Travels around Greece

Greece was a pleasant experience for the most part, with very cosmopolitan areas complimented by the historical sights. The first city we stayed in was Thessaloniki, which is greece's 2nd city, we managed to find a nice hotel for 15 euros a night and considering we arrived so late, we snapped it up! There were nice restaurants and the most significant of the historical monuments was the White Tower or sometimes known as the Bloody Tower, which was a building used by the Ottoman's to kill young Greek boys or house them there as slaves. The city was also the birthplace of Kemal Ataturk, although it wasn't really high on my agenda to see his house, and as we didn't have time, we never went. I was also introduced to a drink called the Frappe, no matter where you go in Greece i'm reassured that everybody drinks this coffee based drink, why? I'm not too sure. It is basically nescafe mixed with sugar, milk, cold water and ice. Although i drank more than one, there was nothing appealing about it apart from the fact that everyone else was drinking one!

When we arrived in Athens, we were left with the familiar predicament of having no where to stay, but we found some travelling Canadians and basically followed them to their hostel. It was based in the mother of all ghettos! Walking down the street we saw a man with a needle in his arm, numerous eastern European prostitutes. As a son of immigration, i was bewildered to see how so many immigrants were living, basically on the street, and it was completely against my expectations. There were Africans, Arabs, Asians, Eastern Europeans, yet they were all living in terrible conditions. I spoke to a few of the Bangladeshi, who worked on the street selling souvenirs and they told me that they stay and work for 6 months, and afterwards spend 6 months living well in Bangladesh and being able to provide food and education for their children. At times it was hard to see.

One particular incident came on the final day, when we were walking through the 'tourist shopping' area and an immigrant had sat down on the floor, with the sunglasses he wanted to sell, when the owner of the shop he was outside of, came out and shouted at him in Greek, gave him two swift jabs to the jaw and threw him on the floor. It was unreal. I felt for that guy. For some life isn't filled with promise, as is with our own, Alhamdulilah we're more than blessed.

Acropolis, the ancient Greek ruins, was an amazing sight as were the many other greek ruins we visited around the city. Although not as pleasant as Thessaloniki, Athens had its own aura about it, a city with so much history.

The experience of having to take a bus from Athens to Istanbul, is one i'll never forget and insh'Allah i'll never have to do it again! In the end it had taken us 26 hours to get all the way back to Eskisehir and there were two particular reasons for this absurd journey, or rather the choice of it. Firstly, it was by far the cheapest options, the Greek companies are aware of the appeal of travelling from Greece to turkey or vice vera, so the ferry travel option is very dear, as is the plane or the train! Secondly, we didn't want to get stranded at the border again, hitchhiking across a border, although an experience i'll never forget, it's one i never want to do again!

I'll leave you with a quote from Ancient Greece, by the Philosopher Aristotle:

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”

We all have a chance of obtaining it, but Alhamdulilah, some of us more than others.