Greece - Korina Miller [228]
Tickets are sold at periptera (street kiosks) for €0.50, or from on-board ticket machines (€0.60). If you buy the former, validate it on board. However, if you’ll use the bus frequently, buy a 24-hour unlimited usage ticket (€2). Note the machine will not give change and doesn’t accept bills.
Have change when boarding the bus, and buy a ticket immediately. Thessaloniki’s ticket police combine the finesse of the amateur boxer with the efficiency of the Gestapo, and pounce at any sign of confusion – foreigners are especially easy targets. If they nab you, you’ll pay €30 on the spot, or you can go with one of them to plead your case to the police.
CAR
The ELPA (Greek Automobile Club; 2310 426 319; Vasilissis Olgas 228), offering roadside assistance, is in Kalamaria. Budget Rent a Car ( 2310 229 519; Angelaki 15) and Euro Rent ( 2310 826 333; G Papandreou 5) are two biggies.
Finding parking on central streets is vexing; try the large parking lot by the ferry passenger terminal (per hour €2), or another one near the White Tower, Tsimiski and Office of Tourism Directorate; it’s called Parking XANTH (Greek abbreviation for the nearby YMCA). Entrances are on both Tsimiski and around the corner on Nikolaou Germanou. Prices are €4.50 for the first hour, €3.50 for the second, and €2.50 per hour after that.
TAXI
Thessaloniki’s blue-and-white taxis carry multiple passengers, and won’t take you if you’re not going in the same direction as pre-existing passengers. Stand in the direction you hope to go, flag one down, yell out your destination and anticipate the driver’s upwards eyebrow roll of denial – good luck! The minimum fare is €2.80. Drivers work for five companies:
Alfa-Lefkos Pyrgos ( 2310 249 100)
Makedonia ( 2310 550 500)
Megas Alexandros ( 2310 866 866)
Omega ( 2310 511 855)
Thessaloniki ( 2310 551 525)
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AROUND THESSALONIKI
While most tourists heading east from Thessaloniki flock immediately to the beaches of the Halkidiki Peninsula (right), even before entering it there are a few places worth visiting. Just 35km southeast of Thessaloniki, Epanomi is practically an urban suburb; however, it does have beaches and two 19th-century churches: the Church of Agios Georgios (1835), and the Church of the Kimisis Theotokou (1865), both with lavish icons. Most remarkable, however, is the Domaine Gerovassiliou Winery, situated amid vineyards overlooking the sea. Winery tours are recommended; see Wineries of Northern Greece, Click here. Epanomi also offers a couple of good fish tavernas near the water, such as Taverna tou Psilou and Agnanti.
Just 3km from Epanomi, the long, sandy Faros Beach and adjoining Potamos Beach, have clear waters and in summer organised activities, including beach volleyball and music, and some cafes. You can camp or get a private room close to the action at the well-maintained Hotel Camping Akti Retzika ( 6937456551; www.retzikas.gr; Potamos Beach; camp sites per person/tent €5/5, r from €35), which has extensive camping grounds, modern rooms, and a restaurant and snack bar.
Some 50km southeast of Thessaloniki on the main road is the stalagmite-rich Petralona Cave ( 23730 71671; admission €7; 9am). Discovered by Petralona village locals in 1959, it soon became famous when the skull of a prehistoric man (dubbed Arhanthropos; in Greek, the ‘first’ or ‘original man’) was found; scientists have since dated it as 700,000 years old, making Arhanthropos Europe’s oldest known man. Numerous fossils have also been discovered here, some of extinct species, including lions, panthers, bears, rhinoceroses, elephants, bison, deer, numerous birds, bats and others. However, the most intriguing objects discovered, the so-called ‘Petralonas Hoard’, are kept at Thessaloniki’s Archaeological Museum. The ticket price includes a tour of the cave