphon in what is now Iraq.

In the more modern part of the city, nice-looking buildings conceal awful and overpriced hotels.