My original intention when creating this blog was to focus on Irish music and life in Northern Greece, specifically on Thessaloniki. Circumstances that we are all aware of have limited musical performance. Moreover, my comments on Greece have focused on the country as a whole and its response to Covid 19. This has meant that I haven’t devoted as much attention to Thessaloniki as I would have wished. On this post, however, I will give more local information.
Officially, the government flatters Thessaloniki with the honorific ‘co-capital’ (συμπρωτεύουσα) but it is, quite frankly, an insult to the intelligence of the people here; power is still centralised in Athens, and Thessaloniki is firmly in second place. There is no ‘συμ’ or ‘πρωτεύουσα’ where Thessaloniki is concerned. There is, however, no end to the ridiculous lengths people in Greece have to go to in order to get things done. For example, about 10 years ago my son was required to do an aptitude test in support of his university application. He and my wife had to make a 1,000km round trip to Athens. Add to that the cost of hotel and meals. Why? Was there nobody or no institute in Thessaloniki capable of administering the test? Some years earlier we imported a car when we left the Middle East. Where did we have to go to get registration plates? You’ve guessed it. Maybe central government thinks the people of the north have been tainted by their contiguity to Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. Perhaps our car would have been issued with plates in the Cyrillic alphabet. More seriously, Athenian neglect and, at times, inept foreign policy have denied Thessaloniki’s port the chance to become the major trading centre for the Balkans.
The following article was published in 2017 but it gives a good description of the city’s points of interest: https://www.greece-is.com/city-break-in-thessaloniki-heres-your-perfect-guide-of-things-to-do/
The article below is more recent – 4th April 2021 – but it must have been written before the Covid outbreak as the city is anything but vibrant at the moment. Unfortunately (or maybe even fortunately), the text has disappeared. https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/04/04/three-days-in-thessaloniki-2/ I have made several searches to retrieve it but to no avail. The absence of text has made it harder to critique the article. As far as I can remember, it had good descriptions of the town, but two things annoyed me. First, the writer referred to our status as co-capital but neglected to say that it is horseshit. Second, she referred to the Great Fire of August 1917, the Modiano Market and the Yehudi Hammam. These places and the fire were central to Thessaloniki’s Jewish history, all ignored by the writer. “Yehudi” means Jewish FFS!
Covid. The figures for Monday 12th April are as follows: 1,600 new cases, 76 dead and 781 in intensive care. Tomorrow’s figures will give a more accurate figure. Monday figures are always lower because of the weekend.
Here in Thessaloniki one of the main concerns is the viral load in the city’s effluent, which suggests things are about to get worse. I have been informed by a very reliable microbiologist that around 15% of the samples being tested in his lab are positive, a much higher rate than the previous three months. The following article (dated 5th April) is in Greek.
Even if you cannot speak Greek, it is worth opening it just to look at the crowds on the city’s seafront promenade. The article asks if it is any wonder that Covid is running out of control here. And it is no surprise. As well as the strollers being up close and personal, masks are either not worn or not worn correctly. Today 218 new infections were reported, but it will be interesting to see tomorrow’s figures.
Musically, there is nothing to report. We are all looking forward to getting together and, in that respect, it looks as if all of us will be vaccinated before the end of May, so hopefully we’ll be able to play in our Welsh member’s garden before June. Anyway, it’s time for a treat. Lily Gems and Eileen O’Driscoll play two reels, Pigeon on the Gate and Beare Island. Lovely sound and pace. It’s from their album, Early Reflections.