Public transportation in the area was actually pretty good. We caught the bus from the airport to our hostel in the center of the city. While we only took the bus only one other time, I could see that the buses were a popular mode of transportation and were often quite full.
E-Scooters and bicycles were also quite common, especially along the boardwalk. We talked about renting an E-Scooter a number of times, but each time we just continued to walk until it became pointless to bother with the rental. Except that one time: we had walked about 17 km through a new neighborhood and I wasn’t looking forward to that last 3 km of waterfront to get back to our hostel. Plus, it wasn’t quite so frightening to ride on the boardwalk, away from the traffic and other street-side obstacles.
Mural on the Benelli shop
The sheer number of scooters and motorcycles was impressive, but not unexpected. What was unexpected were the variety of interesting motorcycles. There were many styles and brands that I really like, many that I had never seen before, and some that just looked amazing.
Intersection parking – whatever and however you can!
The one model that really dominated the scene was the Honda Transalp. This surprised me because it was imported to the US for only one year (1989) and STILL has a fantastic reputation, but then to see so many of them in here, in one place, was interesting. From the old advertisement “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.”
Scooter seat shop
The drivers in Thessaloniki were good. Not “staying in the lines” good, but they weren’t aggressive and didn’t drive erratically. The two-wheeled vehicles lane split constantly but there was rarely any negative results. And it was a good thing, too, since helmets of any kind seemed to be an afterthought.
The local police had a large motorcycle force and used them slip through traffic or cruise down wide sidewalks to get to where they needed to be. The most interesting thing about this department was that almost every motorcycle was a different brand or model. Usually a force is made of all BMWs, or Hondas, but here? It looked like they used whatever they could get their hands on.
Other transportation sights:
Cargo ships anchored in the port
Riot police bus
ECO-CAR
Fighter jet practice (?)
On our last day we walked to the train station. We thought it was odd that the train station wasn’t more visible, or referred to. There was the airport, which everyone seemed to use. And there were ferries, although when we inquired about catching a ferry to a nearby island we were informed that they were running only once a week. But this is Europe – everyone uses trains here! So we went in search of it.
We eventually got there, but it wasn’t well-signed and it was only through the use of our phones that we found it. It was a good-size station, with most of the activity in the bus yard on the side. When I went to the service desk to inquire about getting a copy of the schedule they seemed surprised. There wasn’t a schedule to hand out. There were no information signs inside or outside – I have no idea where the trains went to, or when they would leave. It was the most useless train station I had ever been to.