Panorama is derived from the Greek words meaning “all” and “sight.” That’s what they’re meant for: taking in the whole view of something when it’s too much for your eyes or your lens to handle all at once.
This weekend we hiked Mt. Olympus, and there were many times where I felt overwhelmed by what I was seeing. While we didn’t go up to the Throne of Zeus, as they call the peak, the views and sights were still enough to to make me awestruck.
This will be my last blog from Thessaloniki, as we head for Meteora tomorrow and then on to Athens on Wednesday. I loved this city and I’ll be sad to leave its waterfront bars, delicious food and laid-back atmosphere. I’m doing a mental panorama right now, trying to take in all the sights and experiences that were had here over these past three weeks.
I became an avid Aris fan (F*** PAOK), met three Syrian refugee families and listened to their stories, got scolded at museums, learned how to properly drink wine, met the badass mayor of Thessaloniki, and most importantly got into Trois. It’s always crazy to me how the days seem so long, but the weeks fly by. I’ll leave behind this city with a series of panos (we’re fond of abbreviations on this trip) from my time here.
Coming into this trip, I knew I would be dealing with covering the Syrian refugee crisis. Greece is the entryway for many of the refugees seeking asylum in Europe, and thousands of them are stuck here waiting to be relocated or reunited with their families. It’s easy to read articles and watch videos and think you have a grasp on the situation, but the past couple weeks have shown me that’s really not the case.
Last week, we visited Elpida Home, a refugee center on the outskirts of Thessaloniki. It was great experience. The facility was in good condition, there was a communal kitchen with fresh food and lockable dorm-style rooms. The building itself was covered in art drawn by the refugee children themselves and blown up by professional artists. The children, which make up two-thirds of the home, were running around outside with smiles on their faces. “Elpida” means hope, and it truly was an uplifting visit. Here’s a short look into the home that I shot while we were there.
Things got a little more personal when I went along with Gwen, Paxtyn and Bridget to visit a refugee family that had been placed in an apartment in Thessaloniki. There has been a push by the European Union to move refugees out of camps and into their own apartments. The family had luckily remained intact: the husband, wife and their six kids all madeit to Greece after leaving Syria six years ago and going through some harrowing experiences along the way. It felt so much more real than our visit to Elpida. To actually see the conditions they’re living in and hear their stories firsthand was an incredibly moving experience. After we interviewed the husband (for four hours, Syrians love to talk in circles, as Carlene warned us) we played outside with the children, kicking balls and playing monkey in the middle, laughing the whole time. I left feeling sad for them, but also happy that we will be able to share their story.
Kicking a ball around outside the apartment.
Bridget photographing the family.
Our group posing with the family at their apartment.
Finally, yesterday Gwen, Paxtyn, Sydne and I went to visit a camp far outside the city called Softex. The residents there live in “iso-boxes” which are essentially cargo containers with windows. There was no running water, and one young man we spoke to said that the camp “was for animals, not for humans.” We interviewed another family, this time with three kids, about their journey from Syria and it was equally as devastating. Still, all the kids we met were happy, playing on bikes and scooters and asking to see the photos Sydne was taking of them.
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Meeting these people, being brought into their homes and fed by them, playing with their children…it struck me how open they are. These are people who have almost drowned in rubber boats, had scissors sewn back up inside them after giving birth in a camp hospital and lost loved ones along the way. It would be easy to shut down and give up hope. Yet they still want to talk, they want to have their stories told, they want to be listened to. A running theme across all these visits was the happiness of the children. When we asked the mother of the family in Softex about her kids’ state of mind she smiled and said “they adapt.”
It’s easy to feel guilt about being welcomed into these families’ upturned lives, when we get to return to our cushy ones in just a few weeks. But these people want their stories to be told. Our connection for these interviews and visits, Alex (who is a Syrian refugee himself), wants their stories to be told. Even if we only reach a few people back home, that will be more than if we never came at all. We came on this trip as journalists, not tourists, and we have a responsibility to report what we’re seeing here, difficult or not. If these children can be happy given all they’ve gone through, I think I can handle this feeling of guilt. I know as a group we will use it to tell their stories in the most authentic and meaningful way possible.
I’m 24 years old and in the past week I have twice been scolded like a toddler. Right now I am two-for-two in being verbally eviscerated by museum staff here in Greece. The first tour was at the archaeological museum in downtown Thessaloniki. I’ll be frank here: I was bored. I don’t know why, but this museum just wasn’t keeping my interest. I’m not above museums and usually I really enjoy them…not this time.
So, I was entertaining myself by using Snapchat to put copies of Brandon’s face on a row of statues. Objectively, it was hilarious. I was laughing, we were all laughing, the security woman was not laughing. She came up and explained that this was not a joke, it was history. I apologized and I legitimately felt bad. It was disrespectful. I even went back about ten minutes later and talked with her for a while to smooth things over. Lesson learned, right?
I think deep down even she would admit that’s kinda funny.
Nope. Yesterday we traveled to Vergina to visit the museum that holds King Phillip’s (Alexander the Great’s dad) tomb. Unlike the other museum, it was really interesting to me. I was so interested that I decided to take a photo of one of the tombs…MISTAKE. Apparently I had missed other members of our group being chastised for taking a photo earlier in the tour.
The infamous photo.
I snapped the photo, with flash, in a very dark room. Sidenote: if I had known not to take photos, would I have used the flash? You be the judge. Out of nowhere, a museum staffer descended on me like a shrieking banshee. “I TOLD YOU NO PHOTOS THIS IS SECOND TIME!!!”
“Uh…um, well, not me personally,” is the best I could come up with, shocked that I was again being verbally bent over and spanked for misbehaving. I almost got our entire group kicked out of the museum. The kids call this “taking an L.” The L’s continued when we went over to Veroia, a small town nearby with great views.
Anxious to not miss any sights there, a group of us entered a restaurant with no one in it and had some of the worst food I’ve had not only on this trip but maybe this calendar year. If you see the below restaurant in your travels someday…run away. Here’s to less L’s and more W’s in the future.
A big pet peeve of mine is when people say “I love food.” Oh really? You enjoy one of the four things that is necessary to keep you alive? Same! I’ve never asked anyone to go get some food and they’ve responded “oh no thanks, I’m not really a food guy.”
But I digress. The food here is amazing. Earlier this week, we went to a ‘taverna’ called “It’s Getting Late” because our guy Theo recommended we check it out. As usual, he didn’t steer us wrong. The owner, Leonidas, was a great guy and was very apologetic that the grill wasn’t on yet because we had showed up “early” (it was 8 P.M.). The restaurant itself was also great. It had a variety of guitars on the walls that Leonidas said are regularly taken down and played by customers. Our group shared a huge amount of food, and Leonidas still brought us more on the house. He even took us down to the basement to show us where he made the restaurant’s ‘retsina,’ which is basically a light, cheap wine (think Franzia but better tasting).
Our spread of food.
Guitars on the wall.
Leonidas showing Bradley and Gwen his retsina barrels.
Which brings me to my larger point. Restaurants back home need to step up their game. I firmly believe tip culture is ruining our collective eating experience. I don’t need Kristin checking in on my table for the fourth time, making me sputter out a noise that resembles “it’s good” as I’m eating. What I do need is a more laid back atmosphere, the ability to relax and decide when I’m done, and free desserts, which I’ve received three times here already. Let’s abolish tipping, pay our waitstaff and start doing this the right way.
Yesterday was an awesome excursion, as we got a chance to visit a Greek winery about 40 minutes from our group’s apartment. The views were incredible, it was so serene and quiet, the air just smelt better. Most importantly, the wine was delicious. We were even blessed to be on the tour with a wine snob enthusiast who chimed in with helpful remarks and plenty of affirmations that our tour guide did indeed know what he was talking about. *rolls eyes*
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After the tour, we drove to a beach nearby to hang out for a few hours. There’s nothing quite like a Mediterranean beach to make you never want to go back to Boston again. If it didn’t have the same deep house beat playing for the entire three hours we were there, it may have been the perfect place.
As far as the other part of this blog’s title, I am officially a fan of the Aris basketball team, which is one of two teams that play in Thessaloniki. One of the students, Brandon, is working on a story about the team and I’m helping shoot some video for it. On Friday, we went to a game and let me tell you: Greek fans go HARD. There was more passion in those stands than I’ve seen at pretty much any sporting event in the US. They were losing the entire game, and they were chanting and dancing and clapping for all of it. I found myself getting genuinely pissed off by the end of the game when calls weren’t going our way. (Yes I said our).
Aris basketball stadium
Some food truck sausage and “poor wine” and Coke in the background. Thanks to our guide Theo for introducing us to this drink
Part of my newfound fandom is developing my hatred for our rival, PAOK, the other team from Thessaloniki. I wore my Aris jersey for the first time at the beach, and I don’t think I imagined the dirty looks I was getting. There’s no love lost between these two teams, and all it takes is a quick walk around our neighborhood to find evidence of it. Sorry for the f-bombs, but this is my lifestyle now.
We have arrived in Greece, more specifically the mouthful of a city Thessaloniki. I had no idea it was such a big city…it’s actually right behind Athens in terms of population. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Barcelona: cafes everywhere, open markets, and pedestrian paths sloping down to the water.
A look down at the water from the center of the city.
On the water, with the “White Tower” on the left.
It definitely has its own Greek twist, though. There are ruins from antiquity sitting smack dab in the middle of the city center. At the top of the hill, there are the remains of an ancient marketplace called the Agora.
Part of the ruins in the middle of the city.
Today we got our first look at the university that we will be spending a good chunk of our time for the next three weeks. I’d say it has, conservatively, one billion times more green space than Northeastern. It’s pretty beautiful.
Campus of the university.
The weather is great, the food has been great (full disclosure I had souvlaki for lunch but my two dinners have been pizza and tacos, whoops) and the people we’ve met have been accommodating and seem to really understand what we’re trying to accomplish here. I’m sure there will be some bumps along the way but so far it’s smooth sailing.
Danny Mortimer Abroad 