Two Guardian editors dream of traveling to Greece in 2022 – The cities that stand out
On the first day of the new year, the Guardian travel writers dream, of course.
In an extensive article entitled “22 ideas for sustainable holidays in 2022 that we dream of, authors reveal the place they want to find the new year. Two Guardian editors, Alex King and John Malathronas, singled out their own destinations and explain why one chose Thessaloniki and the other travels to Epirus cities.
Alex King recalled his vacation on “idyllic and secluded” beaches of Greek islands, where he thought about “the rich and complex urban history of Thessaloniki, the second city of Greece.”
“The moving book by British historian Mark Mazower, Salonica: City of Ghosts, took me from Byzantine to Ottoman times, the city’s integration into the new Greek state in the early 20th century and the aftermath of World War II. As much of the region continues on a dangerous path of deeper nationalist hostility, Thessaloniki’s history of diversity and coexistence is a reminder that this must not be the case: Christians, Muslims and Jews have lived side by side peacefully for hundreds of years. . .
Thessaloniki was the only city in Europe with a majority Jewish population – the “Jerusalem of the Balkans”, although few survived the Nazi occupation and the Holocaust. However, the cosmopolitan and open-minded energy of Thessaloniki survives today, with a lively gastronomic and cultural scene. It was recently named the first Unesco gastronomy city in Greece.
I will go to the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in March with one of the high-speed trains from Athens starting this month. From the United Kingdom, take a train to Bari or Ancona in Italy, then by ferry to Patras and continue with the Greek Railways (OSE) via Athens to Thessaloniki (with a bus to the first, Patras-Kiato section) “.
This is what Alex King wrote about Thessaloniki, while John Malathronas praised Epirus and specifically Parga and Sivota.
John Malathronas had traveled to Parga at the age of 12 and has since vowed to return, as the memories are still alive, as he remembers its clear waters and the vegetation that surrounds it.
“Sivota, further north, presents an unmatched spectacle to the lovers of Greece: a mountain village that dominates over an exceptional coast, whose low line of trees looks like a Norwegian fjord. “I have longed to explore the archipelago of tiny offshore islands and their pristine sandy beaches.”
However, as he writes, what captured him this year is the ancient story with the Guardian author wanting to end Ancient Gitana, the “romantic”, as he calls it, Dodoni, but also the theater of ancient Nikopolis.
John Malathronas also talks about Preveza “an enjoyable, relaxed city worth exploring” as it is a birthplace but also a choice of definition.
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