Travel days are so boring.... But I guess they give us time to rest and catch our breath? This morning, we woke up early (relatively) to eat breakfast before checking out of our hotel! We went to this place right inside Fira, called Corner, which served yummy waffles and crepes! I ordered an apple/cinnamon/honey waffle, and it was SO good! The waffle itself was perfectly cooked: crisp on the edges and light and fluffy in the middle! And our waffles came with animal crackers!! We also saw strawberry juice on the menu, so wanted to give it a try! It tasted like strawberry, but was also very watery. Not too sure how they make it... haha
Best breakfast of the trip! (Although we haven't eaten many breakfasts...)
Afterwards, it was off to the airport to catch our flight to Thessaloniki! Since Santorini's airport is so small, it's always SUPER crowded, and the flights are often delayed for 15-30 min >.< But the flight itself was super quick, and then we were in Thessaloniki, with about 6 hours to kill before our night bus to Istanbul! Literally sat in the airport for a couple hours using their free wifi and catching up on blogging/photo editing, and then we caught a bus to the city center for dinner!
We ate at a cute little restaurant called Frutti di Mare that we stumbled upon as we were walking around (and just decided to go for it since most restaurants were closed on Sundays. Stupid Europe haha). We got a big portion of lavas bread and a yummy dip, as well as frappes (which are a thing here). Then we shared a chicken salad and rice pilaf with mussels. It was all really good, but we couldn't finish. And I think since I haven't had caffeine in so long, the coffee actually really hit me hard! >.< They also had a cute graffiti wall which we signed!
Aristotelos Square in downtownThessaloniki!
See our oloyineurope tag?
Then it was off to the KTEL bus station to catch our bus to Istanbul. That was actually more of a nightmare than we anticipated, because the bus station for that bus actually wasn't at the international bus station. (Since it's operated by a private company) We had directions telling us it was 200m west of the station, along the highway, but the station was pretty big and we had no idea which street it was. After wandering helplessly down a couple wrong streets, and failing to ask for help from some locals, we went back to KTEL and luckily a few bus drivers there were able to point us in the right direction. We literally had to cross a freeway on/off ramp to get to the street we wanted >.< But yay! We weren't stranded in Thessaloniki!
Turns out the bus actually mostly served Greek/Turkish passengers, I think we were the only Americans on the bus! (And there was another couple who spoke English, but not from the US) I guess most tourists don't suffer through overnight buses to get to Istanbul... haha. While the seats on the bus reclined farther than economy airplane seats (which made it slightly more comfortable than the flight to London), it was really difficult to sleep on the bus, and Steph and I both felt super tired and gross by the time we arrived in Istanbul >.< On the plus side, we got to see the sunrise!
Sunrise in some town between the border and Istanbul!
Also, we had to stop and get off at border patrol, and had to buy Turkish visas (stickers in our passport) for 15 euros each. That would not have been so bad, except for the fact that at the border, there were MOSQUITOS! And then they GOT ON THE BUS! And they STARTED BITING US!!! T___T Stephanie got so scared she tried to cover herself with her jacket hahaha. In the end, I felt like the bus ride was survivable, but definitely not pleasant. Definitely could only do this while I'm young...
Steph hiding from mosquitos!
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