26/007 Life in Northern Greece The Jackals of Thermi and The Hyenas of Halkidiki

Last week a three-year-old child was attacked by a wild animal in a taverna in the Polichni area of Thessaloniki. She was bitten in the face and in other parts of her body as well as being violently dragged around the taverna garden. Fortunately, staff and customers were able to drive the animal – probably a jackal – away. The story is covered below:

https://www.voria.gr/article/epithesi-apo-tsakali-se-3hroni-o-dimos-enimerose-tis-armodies-arhes-zitise-exeidikeymeni

At the other end of town, a pack of seven or eight jackals was spotted in Thermi. A report and a couple of photos below.

https://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/1859780/ageli-tsakalion-edopistike-stin-thermi-tis-thessalonikis

A quick online check reveals that there were no jackal or wild boar attacks on humans in Greece in 2025. However, it is an incontestable fact that Halkidiki’s two-legged hyenas pose a much greater threat to life and limb than shy porcine and canine quadrupeds.

I read the article below in Greek. As I have been unable to find the original on the www.voria.gr website, I present the English translation below which, incidentally, is faithful to the original.

https://www.voria.gr/article/northern-greece-tourism-under-pressure-late-bookings-squeeze-summer

The most stand-out part of the article for me is this:

Grigoris Tasios, president of the Halkidiki Hotel Association and the region’s tourism organisation. “There are still empty rooms in the first half of August, with fewer vacancies in the second half,” Tasios told Voria.gr, describing 2026 as the “last-minute year”.

He attributed the trend largely to financial pressure on households across Europe. Tasios said that Bulgarian arrivals had fallen significantly, linking the decline to economic changes associated with the country’s alignment with the euro, as well as to the growing number of Bulgarians buying homes in Halkidiki rather than visiting as tourists.

There is one glaring omission which hoteliers and caterers are wilfully blind to. Forget the Serbs, Romanians, North Macedonians and Bulgarians. What about the huge market that is under 70 km from Cassandra and just over100 km from Sithonia? Thessaloniki and northern Greece has well over a million inhabitants and nearly all of them have been priced out. What Greek on a monthly salary of €650 – €800 can afford to stay one week in a room or suite costing anywhere from four to six weeks’ salary? Even the self-contained rooms in the still-being-built guest accommodation next to me are priced at around €200 a night. On top of that, while a sandwich in a γυράδικο might be affordable, restaurant prices are sky high. Beer? You can find a craft beer in London that will be cheaper than a bog standard Greek lager here. And I remind readers that I’m talking about Sithonia, the less developed second leg. Cassandra will be even more expensive. A young Greek friend sent a Viber text saying he spent Saturday in Poseidi. That sums up what many Greeks are doing: a hour or so’s drive from Thessaloniki, sun, sea, maybe a snack, and a drive back. If the cost of petrol is an issue, the bus service from Thessaloniki to Perea or Agia Triada is cheap. However, a week or two in Halkidiki is out of the question for many.

And to conclude the rant, NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is being done to improve infrastructure. I don’t know about the road from Bulgaria, but Serbs and North Macedonians have a shit road from the border to Thessaloniki’s ring road. When they join the ring road, they find that it is currently a building site. If our Balkan visitors feel relief at escaping the ring road and joining the Moudania road, the relief is only temporary as the 60-kilometre stretch to Moudania badly needs resurfacing. From Moudania onwards it is single carriageway all the way to Sithonia.

Having survived the road trip and booked into their hotel, holidaymakers’ next encounter with the Greek state is the water supply. In all of Halkidiki tap water is undrinkable. And www.voria.gr just published this: “… ανιχνεύθηκαν μικροβιολογικές παράμετροι, οι οποίες, σύμφωνα με την αρμόδια υγειονομική αρχή, αποτελούν δυνητικό κίνδυνο για τη δημόσια υγεία.” Basically, substances in the water in Siviri “constitute a potential danger to public health,” How is this possible? So much money is made by shopkeepers selling bottled water, and locals often have their own wells, so it is in their interests to maintain the status quo. The same goes for the sewerage system. Why build one when shit trucks pass by three or four times a day to suck from the cesspits the effluent of the affluent. The stench is a small price to pay for the beautiful beaches and clean seas.  The full article is here: https://www.voria.gr/article/halkidiki-akatallilo-gia-katanalosi-nero-sti-sibiri

So why do I still come. Well largely because having my own place here means that I am not hostage to the general rapacity of homo Chalcidices hyenensis. And then there is this:

Finally, why is little being done to improve infrastructure? New Democracy – whether one loves or hates them – will be elected again thanks largely to the soap opera that the Greek Left has become. The Communists will always be with us at around 7%; PASOK is not what it was; SYRIZA is moribund with most of its members flocking to Tsipras’s ELAS (Greek Left Alliance); then there is the New Left, Course for Freedom, MeRA25, Movement for Democracy, and several more. There is no sign that they will merge or form coalitions. To sum up: Greece is a multi-party one-party state.