Thessaloniki | GlobalSalsa: travel writer Belinda Jackson

Mar

Train travel through Greece & Bulgaria with Eurail

Dream assignment: train travel through Greece and Bulgaria with the sole purpose to eat, think and travel deeply and slowly.

This journey started in Athens and ended in Ploviv, Bulgaria, with European rail pass company Eurail. With chef Ella Mittas and photographer Sarah Pannell, no mouthful went uninspected or undocumented. Also with us on the trip was videographer Paulo Magalhães , who has just released the trailer for his upcoming documentary about the furthest corner of eastern Europe. We visited restaurants, farms, vineyards, villages and the primary and secondary towns of the neighbouring countries.

The short for Paulo’s upcoming documentary is now out, and I love it! To keep the story going, Ella cooked a menu inspired by the journey for a group of media here in Melbourne at Julie restaurant in Abbotsford Convent last week, using trahana, a fermented grain and yogurt and a fabulous moussaka, which as its own, fascinating backstory.

You can also get a taste of our travels from my recent story for adventure.com https://adventure.com/off-the-eaten-path-slow-food-bulgaria/

Feb

Best things to do in Thessaloniki, Greece: Sydney Morning Herald

I have left a little piece of my heart in lovely Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, close to the border of Bulgaria.

Greek Orthodox Church at Thessaloniki train station. Credit Belinda Jackson

Mind you, I took away a couple of kilos thanks to its excellent dining scene, so it’s a fair trade, yes?

A mish-mash of architecture, one minute it is Greek, then next, Balkan, a third moment and its Ottoman past is showing. And then, its artistic, modern face smiles at me.

I wrote about Thessaloniki for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers’ Traveller section – to help you explore its food scene (the city gave the world Greece’s best-known street snack – the souvlaki skewers, the pita-gyro and even bougatsa. And it was the birthplace of frappe only the Greeks could make instant coffee taste so good).

I took a train from Athens to Thessaloniki – about five hours – with a little stop for lunch in the lovely university city of Larissa. And from there, I headed up into Bulgaria, to Sofia. For disclosure, I was a guest of Eurail, which supplies European rail passes that are simple to use. Check them out at eurail.com

And to read the article in the SMH/The Age, visit
https://www.smh.com.au/traveller/inspiration/nine-must-do-highlights-of-thessaloniki-greece-20250113-p5l3sc.html

Dec

Travels in mainland Greece with ABC Radio

Whenever anyone talks of holidaying in Greece, the islands tend to get all the glory. But what about the mainland?

Athens has everything to offer as a global city and holiday destination, but to my mind, the real story is Greece’s second city, Thessaloniki. The home of souvlaki, bougatsa and the frappe, Thessaloniki has done the impossible and makes instant coffee taste good! It’s the birthplace of Kamal Ataturk, and has been corralled into empires from the Hellenic to Ottoman, so expect great history, fantastic food and a waterfront location designed for post-prandial perambulation.

I joined Philip Clark on ABC Radio‘s national evening program, Nightlife, to tell of the wonders of mainland Greece. You can listen to our chat here, and tune in to ABC Radio every Monday night for his Monday Night Travel segment, which goes out to the world from 10pm.

To listen to the interview, visit this link: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/nightlife-travel—greece/104675428

On this trip, I drove from Athens airport south to the Peloponnese peninsula, to stay at the new Mandarin Oriental Costa Navarino – I’ll post a review here shortly. Then I drove back up to Athens (Athens traffic – ayeeeee!) and from there, joined Eurail, the European rail pass company, using their tickets to travel from Athens north to Thessaloniki, then crossed the border into Bulgaria, on to the capital, Sofia and then to its second city, Plovdiv. I have stories coming up in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers, which I’ll post here as they’re published. To learn more about Eurail, visit eurail.com

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Train travel through Greece & Bulgaria with Eurail

Best things to do in Thessaloniki, Greece: Sydney Morning Herald

Travels in mainland Greece with ABC Radio