The Sunday Getaway - 06 11 2022 -Detour
Travel Food People
Discover authentic, curated travel experiences and places, the same way we do. Book your dream vacation to Greece!
It’s a midweek dream detour on the road heading north to Thessaloniki, as I turn towards?Mount Pelion?and start the ascend to Mouresi (writes Dimitris Kossyfas). The sun is up high and it’s a scorching, and unusual for this season, 25 degrees Celsius.
Locals are tending to their everyday business (at least those that don’t find themselves at the beach) as we swirl through the meandering roads and looks like the further up you go the fewer people you see. Dusk is starting to set upon the wilderness of the orange coloured forest when the thought hits me. Almost everyone visits these rural (and exotic to us) destinations on weekends and summer holidays, leaving much to be desired for the rest of the year. What if you could live a bit through the weekday life of one of those lucky fellows found in places like Pelion?
Thursday morning and the plan calls for a stop at a favourite restaurant further north in Pelion. Just before driving out of Mouresi, the lady on the phone tells me the place is not open on weekdays this time of the year.?That?is how lucky fellows residing and working here are! No biggie. Quick?detour to Milies and a walk along the train tracks of the infamous cog?railway with myriads of colors basking in the backdrop. What a treat!
Volos, just before 1pm and the working crowd is already taking the streets to find their local food joint. The waiter comes to the table, a middle aged short man with a sunburnt face and a fast temper, and he only has one question: “with it without?” [Anise that is]. You see, in Volos, the places offering meze do not really work with a menu but rather base everything off the quantity of?tsipouro?you can consume. And as the small plates come plenty, we wash down the local delicacies with some alcohol even if it’s a weekday lunch. Work can wait. A group of friends arrive, exchanging pleasantries with the patrons around when one of them asks our waiter half-joking: “can you please turn the sun to face our table?”. As if with a magic wand, the man in charge of this beautiful joint?could?also tweak the sun’s rays to their liking.?
Thessaloniki, a little before midnight on a Friday night and the music is as loud as it gets, on a street blocked full of patrons out drinking. Decks are spinning, beats are thumping and the crowd is super lively when we notice friends from the past making their way through. We stop them for what seems more than a typical greet and in a cheerful manner we start with our usual banters from back in the days when some of us were in London. One conversation follows the other and we're soon asking them to stay for a drink. What if they were on their way to a less lively drink on their own? Detour totally worth it.?
领英推荐
Mount Pelion and Volos List
?
Travel On.
?? The Sunday Getaway / a curated list of moments that count. Delivered every Sunday to your inbox ?? sign up?here.