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Greece
“Ouzeris and Other Greek Fun”
2 January 2007
Thessaloniki, Greece
We've just had our first taste of the 'ouzeri,' the Greek equivalent of a churrascaria (Brazilian barbeque restaurant — less meat, more booze), where we drank, of course, Greek ouzo. Admittedly, neither of us are too fond of ouzo, and Liza has a rather strong dislike for the stuff, but the ouzeri experience is certainly worth slugging some of the stuff down! On the other hand, one can order any drink in the ouzeri, so there's really no need to hold your nose while you toss back ouzo… The food we had in this ouzeri was really great! We stumbled across the place, called Ouzo Melathron, and only realized after the fact that it was Thessaloniki's most famous ouzeri. Clearly, the reputation is deserved: delicious, inexpensive food; very friendly wait staff; free dessert! All together, with three dishes, ouzo, mineral water and bread, the bill was less than 23 euros. Compared to the previous night, when two bowls of lamb-stomach soup (yes, lamb-stomach soup) and two bottles of Coke in a run-down diner cost more than 28 euros, we got a great deal this afternoon.
Now that we've left Athens, we wonder if we'll begin to have more of a 'Greek experience.' The time we spent in Athens was great, but we ate English food and hung around mostly with Australians and Canadians, as well as a few Americans. We certainly wouldn't trade the experience, especially as we were able to spend New Year's Eve with people we knew fairly well. But now, we're ready to get to know Greece and the Greeks a little more. It seems like Thessaloniki might be a good place for this. Unfortunately, time is already running short, as we planned only three weeks for Greece, and we would still like to see the island of Samothraki, Meteora and Mount Olympus, as well as Istanbul. This might be difficult, as we have a flight from Athens to India on the 13th of this month…