My Images of SEE – 08:13, Wed 10th August

We gave up in the park after being approached by a woman asking for 20 cents. So we went to McDonalds. We wished away the last 40 minutes over a Cola and McFlurry. Very Western! We then walked down Egnatia to the hotel, collected out rucksacks then continued down Egnatia to Democracy Square – then on to the Law Courts. As we walked down this street, a bus was coming in the opposite direction. Surprisingly it was ours! So we waited next to it as the queues of people grew from 17:00 to 17:30.

However, during this wait I noticed that our tickets said the 8^th August for travel, not 9^th. So I dashed across the road, half expecting the place to be shut, but alas it wasn’t. A woman checked that I was supposed to be on today’s list and re-wrote the date on our tickets. Phew. So at 17:30 we were loading on to the bus, handing in our tickets to two female Simeonidis staff. We grabbed our seats, and no sooner than we plonked down, than a woman sat in front of me swishing her endless head of hair over the back of her seat, into my private space. I had to take a picture.

Once the bus filled, we then departed. We left Thessaloniki westward, then turned north into its rural hinterland. The area was low, arid, and quite devoid of life. It seemed a very agrarian part of Greece, if not representative of the whole of Greece. Mountains were visible in the distance, 30 minutes in; then a man present on the bus began collecting passports. So we just copied and handed them in. 

15 minutes later we were at the border. A massive queue of lorries stretched about a mile to get in. The young man and bus driver went to customs with our passports. 25 minutes later our bus moved on to a duty free shop in what I would describe as ‘no man’s land’, but was still theoretically Greece. After a toilet break we then entered the Republic of Macedonia. At the next gate, a Border Guard got on and collected passports. He took them and spent another 20 minutes checking them. We then continued our journey.

Macedonia was literally a different country. Where we were at present, in the far south, there were vineyards and masses amounts of greenery – not arid at all. There were rolling hills, and mountains in the distance. We crossed the Vardar a couple of times before reaching the valleys. These were superb, akin to the Conwy Valley. Luscious green forest spread to the waters edge on one side of the valley, but on its other bank provided for fertile land. These were being toiled as we drove past. Even in villages where the houses were closer together, people toiled their plots. It then started to get dusky.

We continued through tunnels before reaching the first of two plains, containing the town of Veles one could only presume. We whisked past this, for another 40 minutes, before reaching the plain containing Skopje. It was a large expanse incorporating a settlement near to the airport too, although that was to the east of the motorway. We arrived into the central bus station for 21:15 local time – 5 hours after departing.

We collected our belongings then walked through the bus station to the cash point. We then made the 8 minute journey to the Nice Hostel. It was in a 2 piece apartment block, on the 3^rd floor. Our host was there along with other residents. He showed us our room, which was clean but basic. He took our passports to inform the police of our arrival. He returned, gave us the Wi-Fi password, then we left to walk into town. We walked past the Assembly building to our left, and continued to the old Soviet style shopping mall. Oh how 2 ½ years has changed the city. There is now an ‘Arc de Triomphe’ just off the main square, and on it even more sights to be seen. A massive column some 70 ft high with a rider on horseback. Behind that, a religious figure sitting down. Clockwise 45 degrees from that a pillared dome for something. Then opposite the river, 3 massive new buildings under construction blocking the view of the Kale fort; and one was modeled on a Greco-Roman pillared theme. Ghastly.

We sat down at Pelister on the square and ordered and over-sized meal. Cheeses, hams and pitta. Way too much for us two. We had some beers and relaxed for 1 ½ hours. The square was bustling., and the people seemed a lot happier than when I was here before, a lot more approachable. Also, it seems miles ahead of Thessaloniki on being a modern city, just the way people dressed emitted that. We left at 23:30 for the hostel, then tried to sleep. The fan was giving us its all but it was boiling – so we had a rough sleep, if sleep we did. And I had a rough tummy and headache. Welcome to Macedonia! 

The context of the latter part of the entry above is that I visited Macedonia for my first time in February 2009. My trip, on the weekend of Valentine’s and St. Tryphon (the guardian of vineyards), came about because of my employment with the Labour Party. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy provides money for UK political parties to send staff to their sister parties in emerging democracies. I got chosen to go to Macedonia to present to the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM, or CДСМ in Cyrillic). This party was formerly the League of Communists of Macedonia in the Yugoslav federation. I developed a two day training programme and delivered it to 20 youth members of the SDSM. Being the representative of the Labour Party in a foreign country was humbling, and a task I thoroughly enjoyed doing. This was my first visit to south-east Europe. I have been to Macedonia 3 times since then and am planning to go again this year. Back then, there was just a blank, wide open square at the city’s heart. The blankness ironically seemed to symbolise its grandness. The statues make it cluttered. But more on that later on.

My Images of SEE – 15:34, Tue 9th August

Our last day in Thessaloniki today, so we packed up and left our quaint hotel room for the last time. The hotel kindly kept our bags for us until later. We set off walking in the mild heat towards the White Tower, going via backstreets to keep in the shade. We decided to stop in Starbucks for an hour to pass time and read. Even Starbucks wasn’t a no-go area for the street sellers.

At 12:00 we departed for the Museum of Byzantine History, near to the Archeological Museum and adjacent to City Hall. For €4 apiece we wondered around a well laid out exhibition and architecturally easy to walk building. We saw paintings, mosaics, coins, tombs, photo’s of digs, kitchenware etc. All very interesting. It had a definite ‘Macedonian’ edge to it as opposed to a ‘Greek’ theme.

We left just after 13:00 and walked back to the White Tower. Local police were still monitoring the area in anticipation of a repeat of recent protests. We walked along the front to a small café and ordered food. One thing I noticed more and more was the Greek passion for smoking. Everywhere we were, people lit up. A filthy habit. The waiter apologized as the oven failed to start, so my pizza was late. Liam’s Greek Salad looked lovely.

We then left. I was convinced I saw a ‘Spar’ shop, so we walked the length of the shopping street, past the Ladidika area. I must have been mistaken, as there was no shop. So we meandered back to Aristotle Square, then up to the park further up the hill for the last hour before picking up our luggage.

My current thoughts on my visit to the Byzantine Museum, and the observation of the ‘Macedonian’ presentation of history on show, continues my observations made in a previous post – that of nation building in the new state of Greece, and nationalism as a goal and process.

To put the first idea of nation building in context, the modern interest in Greece began around 200-300 years ago, and revolved around the West’s rediscovered fascination with Hellenism. This connected Ancient Greek writers, philosophy, architecture, etc, to the present and was dubbed Philhellenism. This developing sense of common Greekness allowed the disparate populations to become even more strongly identified as Greek across the Ottoman Empire and claim almost 2,000 years of common descent. The Orthodox Church acted as the strongest pillar of unity via the millet system at the time. However, only a small grouping pursued this idea. Indeed the first hope of a Greek state was actually in the Ottoman vassal Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The Phanariots – Greeks who lived in a quarter of Constantinople and exercised great power in the Ottoman administration – ruled here and were seen as harbourers of Greek culture. An initial revolt there, soon suppressed, led to the uprising surfacing in the area now occupied in contemporary southern Greece.

Concepts of time and space shifted to allow for the perennial linking of modern Greeks to the Ancients and for the disparate groups to sense their commonality even over distances. Whilst not disputing that culturally similar tribes of Greeks existed prior to modernity, the fact is that only by a small group being able to (re)invent and communicate a national Greek narrative could people gain a sense of belonging to similarly defined peoples across space and time. But only the tools that states possess could accelerate these processes to ‘awaken’ those not already so. Education, a bureaucracy, the ability to communicate swiftly, all lent themselves to expanding the notion of a Greek national identity. But I’m getting ahead of myself as this is nationalism as a process.

Nationalism as a goal, according to Eric Hobsbawm, seeks to make the nation and the state congruent. And social constructivist authors, like Hobsbawm, all agree on the order in which this occurs. “Nations do not make states and nationalisms but the other way around”. So in the 1830s a Greek state was established not by a mass uprising of all Greek nationals, but by small segments of the population possessing nationalism as an ideal to achieve a national state for Greeks, as they saw them in their definition of what it meant to be Greek.

Yet by the 1830s, they had their state but it was in no way homogenous or national. The reality on the ground shows the folly in such nationalising and homogenising projects led by Greek nationalists – Greece at present still has Albanian, Turkish, Bulgarian and Macedonian minorities, however they are recorded or treated. Prior to World War Two it was in effect a multinational state. Thus nationalism as a goal, taken up by Greek nationalists, sought to create a homogenous Greek nation-state. But only by possessing a state could homogenisation take place.

Going back to the concept of time, opens up another observation. The link to Ancient Greek was only one era of history the Greek nationalists drew on. Many eras and empires existed between these two snapshots in time: Roman, Byzantine, Macedonian, and Ottoman. E. H Carr’s quote, that millions have crossed the Rubicon but it was Julius Caesar’s crossing that history documents, highlights’ the selective nature of historians (and through them nationalists) to mould their national narrative. This selectivity, by different people for different purposes, results in differing interpretations or frames which one can present a version of history by highlighting certain events or eras (or avoiding events and eras altogether). One example is Greek nationalists erasing Greece’s Ottoman past, as evidenced in Thessaloniki mentioned previously, as it did not fit their national narrative.

Conversely, at the start and end of the 20^th century, Greece laid claim to a Macedonian past centred on the ancient Kingdom of Macedon. However the Republic of Macedonia also laid claim to this. So we have a resulting conflict by two nations over one period of history in time and space (territory), both of which are seeking it solely for themselves. The recent Greek reasoning stems less from their historical claim to this heritage (which does play its part), and more from the desire to deprive the Republic of Macedonia of it as they see them utilizing it for territorial claims upon Greece. This dispute is still present today with the withholding of NATO membership and

EU accession talks.

I will discuss further the issue of disputed claims to history later on in this blog, but I wanted to give a flavour of how museums, whether archaeological, historical, national or even city focussed, all have a function in providing a narrative. More often than not it is presenting the national narrative of the state within which the museum resides.

My Images of SEE – 14:17, Mon 8th August

So, this morning my alarm didn’t wake us up at our scheduled time of 08:00. It was my intent to leave early to get to ‘Simeondis’ travel agents for 09:00. However, we slowly crept from our sleep to get ready for going out. Liam was frozen all night, him sleeping under the air-con and all, meant he had a disturbed sleep. I, on the other hand, stirred only once. We departed our hotel at 09:25 and headed west towards Democracy Square. We then turned off down 26^th October Street. I expected the shop to be at the bottom of this street – a good mile away. However the Law Courts, as indicated in my e-mail instructions, appeared to our left. So we crossed over and located our building. A porter indicated, using sign language, the first floor. So we went up. On the door there was a sign – in Greek. It said ‘Simeondis’ on it, but there was no answer. We tried opening it but no luck. Reading a number (and a vague similarity to numbers, a second ‘numeral’ we assumed it opened at 10:00, so we departed. To kill time, we discovered the old city wall. So we walked around the back (behind the Law Courts) via a small park, back to our original destination. The walls were a good 3000 yards from the sea, beating my assumption that they went all the way to the waters edge.

Once 10:00 had been reached, we moved in once more. Again the door remained unanswered and locked. Liam suggested we go up a floor, which we did. Lo and behold, there was the office. I produced my e-mail to the girl on the front desk. She opened her book and saw my name. I noticed it was at the top of the list for the bus that day – talk about forward planning! She took our passports, and gave us a stamped ticket and our passports. We paid €20 each for the one-way coach. It was to depart tomorrow at 17:30 opposite our building.

We then walked back to our hotel room. We rehydrated and applied sun cream before departing again – handing in our room key to the friendly reception man. Liam noticed a fort of the hill yesterday, so we decided to hike it there. So we stuck to a northeasterly route up the hill. We passed a massive open space, in front of what looked like a municipal building, which contained what one could only presume to be Roman/Greek ruins. They were spectacular, especially against the overbearing buildings around us. We then continued.

Above one of the next east/west roads we appeared to be in more residential surroundings. There were still slim and windy streets but the gradient was getting steeper. The housing must have been built mostly in the 1950s or 1970s – depending on the block. All had small balconies and over them had screens for shade. Cars were almost always parked chaotically on the road, especially at junctions. We pressed on.

Only for the local bus going past, to indicate some sense of familiarity in somewhat unfamiliar surroundings, we were best able to predict that we were on the right track. So we pushed on. We then got to a point where a house wasn't built in-between the sandwiched buildings.

The views were superb. It reminded me of images I have seen of Jerusalem – only with a bay; the crisp, turquoise sea glistening in the midday sun. Facing south, we could see east to where the airport was, scanning the bay – with its smattering of sea vessels – across to the tip of the port in the west. To our left was the old city wall, crawling past us, up the hill, to our destination. The Fort.

So we continued on for the last leg of the journey. Once we reached the ‘summit’ we realized it was closed. But I did get the opportunity to buy postcards and fridge magnets. We then went to the door of the tower, which had a decked area. The views were stunning. Now you could see the entire port too. 

 

Directly ahead of us, looking south was the wall striding towards the Rotunda. We could see the small, spiky tower next to the Archaeological Museum we visited yesterday, and the vastness of the Thermaikos Gulf before us. We then retreated back to the town, following the wall south, capturing a glimpse of the Rotunda close up as we went past. 

Its brick was almost sandstone like. Its accompanying tower must have been a later addition. We retraced out steps westwards down Egnatia in search of food. We intended on going ‘local’ out of a street side fast food outlet, but were put off by there being no English to help us make an informed culinary choice. So we walked down the ‘Bond Street’ of Thess, Tsimiski, and back to Aristotle Square. Here we ate at a different establishment, but still soaking up the daytime atmosphere.

Liam then wanted to witness the forum. So we walked up to Archea Agora Square, where we saw a pack of wild dogs snoozing in the shade, and onward to the forum beyond. Another sighting of a vast Roman settlement. A massive plaza in its centre but then tunnels and archways underneath, at its edge. To the right, an amphitheatre where Liam said discussions would have been held. Battling with the heat, we returned to the hotel for 14:00.

Watching some TV, it is interesting to observe how it compares to UK TV – and I do say that it is no competition. A TV show that looks like it is a 1990s repeat does actually seem to be recently made. So I opted for Eurosport – always modern!


It was on this day that I became aware of the depth of history of the city. I had known the regional history, but that it made its appearance in a city, hiding under grass, near the sea, next to more modern buildings, brought home the idea of Thessaloniki having more that what was being presented at first glance.

Since my visit, I have read Mark Mazower's Salonica: City of Ghosts (2004). This book enlightened me so much on the history of the city covering the last 500 years. Given that it rests within a Greek state, this city has been under Byzantine, Ottoman, German and Greek rule, and been targeted for rule by Bulgarians and Serbians. This was already known to me, but the diverse make up of the people that made this walled city was unknown. Most presentations of the city look at the Greek, Turkish or Bulgarian populations that inhabited this city, but lacking in study were the Jews who, up to 1912, were the largest ethnic group in Thessaloniki. The Ladidka is what remains of their physical presence in the centre. This was not only down to the mass slaughter on the city's dwindling population by the Nazi's during the course of World War II; but also because of great many a fire in the city over the years, or economic opportunities elsewhere. These residents and a host of other peoples resided in Thessaloniki over the centuries, ebbing and flowing in numbers as time went on. This book captures the vibrancy of how these people lived, how they were organised, what the customs were, and in what buildings they lived. One of my fascinations is the aesthetic beauty that buildings have, and my curiosity as to the intent of a certain style. At present the Modernist builds project rationality and purpose. But past building had other purposes that may be redundant now yet instead posses that aesthetic beauty somewhat more.

The home of Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, had Ottoman as its style, with its characteristic bay window which can still be seen today. On the note of Ataturk, who would now have been born in Greece, it should be remembered that after Greece took over Salonica, he was one of the Turkish generals engaged in the war between Greece and Turkey in 1923 that saw hundreds of thousands displaced. Greeks fled Anatolia, whilst Turks and Muslims fled to Turkey. This meant that by 1929, 75% of the city was now Greek. The Greek nationalising of the city could then begin in earnest.  

And it is this ethnic homogenisation, along with the binary of nationalisation/de-Ottomonization of Thessaloniki, that can be witnessed at present in the architectural and social structures of the city. This is what Maximilian Hartmuth observes in his article in Urban Life and Culture in Southeastern Europe (Roth and Brunnbauer, 2006). This leads on to the wider concepts of national identity, nationalism and citizenship, as categorisations of people, whether objective or subjective, and the processes that these concepts engage in or emanate from. But these will out in further debates. Only to finally say that Thessaloniki is a city that may seem 'modern' in its presentation, and Greek in its identification, but it has 'resided' in numerous states and empires, yet always remained regionally in 'Macedonia' (however one wishes to define its borders) whilst being historically diverse in its populations.

My Images of SEE – 17:37, Sun 7th August

To add a more personal flavour to this blog, I thought I would share with you the diary I kept when I travelled around South-East Europe in August 2011. The accounts span from part of a day or up to a day and half, depending on when I was able to sit and write. I will provide the mainly unaltered diary entry italicized, then add my current thoughts on that trip along with views garnered from readings undertaken since my MA studies; as well as some pictures of my trip. This first entry details my departure from the UK and my arrival to Thessaloniki, but I will leave this one without comment. I travelled with my partner of the time, but I have changed his name for this purpose. Enjoy.

Today is the first day of this mammoth trip that I am about to undertake, along with Liam. I will write this at the specified time, but will begin where I previously left off. However this being the first day, I should begin at the start.

I awoke at 2:07 this morning, and hour before my wake up alarm. I blame it both on the worry of sleeping in, and the apprehension of taking this trip. I wished away the minutes to 3:15 then promptly woke Liam up.

We showered, changed, received a call from the taxi firm, then had a quick brew before being whisked away to Gatwick Airport. We found our area to check in, but had to cart our backpacks to a separate location, as they couldn’t go down the normal conveyor belts. We then marched to security and swiftly got through. I needed to buy cough/chest mixture, so did so at the Boots store.

After that the boards showed our departure gate so we briskly walked the 15 minutes route to arrive there. We had a snack from Costa Coffee whilst waiting.

Within 20 minutes people were queuing up as a steward showed movement – so like sheep we obligingly followed. I notified the world via Facebook of my growing nerves about the flight.

We slowly and surely began moving. We got on to the plane, a larger on from EasyJet than I’m used to but still not massive. I luckily had my preferred seat on the last row.

Take off was fine, although I still had to show fear. We dozed off for an hour or so during the beginning of the flight. We then emerged out of our snoozing, and I decided to read the Lord of the Rings that I had brought with me. In between doing this, I kept peering out of the window with Liam as we passed over Montenegro.

The pilot then informed us that we would be passing over Tirana shortly, then begin our descent.

30 minutes later we circled the Bay, at which Thessaloniki was its head, then landed smoothly. We then piled into busses to get to the terminal to collect our bags. The weather was clear, a slight breeze but a glorious temperature. It was now 11:10 local time.

Inside the baggage hall, Liam struck gold with his bag coming out first. However a moment of panic gripped me, as mine wasn’t to be seen. So I went closer to the entry point and I could see it at the bottom of the pile waiting to get out. 5 minutes later I was reunited with it.

We then left the departure area looking for signs for a bus to the city, we followed what we found, and saw a two-piece ‘bendy bus’. I asked the driver, slowly, how much. He explained in easy English that I get a ticket out of a blue machine in the back – a choice of two. I directed Liam to the farthest door, so I took the second farthest to buy us both a ticket.

Two Euro’s later and a validation stamp meant that we had paid our way into town on this packed bus. However, armed with only a tightly focused map of the hotel, and an impression that the bus would go down the main boulevard ‘Egnatia’, I hoped a park or name would be familiar. After reaching a small, local bus station, we realized we’d gone too far. I stood up as if ready for the next stop but people were still on the bus from the airport; so again, following others (locals I assumed, too), we stayed on until the end. This happened to be the KTEL bus station. What looked like a run down domed cathedral/ice rink was in fact the transnational bus station. We could either try our luck on the 78 again, or get a taxi. Liam opted for the second option.

So I pointed out to the taxi driver the name and address on my map. He took us back the way we came and dropped us off outside ‘a’ hotel, just not ours. As we walked in another direction, he exclaimed “that is your hotel”. Not keen on offending him, we did the British thing and went to the door of the hotel, waited until he drove off, then walked to where our hotel really was – 50 yards away on the other side of the Egnatia.

A few comments on the first impressions of Thessaloniki. As we drove through on the bus going north, you could instantly tell that the recession and current financial turmoil was having its effects. Closed forecourts, empty buildings and a quiet feel of a loss of hope. We drove past a very ‘western’ shopping park towards the town proper. Upon entering its eastern city limits, you could tell it was the area of low socio-economic residents. Unkempt gardens, rubbish patterned about the place, and a lower standard of shops and services.

Once we started approaching the city centre the content of the shops, or people outside, changed somewhat, but the general ‘untidiness’ remained. Graffiti is widespread, as is the case with most European, continental countries. When we bypassed the city centre, the malaise I could sense drifted back – epitomized by the bus station I previously mentioned. The city didn’t seem alive, although I do concede that it is a Sunday. Maybe it will spring to life tomorrow.

This general feel for the city so far, although not disappointing but also not awe inspiring either, reflected my impressions of the hotel. Upon entering we were warmly greeted by a young Greek who spoke great English. He gave us our key to our room, took my passport to make a copy, and kindly highlighted a map for us to some café’s for food.

Entering the room was akin to stepping into an Agatha Christie tele-movie starring Poirot! The best word to describe it is quaint. Neoclassical style décor with tiled flooring and an old fashioned rug struck jarringly against the 14” LCD TV. However it looked comfy and had air-con. After refreshing, we departed a light lighter, grabbing my passport on the way.

We walked the 10 minutes to Aristotle Square then down to the front. We found a café with fans so sat down and ordered two salads, beer, Cola and water. All this gave us a second wind. One thing that I can see will be a regular annoyance is the street sellers. 4 times we were disturbed whilst eating. Their wares are fake DVDs and jewelry; the sellers of black ethnicity and possibly north African descent (as I don’t know the accents).

We walked eastward along the front to the White Tower. A beautiful sand-like coloured tower, some 40-50 meters tall and the same distance from the sea. We walked around and tried to get in, but as it was 14:55 we were denied entry as closing was 15:00. So we wandered back to a Starbucks we saw for a light, cool relief. Again, the street sellers were out in force.

We walked north-east from there for 10 minutes to the Archaeological Museum. €6 each and Liam was in his glory. Lots of pots, tools, jewelry, sculptures, sarcophagi, grave stones, and more reflecting 8 centuries of Macedonian culture from 4^th century B.C. It was all very educational – especially the technological side to the experience.

We departed there heading north-west to Egnatia, where we came across the Arch, and further up the hill, the Rotunda. The Arch is not that impressive size wise, but its carvings were excellent. A little tired, we walked back to the hotel for a short rest.