Thessaloniki (2025)

I spent the first half of this year living with my bestie, however in June she got a job offer to work out in Greece and naturally, I decided to visit her. What started as a solo trip quickly became a girls trip and I ended up travelling with the same friends who I’d visited Rome, Zagreb, and Camber with. 

The friend who’d moved to Greece was on an odd schedule of working Wednesday to Sunday and having Monday and Tuesday off, so we visited from Saturday to Tuesday, with the aim of her joining us from the Sunday night. 

My friend was staying in a town called Serres, which is about one hour away from Thessaloniki, and although I’d never been, I wasn’t very interested in visiting the mainland of Greece and the more I looked into things to do, the less enthralled I was by the city. Luckily, all of us were on the same page about what we wanted from the trip, namely to spend time with each other, eat good food, and play lots of cards. 

Saturday

We had a 7:10am flight from Gatwick to Thessaloniki and I was apprehensive about there being both delays and turbulence, due to storm Amy, however neither of those things occurred. Instead, we landed earlier than scheduled and I had a whole row to myself so slept for the majority of the flight. 

On arrival, we grabbed a taxi to the Airbnb to drop our suitcase off, and I was shocked to learn that we could only open the door through our phones. The Airbnb was spacious, with a bedroom for each of us, sea views, and conveniently located right by the sea and a short walk to the city centre. We had only intended on dropping our suitcases off but as we arrived, the flat was empty and clean, which made our lives a lot easier.

By this point, it was lunchtime so we headed out in search of Greek food, and ended up having souvlaki and Greek meatballs with pita, yoghurt and tomato sauce. The food was decent and the service was slow, with the Wi-Fi cutting off at the exact moment that we were paying by card, however we didn’t have any rush and have come to expect the slower pace of life in Greece.

 After lunch, we briefly explored the town, including to the Agia Sofia monument and to a main square, before doing a quick food shop for essentials such as water, tea and coffee. We then headed back to the Airbnb to have a proper natter over some tea, and then all had a quick nap. 

I awoke at around 6:30pm to a gorgeous sunset and after getting ready, we headed over to Full Tou Meze for an al fresco dinner, which I’d highly recommend. One of my friends wasn’t convinced that she enjoyed Greek food and this was the first point at which she started to come around; we enjoyed tzatziki, olives, bread, fried courgettes, fried cheese, cheese-stuffed filo pastry, Greek salad, pork chops with chips and pita, stuffed potatoes, and of course, wine. The waiter had made many of the recommendations and was very helpful, and the food was absolutely delicious. The staff seemed in no rush to get the table back, so we chatted the evening away on the terrace. 

Eventually, we headed back to the flat and we noticed that it was super busy out and most of the girls dressed in all black with leather jackets. Once we made it home, we opened some more wine and spent the night playing cards and OK Play, which was a lot of fun and the perfect end to the day. 

Sunday

I awoke at around 8:30am the following morning to sunlight coming into the flat, which was gorgeous. We got ready and headed to Naked for brunch, where I enjoyed a poached egg with avocado on toast. The restaurant had a very nice aesthetic and the food was yummy, although I wasn’t a fan of most things on their menu. 

We then walked over to the White Tower, a monument by the sea, where we then sat and chilled for a bit, before having a late lunch comprising a deconstructed gyros (which was disappointing). We felt a bit aimless since there wasn’t much to do or see in the city (other than eat) so we decided to just head back to the flat and spent the afternoon drinking more wine and playing cards. 

Until this point, it was only the three of us, however our friend living in Greece was planning to join that evening. What I haven’t yet mentioned is that this trip was only a week before her birthday, so we decided to bring a birthday banner, balloons, and some presents in order to celebrate. We decorated the living room before she came, and then headed out for dinner, where she’d be meeting us. 

We found a restaurant by the port called Limani, and although it’s definitely more of a bar, we shared some pizzas so that we wouldn’t be hungry later. I decided that this wasn’t entertaining enough and accidentally ended up breaking a wine glass, which wasn’t ideal. One thing that I did enjoy was that a little platter of food accompanied the wine we’d ordered, and even when we ordered a coke, it came accompanied with some crisps, which was a nice touch. It was also at this point that we realised that at most restaurants we’d been to, the waiter would put the receipt on the table as soon as we ordered the food, which I hadn’t seen previously.

Our friend eventually joined us, and we headed over to Boca 51 for a drink and chat, before retiring for the night. By the time we got back to the flat, we were exhausted, but our friend was surprised by the birthday decorations and presents, which was a lovely end to the night. 

Monday

We had a lie in the following morning, and eventually headed to Garden Bar for brunch. I ordered pancakes, and they were exactly what I needed. Once we finished up, we went for a walk by the White Tower once again, and then headed back to the flat to play blob, OK Play, and Bohnanza. 

Before we knew it, the day had flown by and it was getting dark. Since we’d had a late brunch and snacked on biscuits and sweets whilst playing the games, we ended up omitting lunch and instead headed straight for dinner. One of my friends was very keen to try a restaurant called Mamalouka, which we’d actually made a reservation for the previous evening but ended up postponing as we weren’t hungry at all. This day, we were all very hungry by dinner time and it was our last dinner altogether so we went all out. 

We ordered moussaka, smoked mackerel, slow-cooked beef, fried courgette, fried cheese, tzatziki with pita, a red pepper and cheese dip, meatballs, and wine. It was all delicious and we all agreed that this was our favourite meal without a doubt. The service was excellent too and I’d definitely return if I found myself back in Thessaloniki. After dinner, we simply headed back to the flat to chat and chill. 

Tuesday

We spent our last morning chatting over coffee, packing, and getting ready, as we’d arranged for a 12pm check-out; however it seemed that the cleaner had arrived at 11am, which was slightly stressful. Our flight was in the evening so we had the entire day to kill, hence wanting to stay in the flat as long as possible. 

We found a luggage storage place, so stowed our suitcases away and then headed to an area named Ano Poli, which we were told was artsy and cool. The walk over wasn’t too bad, although I was absolutely starving as we hadn’t eaten anything and it was approaching 1pm, so I was relieved when we finally settled on a restaurant and ordered some mezze. We enjoyed some fried courgettes, tzatziki, olives, pita, feta in pastry with honey, a selection of grilled meats, and cheese with caramelised onions, all of which were good, and were offered a complimentary dessert comprising what seemed to be a pecan cake and a sponge cake with ice cream. 

My bestie’s colleague then joined us, as she was desperate to leave Serres for the day, and we headed up to the old town panorama terrace, which is located beside a castle and requires a decent ascent. From there, we visited monastery and eventually the rotunda, which were all nice to see but none of us appreciate those landmarks much so we visited more for the walk than for the monuments. 

Eventually, it started to drizzle and we’d seen everything we had any interest in visiting, so we found a local café called Sortie, where we played blob for hours in the shelter over freddo cappuccinos and smoothies. Eventually, we headed back to the city centre to obtain our luggage, before saying our goodbyes to our friend and her colleague, and grabbing an Uber to the airport. 

We still had quite a bit of time to kill at the airport, but it surprisingly flew by; by the time we got some food it was time to board! I had a row to myself yet again, so finished my book and then slept a bit, and before I knew it we’d touched back down in London! 

Although I didn’t love Thessaloniki and still have little interest in visiting the mainland of Greece, it was lovely to be reunited with these school friends and was great to just enjoy the food and time spent together without the pressure of seeing all of the city’s landmarks.