Mount Olympus/ Thessaloniki Shenanigans

Katie, childhood riding friend, college IHSA team mate/comrade in creating mischief/US expat, flew in from Barcelona late Thursday night/Friday morning, to explore Thessaloniki with me! We discovered ruins, churches, old parts of the city, and ate fabulous food while catching up on the last three years of each other’s lives. It was fabulous.

Today, we rose early, crammed hotel buffet food into our bags, and hopped on a train to Litochoro, the village at the base of Mount Olympus. We then took a cab to the trail head (it was an hour plus walk), and began exploring the fantastic beauty of the Olympus National Area- bridges, monastery, holy springs, church ruins, fresh water streams/mini waterfalls, trees, flowers, steep trails, and mountain air included. It was absolutely, in a word, epic.

By the time we reached the monastery of Dionysius, we had gained approximately 4,300 feet in elevation over the course of 7 miles and 4 1/2 hours. Exhausted, awestruck, and eager to get back to the train station, we attempted to hitch a ride to Litochoro, to no avail. So, we called a cab, and chatted up the owners of the little monastery shop, who, hilariously enough, enjoyed American sitcoms such as Baywatch and Night Rider, while we waited. We then spent an hour swimming in the sea, primary motivation being to rinse the sweat off of ourselves, while we waited for the train back to Saloniki.

Epic adventures are epic.