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
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.
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