Thessaloniki. A city at the intersection of roads and times, more than one and a half thousand years of history, thousands of conquerors and dozens of languages ​​- all connected on the shores of the Thermaikos Gulf.
Here the Greek language coexists with a dozen others, even with Arabic script on old facades and modern English-language signs. And at first, the sight of a curly-haired son of Africa arguing with a small but enterprising compatriot Mao in the language of Homer may surprise more than one tourist!
You can write a separate book about each building - and, believe me, it will not yield to fictional novels in intrigue!
Here is the White Tower (Levkos Pyrgos) - a symbol of the city, once red from the blood of tortured and executed here by the revolts against the Sultan of the Janissaries, and now it has become a meeting place for lovers and tourists. Its top is crowned with a Greek flag, which, in fact, is natural, but the flagpole on which it flies is unusual - this is the mast of the Turkish battleship "Fetih Bulet", sunk by a Greek torpedo boat at the very beginning of the Balkan War of 1912. The commander of this boat, Nikolaos Votsis, later became an admiral, and today his bust stands in front of the tower.
And local pastry shops! Oh, these palaces of the Chureks and the palaces of the profiteroles! It is impossible to mention them in passing, you have to write novels about them!
Walk along the bustling street of Egnatia, whose pavement heard the rhythmic stamping of Roman legions heading east. Feel the scent of times gone by in the old streets of the port area of ​​Ladadika, the historical part of the city, where the warm wind from the sea brings the smell of coffee from a nearby cafe in the morning, and the sounds of music from many taverns and clubs at night.
Climb up to the Upper City (Ano Poli), stop by one of the coffee shops located at the fortress walls, and enjoy a cup of aromatic coffee, look at Thessaloniki from above, with the majestic Olympus as a backdrop.
Wander around Eptapyrgio Castle, which looks like a puff pastry made from Byzantine walls, Turkish towers and stuffed with antique columns. For hundreds of years, these walls protected from invasion from the outside, in order, in the end, to turn into a reflection of themselves - to protect against escape from the inside: the fortress became a prison and to this day, in an old tavern, a rembetika singer tells a sad story about a nameless prisoner.

Try to create your own mosaic from thousands of pieces of history of Thessaloniki and become a piece of this mosaic, hidden somewhere between the orange blossom in Aristotle's Square and the smell of incense from the old church ...