Taking a bus from Athens to Thessalonica, Greece

We took a taxi from our hotel – Hotel Corto Maltese to the Athens’ bus station, a 15 minutes taxi ride. The bus station was busy with many travelers for the Greek Orthodox Easter long weekend in Greece. We changed our online tickets for 2 paper tickets.

The bus station designated a specific area for the bus going to each specific city. We were going to Thessaloniki and there was a clear sign with Thessaloniki written above the waiting area for passengers travelling to that city. Therefore, there was no mistake where passengers should be boarding their buses and they would know exactly where they should be waiting.

  We saw a few convenient stores selling snacks, drinks and some nice typical Greek pastries. We needed not worry about being hungry when we were travelling in Greece, we could buy food pretty well everywhere we went. There were even a few tables and chairs set out so passengers could have some beverages while waiting for the bus.

  Not long after we were standing at the waiting area, a woman around late 50’s dressed in black top and long shirt, holding a bundle of of cross necklaces approached us. Not speaking much English, she gestured us to buy something from her. I had no interest in buying anything, then she pointed to her mouth gesturing us that she needed food. Remembering the incident at the Acropolis a few days ago, after refusing to buy something from a lady similar in age and costume who kept following me and distracting me, and later I had my wallet stolen. I reached into my purse and gave her some money so that she would not follow us.

 

Moments later, another middle age woman with a child of special needs approached us too. I also gave her some money so that they would not follow us. After the previous theft incident, I was just terrified of poor people approaching us to sell things or asking for money for fear that my valuables like my passports and credit card might be stolen again. I rather gave them something than risking my valuables being stolen.

  Our bus arrived closed to 11 a.m. We had our luggage put inside the lugguage compartment of the bus and were ready for boarding. I asked the lady collecting the tickets if there was a toilet on the bus to which she answered, ‘ Yes, but it is not working.” Then I asked her where the toilet was at the bus station as I thought I should visit the washroom before boarding the bus. She answered if I needed to go to the toilet I must change my ticket to board a later bus as the bus would leave right at that moment.

 

This is why I am writing this blog post to warn future foreign visitors to Greece that if you are taking a long distance bus to another city, make sure you check if the toilet is working on the bus first! As the bus leaving Athens, we were greeted with graffitis everywhere on our way out of the city, even on the highway walls, I felt bad for the nice folks in Greece who have to see their beautiful sometimes historic buildings defaced with so much graffitis.

  Our bus left at 11:06a.m. from the Athens bus station and took about 6 hours before arriving to our destination. But the 6 hour bus ride went by quickly as there was so much to see on the way.

We passed by residential area, factories, big machinery companies, farmlands, pastures with animals, quiet emerald lake, huge mountains, cute farmhouses etc and I was kept busy taking pictures.

  After riding for two hours on the bus, we arrived at a restaurant and were given a 45 minutes lunch break. The restaurant was nice and spacious with an outdoor dining patio as well.

Wow, the dishes they served at that bus stop restaurant was delicious! The food choices were beyond our expectation. We never expected such a variety of hot food from which to choose at a roadside restaurant. We ordered a cabbage salad, moussaka and calamari with spinach. They were all very good!

We arrived at Thessaloniki at around 6p.m. The first thing we saw was a small church right inside the bus terminal! There was a service going on and this small church was filled with worshippers too! We have travelled quite a bit in Europe, but this was the first time we saw a church right inside a bus terminal building!

  After we had a quick dinner at the terminal, we used our GPS and were able to find our way to the hotel though not as easy as we had expected since the information given by the GPS was confusing at times.

  RT, Thessaloniki, Greece 10042026

Getting Our Temporary Passports and Celebrating at the Bread Factory, Athens

We were both relieved and happy that we finally could travel again with our temporary Canadian passports and our replaced credit cards!

Ami at the Athens' Canadian Embassy was super nice and helpful as she did her best getting our passports replaced by Wednesday of the OTHORODEX Easter weekend as we have planned to be at another city to experience the Greek Easter celebrations.

 She explained everything clearly to us to ensure we would able to exchange our temporary passports for the permanent ones after getting back to Canada.

 

With our temporary passports in our hands, I did a happy dance right outside the Canadian embassy! Later on, we also received our replacement credit card couriered to us in Athens by our bank back home.

 

 

With very little money for the past few days, we had to watch every penny we spent therefore were unable to afford eating anything we wished we could. Now, with passports and money in our possession, freedom from poverty! We celebrated by eating a proper meal at a bakery café called the Bread Factory near the Embassy. Not a pretty name for a restaurant, the Bread Factory served pretty good food as the variety and quality of the food items offered in this eatery blew me away. I have never been to a bakery cafe with such a huge choice of bake goods available. I was like a little kid running around in a candy store - amazed, happy and not knowing what to choose to eat!

  Not only did this bakery café offer great choices of bake goods, it also offered hot food items to customers for lunch and dinner and a nice dining area where customers could enjoy their food.

We were in Athens for almost a week and this was our second real meal in Athens. (Having had all our money and credit cards stolen on the second day in Athens, we had to work hard stretching the small amount of cash we had for a few days until receiving the money our son sent us.) We chose fresh grilled fish, salads and baked fava beans in tomato sauce, my hubby’s favourte . We took our lunch into the bakery’s enclosed patio and enjoyed our first real meal in Athens. With our passport and credit card problems behind us, we could finally let our hair down and start to have a good time in Greece.

  We enjoyed our nice lunch at the Bread Factory in Athens. We woul never had gone into a restaurant with a name that conjured up images of a place where people were slaving away working in a factory. But this time, I must admit I was wrong as the Bread Factory did exceed our expectations and served up delicious and affordable good food! 2 thumbs up, Bread Factory!

  RT, Athens, Greece 042026

Excellent Ground Transportation System and Wonderful Arts and Historical Displays in Athens' Subway Stations, Greece!

I felt so excited this morning as we would be getting our temporary Canadian passports this morning. Rolling out of bed and feeling happy, we got dressed and were ready to go. Our breakfast from the hotel was delivered to our room at 8:30 a.m. Our first in room breakfast on this trip. Though not a full hot breakfast as in other hotels we have stayed while on the Greece trip, the food items were displayed nicely on a round wooden tray and served with smiles by two lovely ladies from the hotel. It was filling for both of us.

 

By this time, we have learned our way around in Athens and were able to take the subway everywhere. One thing Athens has impressed us the most – its subway and public transportation system - accessible and affordable, taking us to anywhere we wanted to go in Athens.

 

It only cost 1.20 euro per person each trip regardless of the distance the passenger takes on the subway line. Not only that, each ticket allows the passenger 90 minutes time for reboarding.

Therefore, you can run short errands and hop on hop off the subway train.

  The train frequency was good when we were there and the subway stations were reasonably clean with many stations presenting arts and cultural displays educationg the public about the history of Greece or something educational.

Making use of the subway stations as an educational tool and sharing with the residents and visitors alike about the history, the arts and cultural of Athens and Greece is a great idea!

We also saw searching for missing person notices on its overhead monitors.

This is something we can learn from Greece in North America! I would like to see something like that in our subway stations in Toronto, Canada!

Two thumbs up for Athens for its wonderful Metro system and its great use of its Metro staions as a public service to its inhabitants! RT, Athens, Greece, 042026 p.s. if you like my blog, I would appreciate some comments from my readers! From what country are you reading my blog post?

Western Union Saved Our Day While Vacationing in Aegina Island, Greece!

Aegina Island - Day 3 We liked Aegina Island so much that we decided to stay another night here on this lovely Greek island extending our stay to a third day!

Not hurrying to get back to Athens, we could be more relaxed in our schedule to fully enjoy the Greek island life! We felt so relaxed here that we could have easily stay for anther week or so.

However, we still needed to deal wit our cash problem here. I checked my email hoping to receive a reply email from our Canadian bank. We requested them to send us some emergency fund last Thursday and hoped to get it from them by today. But we were hugely disappointed. Instead, I got a reply from my financial advisor informing me that I needed to call the 800 number to apply for another bank card and to follow a whole set of procedures. I was frustrated to no end!

 

We have money in the bank and the bank advisor knows me personally. She was aware of the difficult situation we were in Greece. However, she didn’t help us in any practical ways in order for us to be able to withdraw some of our money. Finally, I called my relative in Canada and requested her to send some money; she did it right away.

We received a message and the verification code from Western Union and we weret able to locate a branch on this island! We walked into the branch, presented the officer with the police report from the Athens' police station verifying that we were the people on the email message.

  Bingo! Western Union released the fund to us without further delay! So happy we could retrieve money sent by our relative from Western Union in Aegina Island. This saved our trip and allowed us to enjoy the food and finer things in Greece!

Right after we recieved the money, we enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch by the ocean on the dock of this lovely island! It was an absolutely fantastic afternoon with a blue sky above, sunny weather and gentle ocean breezes blowing on our faces and money in our pockets so that we wouldn't feel poor again!

A shout out and a big THANK YOU to Western Union, Aegina branch, Greece!

  RT, Aegina Island, Greece, 042026

Aegina Island, a Charming Little Island not too Far from Athens

Aegina Island - Day 2 Got up around 830a.m and had our breakfast served on the terrace on the main floor.

The view was lovely as our hotel was fronting the ocean.

This was our first day in Greece with clear blue sky as the other days in Athens were wet and cool.

Looking over the ocean from the terrace and enjoying our breakfast, I felt very happy. The water did have a positive effect on me. Since everything we had with us was stolen on the second day when we were in Athens, we had no ID, no credit card nor cash with us. We felt very fortunate that we could still travel in Greece as our family in Canada helped us to book the hotels and travel tickets online and paid for them, therefore, our holiday was not ruined and we could continue travelling in Greece. So grateful to God for His provision!

We took the Aegina town bus ( comes only 2x a day during the off season, at 11a.m. departing from our village bus stop and returning from the main harbour to our hotel at 2:30 pm.)

Being mindful of the bus returning time to the village where we were staying, we had about 2 ½ hours to wander around the main section of Aegina Island.

 

  Aegina is a small island with about 13,000 residents.

The main downtown area along the oceanfront is a vibrant and lovely area lined with trendy restaurants and cafes.

We enjoyed strolling around leisurely, admiring the quint and spotless alleyways.

where we peaked into modern and upscale fashion stores, Greek pastry shops where the colourful and scrumptious desserts were to die for and the numerous shops selling the local specialties – pistachio desserts and food products of all kinds.

Though no money to buy anything nor able to sit and enjoy some delicious Greek seafood by the water, we still had fun strolling around, relaxing with a popsicle outside a convenience store and enjoying the scenery and observing the slower rural Greek life.

Because there are many narrow alleyways on this island, motorcylces has become the main mode of transportation here. Many peopple ride around the town with them and couriers also use them in their deliveries.

 

We wish we could have stayed longer in this part of Aegina Island but the town bus was still on reduced schedule and we must take the bus back to our hotel. Since it was still sunny outside, we explored the village neighbourhood for a couple of hours.

  It was early spring and late in the afternoon; there were a few sunbathers enjoying the sun while some kids were playing on the sandy beach. For some reason, I have never associated Greece with any beaches at all; how wrong have I been!

 

 

 

 

  Though not the tourist season yet, there were a few shops opened for business in the village.

My favourite place was a small bakery selling mouthwatering desserts. I couldn't help but ordered a few pieces to sample for our afternoon snacks. The whole plate of yummy pastries cost 5 Euros; we couldn't believe it and they were delicious!

We enjoyed a simple dinner at Pita Tom, where they served us the biggest Gyro pita we have ever had.

The chicken and pork gyros came dressed with tomatoes, onions and French fries.

  At 3.8 Euro each, the Greek gyro sandwich filled our stomachs and helped to stretch the little amount of cash we have left on us after our credit cards and all our cash was stolen from us.

 

We were grateful that we had an enjoyable day today without spending too much moeny! We still have a few Euros left for food. God is good!

  RT, Aegina Island, Greece, 042026

A Luxurious Ferry Ride to Aegina Island, Greece

Day 1 – There are many island to visit but we were not sure which one to go. Therefore desiring to find out more about the numerous Greek island trips, we went to Port Pireaus via Athens subway – Metro Blue line, the second last subway station. We paid only 1.2 Euro for the ride, very reasonable compared to some parts of the world where passengers are charged by the distance they travel on the subway. In Athens, Greece, one METRO fare is charged regardless of the distance you travel and passengers will have 90 minutes to reuse their tickets which is a bargain when you need to do a couple of errands in the city.

At the Pireaus Port, we asked the ticket personnel about where we could go for a 1 day island visit. She gave us the names of four islands and we chose Aegean Island for a 1 night stay.

The next day, we bought our tickets online and took the Saronic ferry leaving at 5p.m. from Port Pireaus. A one way ticket was 19 Euro; for a return ticket, it was 24 Euro, much cheaper. This was the first time we went to visit a Greek island via a Greek ferry.

Wow, the interior cabin of the Saronic Ferry was beyond our expectation! It was modern and comfortably furnished with leather / leather like furniture with wide seatings designed for families and groups.

In addition to the large group seatings, there were also smaller seatings for 2 to 4 people.

A cafe called the Flocafe - where hot and cold beverages as well as sandwiches, salad and pastries could be purchased. The ferry ride was about an hour and 15 minutes.

We had lovely sunny weather and the ride was over before we even realized it! The first building we saw at the dock was a tiny church! How cute was that! We couldn't get over how many worshop places we have seen on this trip so far!

We got off the ferry at late afternoon on Aegean Island. We saw many nice trendy restaurnats along the waterfront and diners were obviously enjoying this tranquil island setting.

The sun was setting and we took our time strolling around by the waterfront, enjoying the lovely view on this island. There was a bus going to our hotel located on the other side of the island.

However, the service stopped at 6 p.m. We missed the town bus going to our hotel and thought to ourselves: no problem, we could order an Uber ride. When we tried to order the Uber, it came up to be Can $168.00! Even more expensive than our hotel for a night on this island.

Not willing to pay for that expensive Uber ride, we used our cell phone and asked AI what other alternative was there. AI told us not to use Uber, but go to where the taxi stand was near the port and asked them for a price for a ride to our hotel. We did just that! It costed only 20 Euros! AI saved the day for us! Thank you, Chat GPT!

By the time we got into the taxi, the sun had gone down and it was dark outside; we couldn’t see anything on our way to the hotel. The taxi ride was longer than we thought, more than 30 minutes.

We arrived at this oceanfront hotel and all the staff seemed to have gone to bed already. Finally, after waiting for sometime for the staff to arrive, we checked into our room and called it a night. Looking forward to spending a day on this island the following day.

RT, A Ferry Ride on the Saronic Ferry Athens, Greece, 042026